Kalidas

Kalidas is a 1931 biographical film about the Sanskrit poet Kalidasa, directed by H. M. Reddy and produced by Ardeshir Irani under Imperial Movi-Tone. It is remembered as the first sound film in Telugu and Tamil, and the first sound film made in a Dravidian language. P. G. Venkatesan played the title role and T. P. Rajalakshmi the female lead, with L. V. Prasad, who later founded Prasad Studios, in a comic part. It opened in Madras on 31 October 1931, on Diwali. No print or gramophone record of the film is known to survive, so Kalidas is a lost film: everything known about it comes from reviews, advertisements, a few stills and later accounts by film historians.

What the story is about

Princess Vidhyadhari, daughter of King Vijayavarman of Thejavathi, refuses to marry the minister’s son. The annoyed minister looks for another husband for her and finds an illiterate cowherd in the forest, sitting on a tree branch and cutting into the very branch he sits on. He brings the man to the palace and tricks the princess into marrying him. When Vidhyadhari realises she has been cheated, she prays to the goddess Kali, who names her husband Kalidas and grants him extraordinary literary gifts.

Cast

• P. G. Venkatesan as Kalidas
• T. P. Rajalakshmi as Vidhyadhari; Kalidas was her first sound film after many silent ones
• L. V. Prasad as the temple priest
• Thevaram Rajambal, T. Susheela Devi, J. Sushila and M. S. Santhanalakshmi in supporting roles

A Telugu film, a Tamil film, or both?

After the success of India’s first talkie, Alam Ara (1931), Irani chose his former assistant H. M. Reddy to make the first South Indian sound film. Kalidas was shot in Bombay on the sets of Alam Ara, with German technicians and equipment recording the sound, and was completed in eight days. The actors spoke different languages: Venkatesan’s first language was Telugu and he could not pronounce Tamil correctly, so his dialogue was in Telugu, while Rajalakshmi sang in Tamil and Prasad spoke Hindi. Kalki Krishnamurthy’s review in Ananda Vikatan noted Telugu dialogue with Tamil songs at the beginning, middle and end. Because of this mix, historians including Randor Guy and Film News Anandan decline to call it the first Tamil sound film; Guy called it India’s first multilingual film. The Hindu’s 1931 advertisement billed it as the “first talkie to be screened in the city with Tamil and Telugu songs”.

Music

The film had fifty songs written and composed by Madhurakavi Bhaskara Das. Despite the ancient setting, they included compositions by the Carnatic composer Tyagaraja and songs about Mahatma Gandhi and the independence movement, such as Rajalakshmi’s “Gandhiyin Kai Rattiname” in praise of the spinning wheel. Her “Manmada Baanamadaa” became hugely popular, and Randor Guy called it the “first hit song of Tamil Cinema”.

Release, box office and reception

When the reels reached Madras, crowds followed them from the railway station to the Kinema Central theatre. According to a 2013 estimate by Hindu Tamil Thisai, the film grossed over ₹75,000 against a budget of ₹8,000. Reviews were mixed on the craft: Randor Guy later described it as a “crude experiment” with poor lip sync, and Film News Anandan said it “was produced in a hurry, and was technically flawed”. Krishnamurthy admired the costumes and Rajalakshmi’s acting but criticised her singing, while the Tamil newspaper Swadesamitran praised it. Audiences, Guy wrote, did not care about technical niceties.

Legacy

Kalidas made Rajalakshmi a bankable singing star and, by bringing sound to South Indian cinema, drew stage artists into films. It was the only South Indian film produced and released in 1931. Its success led to many later films about the poet, including the Telugu Mahakavi Kalidasu (1960).

Can you watch Kalidas?

No. Kalidas is a lost film; no print is known to survive, so it is not available on any streaming platform.

Sources: the Wikipedia article on Kalidas and the histories and reviews it cites; Wikidata; our own film records.