On This Day
Cinemaazi remembers Wajahat Mirza on his birth anniversary
Cinemaazi remembers Sadhana Bose on her birth anniversary
Cinemaazi remembers Pandit Pannalal Ghosh on his death anniversary
Choose a Date
Search Cinemaazi
Select your cinema
- All
- हिंदी (Hindi)
- भोजपुरी (Bhojpuri)
- தமிழ் (Tamil)
- ગુજરાતી (Gujarati)
- অসমিয়া (Assamese)
- ਪੰਜਾਬੀ (Punjabi)
- मराठी (Marathi)
- తెలుగు (Telugu)
- বাংলা (Bengali)
- سنڌي (Sindhi)
- ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada)
- پارسی (Parsi)
- कोंकणी (Konkani)
- മലയാളം (Malayalam)
- English (English)
- Others (Others)
- Silent (Silent)
- संस्कृत (Sanskrit)
- नेपाली (Nepali)
- ଓଡିଆ (Odia)
- Release Date17/08/1941
- FormatB-W
- LanguageMalayalam
416 views
Based on the Hindu mythological story, Prahlada revolves around the titular character’s devotion to the God Mahavishnu. The story is an immensely popular one among Malayalam speakers, regularly used in early musical operas in the language.
Prahlada (Kumari Lakshmi) worships Lord Vishnu against the express orders of his father, the demon king Hiranyakashipu (Guru Gopinath). The king and his wife Kayadhu (Thankamani Gopinath) repeatedly try to change their son’s mind, but to no avail. Vishnu comes to Prahlada’s rescue every time he is tormented by his father. In a climactic sequence, Vishnu appears in his avatar as the man-lion Narasimha to kill Hiranyakashipu.
The main attraction of the film was a dance performed by Guru Gopinath in the guise of Yama, the Hindu god of death. Kumari Lakshmi’s performance in the film as well as her songs were widely acclaimed. The 24 songs in the film were written by Kilimanoor Madhava Varier, a Malayalam poet and Sanskrit scholar and set to tune by V.S. Parthasarathy Iyengar. The first mythological film in Malayalam, Prahlada was also the debut Malayalam film of director-producer K. Subrahmaniam, the actor T.K. Balachandran and the music director V.S. Parthasarathy Iyengar. It was also the onscreen debut of Guru Gopinath and Thankamani Gopinath. Shot on spectacular sets at Gemini Studios, the film unfortunately failed at the box office. No prints or stills of the film survive.
Cast
-
N P Chellappan
Sukracharya -
Guru Gopinath
Hiranyakasipu -
Thankamani Gopinath
Kayathu -
Kumari Lakshmi
Prahlada
Crew
-
BannerMadras United Artists Corporation
-
Director
-
Dialogues
-
Music Director
-
Lyricist
-
Cinematography
.jpg)
