Cinema
Balayogini
பாலயோகினி
K. Subramanyam · 1937
Synopsis
A Brahmin widow and a little girl, driven from the house by a rich and angry relative for having taken the side of a young woman whose father is thrown into debtors' prison, find refuge only with their servant, Munuswamy, a man of low caste. When he dies, the widow raises his children as her own, and the village's Brahmin society, outraged that she lives under a roof held to be impure, turns against them.
Context
Begun in 1936, the film was released on 5 February 1937 in Tamil and Telugu, at nineteen thousand feet. Subramanyam wrote, produced and directed it for his Madras United Artists Corporation; he gave the title role to his niece, Baby Saroja, and gave a part to a real Brahmin widow. Brahmins gathered at Thanjavur declared him an outcaste; he answered with other reformist films.
Who it is for
About three and a half hours long, in Tamil, with no French release; it helps to know how high-caste widows were treated at the time.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as one of the first reformist Tamil films on a contemporary subject, and as the first children's film of the southern talkies; it made Baby Saroja a star.
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