Paradesi (1953 film)

Plot

Lakshmi (Anjali Devi) is a flower vendor in a hilly village called Seethagiri. Chandram (ANR) is left in penury after his father’s death in an accident. Chandram’s friend Raghu (Janardhan) dies from a heart attack, but not before asking Chandram to take care of his wife Susheela (Pandari Bai) and young son Anand (Master Mohan). Chandram’s health deteriorates as he works overtime to support the dependents. The doctor advises him to take rest at a hill station. Chandram arrives in Seethagiri where he meets Lakshmi and marries her in a local temple. When Lakshmi reveals to her father Rangadu (SVR) that she has married a ‘paradesi’ (as tribals called city folks) and is pregnant he asks her to bring Chandram to him. But when she goes to the hotel where he stays, she finds that Chandram has already left the village. Unable to bear the insults from the villagers, Rangadu kills himself. Declared an outcaste, Lakshmi lives all alone and gives birth to a baby girl. Chandram, who had to leave the city on an urgent call, returns to Seethagiri to take Lakshmi with him but is told that she has died in a fire accident. Years later, a grown-up Anand (Ganesan) and Lakshmi’s daughter Tara (Vasantha) fall in love when Anand comes to Seethagiri. Lakshmi tries to wean away Tara from the ‘paradesi.’ There on the story takes a few twists before leading to an intriguing climax.

Cast

Crew

Soundtrack

Music composed by P. Adinarayana Rao. Lyrics were written by Malladi Venkata Krishna Sharma. Music released on Audio Company.

Production

After splitting out from Aswini Pictures, Anjali Devi and her husband Adinarayana Rao formed their own production house and named it Anjali Pictures. They decided to remake the Raj Rani, a 1950 Hindi film directed by Satish Nigam and bought the rights. They decided to shoot the film in two languages—Tamil and Telugu, and appointed L. V. Prasad as the director. Prasad, however, did not make a direct copy of the Hindi original; he made subtle changes to the screenplay to suit the audience. The producers were looking for a new actor to play the second lead role. P. A. Perumal Chettiar, a leading film distributor suggested Sivaji Ganesan to Anjali Devi and her husband. Ganesan who was a prominent theater artist acquired the prefix "Sivaji" after he played the role of Chatrapati Shivaji in a stage play. Ganesan was immediately chosen for the role and had a screen test for the first time. It was during this time that Parasakthi was made. Perumal, the film's producer made a request to Anjali Devi that Parasakthi to be released before Paradesi. Anjali and Rao, the producers agreed and hence Parasakthi became Ganesan's first released film.

Sakthi Krishnaswamy wrote the dialogues while Bharathidasan and Kambadasan wrote the lyrics for the Tamil film Poongodhai.

Reception

The film released on released on 14 January 1953. Both the versions did well in the run. The Tamil version Poongodhai received positive response from the critics.

In November 2013, M. L. Narasimhan of The Hindu noted that the film would be "remembered as the launch pad for Sivaji Ganesan". Film critic and Telugu film director K. N. T. Sastry in his L.V. Prasad: a monograph described, "Paradesi is about urbanités" and not the conventional village-based subject. He also noted that the screenplay was very fast.