Keechaka Vadham

Keechaka Vadham
Directed by	R. Nataraja Mudaliar
Written by	C. Rangavadivelu
Produced by	R. Nataraja Mudaliar
Starring	Template:Ubl
Cinematography	R. Nataraja Mudaliar
Edited by	R. Nataraja Mudaliar ; ; ; ; ;
Country	India
Language	Silent
Budget	[[Indian rupee sign\|Template:INR]]35,000Template:Sfnm ;

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Keechaka Vadham (Template:Translation)Template:Sfn is an Indian silent film produced, directed, filmed and edited by R. Nataraja Mudaliar. The first film to have been made in South India, it was shot in five weeks at Nataraja Mudaliar's production house, India Film Company. As the members of the cast were Tamils, Keechaka Vadham is considered to be the first Tamil film. No print of it is known to have survived, making it a lost film.

The screenplay, written by C. Rangavadivelu, is based on an episode from the Virata Parva segment of the Hindu epic Mahabharata, focusing on Keechaka's attempts to woo Draupadi. The film stars Raju Mudaliar and Jeevarathnam as the central characters.

Released in the late 1910s,Template:Efn Keechaka Vadham was commercially successful and received positive critical feedback. The film's success prompted Nataraja Mudaliar to make a series of similar films based on Hindu mythology, which laid the foundation for the South Indian cinema industry and led to him being recognised as "the father of Tamil cinema." Nataraja Mudaliar's works were an inspiration to other filmmakers including Raghupathi Surya Prakasa and J. C. Daniel.

Plot

Keechaka, the commander of King Virata's forces, attempts to woo and marry Draupadi by any means necessary; he even tries to molest Draupadi, prompting her to tell Bhima, her husband and one of the Pandava brothers, about it. Later, when Keechaka meets Draupadi, she requests him to meet her at a secret hiding place. He arrives there, only to find Bhima instead of Draupadi; Bhima kills him.Template:Sfnm

Cast

Raju Mudaliar as Keechaka
Jeevarathnam as Draupadi

Production

Development

A painting by Raja Ravi Varma

Painting of Keechaka and Draupadi by Raja Ravi Varma

R. Nataraja Mudaliar, a car dealer who was based in Madras,Template:Efn developed an interest in motion pictures after watching Dadasaheb Phalke's 1913 mythological film, Raja Harishchandra at the Gaiety theatre in Madras.Template:Sfnm The former then learned the basics of photography and filmmaking from Stewart Smith, a Poona-based British cinematographer who had worked on a documentary that chronicled the viceroyship of Lord Curzon (1899–1905).Template:Sfnm Nataraja Mudaliar bought a Williamson 35 mm camera and printer from Mooppanar, a wealthy landowner based in Thanjavur, for Template:INR1,800.Template:Sfnm Template:Efn In 1915, he established the India Film Company, which was South India's first production company. He then set up a film studio on Miller's Road in Purasawalkam with the help of business associates who invested in his production house.Template:Sfnm Template:Efn

Nataraja Mudaliar sought advice from his friend, theatrical artist Pammal Sambandha Mudaliar, who suggested that he depict the story of Draupadi and Keechaka from the Virata Parva segment of the Hindu epic Mahabharata.Template:Sfnm Some of Nataraja Mudaliar's relatives objected, feeling that it was an inappropriate story for his debut venture, but Sambandha Mudaliar persuaded him to proceed with making the film as audiences were familiar with the story.Template:Sfnm Attorney C. Rangavadivelu, a close friend of Nataraja Mudaliar, assisted him in writing the screenplay as the latter was not a writer by profession.Template:Sfn The paintings of Raja Ravi Varma provided Nataraja Mudaliar with a source of inspiration for recreating the story on celluloid.Template:Sfn Nataraja Mudaliar cast stage actors Raju Mudaliar and Jeevarathnam as Keechaka and Draupadi, respectively.Template:Sfn

Filming

Keechaka Vadham was filmed on a budget of Template:INR35,000 (worth Template:INR6 crore in 2021 prices). Principal photography began in 1916–1917, and the film was shot over 35–37 days.Template:Efn Nataraja Mudaliar imported the film stock from London with the help of an Englishman named Carpenter, who worked for the Bombay division of the photographic technology company, Kodak.Template:Sfn Film historian Randor Guy noted in his 1997 book Starlight Starbright: The Early Tamil Cinema that a thin white piece of cloth was used as a ceiling for filming and sunlight was filtered through it onto the floor.Template:Sfn Rangavadivelu was also experienced in playing female roles on stage for the Suguna Vilasa Sabha, and coached the artists on set.Template:Sfnm The film's production, cinematography and editing were handled by Nataraja Mudaliar himself.Template:Sfnm

