55 Years Of Thillana Mohanambal: This Sivaji Ganesan Classic Was Adapted From A Novel

Legendary actor Sivaji Ganesan appeared in a slew of iconic films in his career and one of them completed 55 years recently. We are talking about the movie Thillana Mohanambal, in which Sivaji was paired with Padmini. It was released on July 27, 1968. Considered a landmark film in Tamil cinema, the movie directed by AP Nagarajan was acclaimed for subtly portraying the socio-cultural environment, along with the Thanjavur culture of dance and music prevailing at that time. Thillana Mohanambal depicts the tale of a nadaswaram player named Shanmugasundaram, who falls in love with Bharatanatyam dancer Mohanambal. Due to some unfavourable circumstances and their egocentric nature, they are unable to profess their love to one another. The rest of the narrative is about how they overcome challenges they have posed for themselves and others.

The concept of Thillana Mohanambal came to director AP Nagarajan from a serialised novel. In those days, serial literature in Tamil magazines Kalki and Ananda Vikatan was very popular.

Thullana Mohanambal was a novel written by Kothamangalam Subbu, which appeared in a serialised version in the Ananda Viketan magazine. It became very popular in the late 60s and increased the readership of the magazine. AP Nagarajan decided to adapt the story into a feature film. The owner of the rights to the novel was journalist SS Vasan. He repeatedly rejected requests from AP Nagarajan to adapt it into a movie. Vasan intended to do so himself under his production house, Gemini Studios. But Vasan handed Nagarajan the rights without giving it any thought when he approached him a third time. For the rights, Nagarajan gave Vasan Rs 25,000.

Reportedly, Kothamangalam Subbu was a little sceptical about whether the cast would be able to do justice to his story. He was ultimately left speechless with the end product. There is a story that Nagesh, who played Savadal Vaithi in the film, met Kothamangalam on the road and the author showered him with praises and even hugged him, saying that his and CK Saraswati’s performances made him and his wife well up.