‘Dull-u, dull-u’, goes a song in the film Ratha Pasam , released on August 14, 1954. The career of the young man C.V.
Sridhar, who wrote the story, was anything but dull. Veteran actor T.K.
Shanmugam was the one who chose the title Ratha Pasam and took it to the screen from the stage. Sridhar’s future began to look up. Soon, he became a partner in the production house, Venus pictures.
Kalyana Parisu , Sridhar’s directorial debut in 1959, was a phenomenal success. The comedy track, which had Thangavelu, pretending to be a famous writer, was brought out as a 78rpm record. But the comedy does not dispel the heaviness in the air.
At the end of the film, you have this niggling question — isn’t it far better to be breezy and jaunty like Thangavelu, treating all of life as a joke, than to fret over a lost love the way Gemini does? Did Sridhar, perhaps, want us to ponder this? M. Saroja and Thangavelu in Kalyana Parisu .| Photo Credit:The Hindu Archives Sridhar’s canvas was broad and he went on to make films in Telugu, Kannada and Hindi.
He paid particular attention to the songs in his films, and was hard to please. Nenjil Or Alayam , which won a Presidential award, was shot entirely in a hospital setting, and the atmosphere was sombre. The release date had been fixed and re-recording was to begin the next day, when Sridhar asked for a song to lighten the mood.
“My father wrote the lyric ‘Muthana Muthallavo’ in less than 10 minutes, and the scene was shot late in .