The film was shot with a speed of 16 frames per second, which was the standard rate for a silent film, at the India Film Company, with intertitles in English, Tamil and Hindi. The Tamil and Hindi intertitles were written by Sambandha Mudaliar and Devdas Gandhi respectively, while Nataraja Mudaliar wrote the English intertitles himself with the assistance of Guruswami Mudaliar and Thiruvengada Mudaliar, a professor from Pachaiyappa's College.Template:Sfnm

Keechaka Vadham was the first film made in South India; as the cast was Tamil, it is also the first Tamil film.Template:Sfnm According to Guy, Nataraja Mudaliar established a laboratory in Bangalore to process the film negatives since there was no film laboratory in Madras. Nataraja Mudaliar believed that Bangalore's colder climate "would be kind to his exposed film stock"; he processed the film negatives there each weekend and returned on Monday morning to resume filming.Template:Sfnm The film's final reel length was Template:Convert.Template:Sfnm

Release, reception and legacy

According to Muthiah, Keechaka Vadham was first released at the Elphinstone Theatre in Madras;Template:Sfn the film netted Template:INR50,000 after being screened in India, Burma, Ceylon, the Federated Malay States and Singapore. The film yielded Template:INR15,000 which Muthiah noted to be a "tidy profit in those days."Template:Sfn Writer Firoze Rangoonwalla notes that a reviewer for The Mail praised the film: "It has been prepared with great care and is drawing full houses".Template:Sfn Guy pointed out that with the film's critical and commercial success, Nataraja Mudaliar had "created history".Template:Sfn Since no print is known to have survived, it appears to be a lost film.Template:Sfnm

Keechaka VadhamTemplate:'s success inspired Nataraja Mudaliar to make a series of films based on Hindu mythology: Draupadi Vastrapaharanam (1918), Lava Kusa (1919), Shiva Leela (1919), Rukmini Satyabhama (1922) and Mahi Ravana (1923).Template:Sfnm He retired from filmmaking in 1923 after a fire killed his son and destroyed his production house.Template:Sfnm Nataraja Mudaliar is widely regarded as "the father of Tamil cinema," and his films helped lay the foundation for the South Indian cinema industry; his works inspired Raghupathi Surya Prakasa, the son of Raghupathi Venkaiah Naidu, and J. C. Daniel.Template:Sfnm

Notes

Template:Notelist

References

Bibliography

Books

Template:Refbegin

The Eye of the Serpent: An Introduction To Tamil Cinema{{#if:Baskaran|, Baskaran}. Westland Books(15 December 2013). ISBN 978-93-83260-74-4
Mahabharata{{#if:Buck|, Buck}. Motilal Banarsidass Publications(2000). ISBN 978-81-2081-719-7
Encyclopaedia of Hindi Cinema{{#if:Chabria|, Chabria}. Taylor & Francis(2005). ISBN 978-0-415-23440-5
Starlight, Starbright: The Early Tamil Cinema{{#if:Guy|, Guy}. Amra Publishers(1997)
Routledge Handbook of Contemporary India{{#if:Jacobsen|, Jacobsen}. Routledge(11 August 2015). ISBN 978-1-317-40358-6
The Unhurried City: Writings on Chennai{{#if:Lakshmi|, Lakshmi}. Penguin Books(2004). ISBN 978-0-14-303026-3
Jaya: An Illustrated Retelling of the Mahabharata{{#if:Pattanaik|, Pattanaik}. Penguin Books(2010). ISBN 978-0-14-310425-4
Talk of the Town{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. Penguin Books(2008). ISBN 978-0-14-333013-4
Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. Routledge(2014). ISBN 978-1-135-94318-9
Encyclopaedia of Hindi Cinema{{#if:Rangoonwalla|, Rangoonwalla}. Encyclopædia Britannica, Popular Prakashan(2003). ISBN 978-81-7991-066-5
The cinemas of India{{#if:Thoraval|, Thoraval}. Macmillan Publishers(2000). ISBN 978-0-333-93410-4
Tamil Cinema: The Cultural Politics of India's other Film Industry{{#if:Velayutham|, Velayutham}. Taylor & Francis(2008). ISBN 978-0-203-93037-3