Karunamayudu

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Karunamayudu (“The Compassionate One”), widely known as Ocean of Mercy from its titles in other languages, is a 1978 Telugu film on the life of Jesus, written and directed by A. Bhimsingh. Vijayachander plays Jesus of Nazareth, and the music is by Joseph Krishna and B. Gopalam. It was released on 21 December 1978, runs 160 minutes and was screened at the International Film Festival of India.

What the film is about

Karunamayudu tells the gospel story of Jesus with an all-Indian cast, from the Nativity onward. Wikipedia singles out two song sequences, one narrating the birth of Jesus and one his entry into Jerusalem, as the film’s best-known scenes.

Cast and crew

• Vijayachander as Jesus
• Surekha as Mary and Vennira Aadai Nirmala as Mary Magdalene
• A. Bhimsingh as Judas Iscariot
• Jaggayya as Pontius Pilate
• Chandra Mohan as Bartimaeus, the blind man
• Giri Babu as the Apostle John
• Rajasulochana, Sumalata, Mukkamala, Mikkilineni, Dhulipala, Raja Babu, Padmanabham and Sreedhar

Writer and director: A. Bhimsingh. Music: Joseph Krishna and B. Gopalam. Songs include “Devudu Ledani Anakunda” and “Kadilindi Karuna Radham”, both sung by S. P. Balasubrahmanyam.

Making of the film

The film was first going to be called Raraju Kristu (“Christ the King”) and received some funding from the Roman Catholic Church in South India.

Release, awards and later life

Karunamayudu won two Nandi Awards: the bronze award for Third Best Feature Film, received by Vijayachander, and Best Screenplay Writer for Modhukuri Jhonson. Wikipedia says it reportedly did well at the box office in its first run, but gives no source or figures.

Its longer life came afterwards. The film was not made as an evangelistic work, but American evangelicals later promoted it in India as one, and missionaries came to value it as a culturally familiar way of telling the life of Christ in villages; according to Dayspring International, the ministry set up to distribute it, it had been dubbed into 14 Indian languages by 2012. Its dubbed titles include Daya Sagar in Hindi, Karunamoorthy in Tamil, Dayasagara in Kannada and Mishihaacharithram in Malayalam. Vijayachander went on to play Saint Paul in Dayamayudu (1987), and reprised Jesus in Dayasagar, a Hindi television series on DD National in the 1990s.

Where to watch Karunamayudu

We do not have a confirmed streaming listing for Karunamayudu on file. If we verify one with a platform, it will appear on this page.

Sources: the Wikipedia article on Karunamayudu, which draws on Dwight H. Friesen’s 2012 study of the film in the journal Exchange; our own cast and crew records.