Sakuntalai

Production

Subbulakshmi and her husband T. Sadasivam formed Royal Talkies to produce their own films. They decided to make a movie based Shakuntala's life and asked director K. Subramanyam, to direct the film. Subramaniam was not able to do so because of prior commitments and recommended Ellis Dungan to be hired instead. Sadasivam wrote the screenplay and Papanasam Sivan was hired to write the lyrics. Carnatic singer G. N. Balasubramaniam was cast as King Dushyanta. The comedic duo of N. S. Krishnan - T. A. Mathuram were also among the cast. Dungan introduced several new techniques to Tamil cinema in this film. The scene where Shakuntala loses her ring was shot in slow motion through a glass tank filled with water. In his autobiography (A Guide to Adventure: An Autobiography, Dorrance Publishing Company (2002)), Dungan wrote the following about his use of a European dancer for adding glamour to the film :

The completed film was 17,400 Feet in length (around 3 hours run time). The film advanced the popularity of singing lead actress M. S. Subbulakshmi.

Plot

Sakuntalai is the story of the mythological queen Shakuntala, whose tale is told in the Mahabarata and dramatized by Kalidasa in the play Abhijñānaśākuntalam.

Cast and crew

Soundtrack

There were a total of 24 songs in Sakuntalai. A couple of songs were longer than usual and the gramophone company had to issue special large sized records for them.

A partial list of songs in the film:

Reception

The film was released on 12 December 1940 and was a box office success.