| Mangayarkarasi | |
| Director: | Jiten Banerjee |
| Producer: | F. Nagoor S. N. Ahmed |
| Screenplay: | Kambadasan Suratha |
| Based On: | A folk tale |
| Starring: | P. U. Chinnappa P. Kannamba Anjali Devi N. S. Krishnan T. A. Mathuram |
| Music: | G. Ramanathan Kunnakudi Venkatarama Iyer C. R. Subburaman |
| Cinematography: | Jiten Banerjee |
| Editing: | V. B. Nataraja Mudaliar |
| Studio: | Bhagya Pictures |
| Runtime: | 172 mins. (15495 ft.) |
| Country: | India |
| Language: | Tamil |
Mangayarkarasi is a 1949 Indian Tamil-language film directed by Jiten Banerjee. The film was produced by F. Nagoor and S. N. Ahamed, and stars P. U. Chinnappa, P. Kannamba and Anjali Devi. It is a remake of the Telugu film Gollabhama (1947) and Anjali Devi reprised her role.
A heavenly seductress takes away the crown prince from his kingdom to her heavenly abode. The wife of the prince is helped by an angel and goes to her husband's abode. They spend the night together. She returns to Earth and finds that she has become pregnant. She is accused of being intimate with the court poet by the King and others. She leaves the palace and goes to live with some tribal people. She delivers a child. The King rescues the child and brings him up. The child grows into a young man. Due to a strange situation the young man wants to have a relationship with his mother without knowing who she is. However, the heavenly woman brings back her husband in time and explains everything so that all ends well.[1]
Cast according to the opening credits of the film
The film featured P. U. Chinnappa in triple roles — King, Prince and the grandson. It was the first time in Tamil cinema that an artiste featured in 3 roles. N. S. Krishnan featured in double roles as father and son. Radhakrishnan played the role of N. S. Krishnan's kid and literally caught a crow in one scene. Thereafter he came to be fondly called as Kaka Radhakrishnan, Kaka in Tamil meaning crow.
The knife dance performed by Lalitha and Padmini was a thriller. The film was shot at Newtone Studios, Madras
Music was composed by G. Ramanathan, Kunnakudi Venkatarama Iyer and C. R. Subbaraman while the lyrics were penned by Kambadasan, Lakshmana Das and Ku. Sa. Krishnamurthi (film credits). Most of the tunes were set in Carnatic music ragas and were rendered by P. U. Chinnappa became popular. The song Kaadhal Kanirasame set in the raga Chittharanjani, was a hit. It was composed using the same metre, melody and tune of the well-known composition Naatha thanumanisum Sankaram... made famous by Madurai Mani Iyer.[2]
| 1 | "Paarthaal Pasitheerym" | P. U. Chinnappa | 2:58 | |
| 2 | "Kadhal Kanirasame" | P. U. Chinnappa | 6:27 | |
| 3 | "Vanilavi " | P. U. Chinnappa | 4:06 |
The film fared well at the box office. Film historian Randor Guy wrote in 2008 that the film is "remembered for: Triple role played by Chinnappa, double role by NSK, pleasing music and Kannamba’s performance."