Underplayed Gems

Karnan (1964)

Karnan poster
Original title
கர்ணன்
Directed by
B. R. Panthulu
Genre
biographical film
Country
India
Runtime
3h 07m
Rated
U
Rating
7.3 of 10 from 11 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
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How it feels

The film tells the story of Karna from the Hindu epic Mahabharata. It follows his life from birth to his role in a great war.

epicmythologicalheroictragicdramaticvisually lavishgrandemotional

What happens

Karnan () is a 1964 Indian Tamil-language epic Hindu mythological film produced and directed by B. R. Panthulu. It stars Sivaji Ganesan leading an ensemble cast consisting of N. T. Rama Rao, S. A. Ashokan, R. Muthuraman, Savitri, Devika and M. V. Rajamma. The film is based on the story of Karna, a character from the Hindu epic Mahabharata. Karnan, which was officially launched in 1963, was shot in palaces at Jaipur and the war sequences were filmed in Kurukshetra, which featured several soldiers from the Indian Army. The film's original soundtrack was composed by the duo Viswanathan–Ramamoorthy, while the lyrics were written by Kannadasan. The screenplay was written by A. S. Nagarajan and the dialogues by Sakthi T. K. Krishnasamy. The film was the first in Tamil to be entirely shot and released in Eastmancolor. Karnan was released on 14 January 1964, during the festival occasion of Pongal. The film ran for over 100 days in theatres, and later won the Certificate of Merit for the Third Best Feature Film at the 11th National Film Awards. It was considered a milestone in Tamil cinema as it brought together the then leading actors of South Indian cinema, Ganesan and Rama Rao. The film was also partly responsible for a resurgence in films based on Hindu epics in the industry. A digitised version of Karnan was released in March 2012 to critical and commercial success. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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