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Madras to Pondicherry
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Wikipedia article
'Madras to Pondicherry' is a 1966 Indian Tamil-language road film, directed by ThirumalaiMahalingam and written by Usilai Somanathan. The film stars Ravichandran and Kalpana. It was released on 16 December 1966, became a commercial success, and was remade in Hindi as 'Bombay to Goa' (1972). This in turn went on to inspire the 2004 Marathi film 'Navra Maza Navsacha', which was also remade in Kannada in 2007 as 'Ekadantha'.
Plot
Mala, an aspiring film actress, leaves home because of her interest in this which is kindled by a group of thugs. One of them shoots a member of his gang, which she witnesses. To escape them, she jumps onto a running bus going from Madras to Pondicherry. The thugs hire an assassin to board the bus Mala is in to kill her. However, a man named Baskar also gets into the bus. Realising that Mala is in danger, he voluntarily saves her and ends up falling in love with her. Ultimately, it is revealed that Baskar is Mala's prospective bridegroom whom she tried to avoid by leaving her home.
Cast
* Ravichandran as Baskar
*Kalpana as Mala
* Nagesh as the bus conductor
* Manorama as a Brahmin woman
* A. Karunanidhi as the bus driver
*Pakoda Kadhar as Gopu / the Brahmin couple's son
*A. Veerappan as a Brahmin man
*V. K. Ramasamy as street magicians
*V. S. Raghavan as Mala's father
*O. A. K. Thevar as Hotel owner
*Karikol Raju as Bhagavathar
*K. K. Soundar as Mad mother's son
*A. K. Veerasami as Baskar's father
*Thayir Vadai Desikan as Bus passenger
*Kallapart Natarajan as Mala's love interest
* K.S. Angamuthu as Bus passenger
*Gundu Karuppaiah as Bus passenger
Production
'Madras to Pondicherry' was directed by the duo ThirumalaiMahalingam, written by Usilai Somanathan, and produced under the banner Sri Venkateswara Cinetone by four people: T. S. Adhinarayanan, P. M. Nachimuthu, S. Sivaraman and G. K. Selvaraj. It was among the earliest road films in Tamil cinema.
Soundtrack
The music was composed by T. K. Ramamoorthy and the lyrics were written by Alangudi Somu, Panchu Arunachalam, Thanjai Vaanan and Namakkal Varadarajan.
Release and reception
'Madras to Pondicherry' was released on 16 December 1966. 'Kalki' criticised the film for its story. Despite this, it became a commercial success.
Remakes
'Madras to Pondicherry' was remade in Hindi as 'Bombay to Goa' in 1972. This in turn went on to inspire the 2004 Marathi film 'Navra Maza Navsacha', which was also remade in Kannada in 2007 as 'Ekadantha'.
References
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