For her daughter Kamala, this movie was the swan song of her mother’s career as acting offers slowly dropped from there. Image Credit: The Cinema Resource Centre, Chennai.Įven though Rajalakshmi didn’t stop acting for other directors, after the success of “Miss Kamala,” she directed two other movies, the even more successful “Madurai Veeran” in 1939 and then, the major failure “Indiya Thai/Tamil Thai” in 1940. Image Credit: The Cinema Resource Centre, Chennai. An advertisement of the film Miss Kamala from the magazine Anandha Vikatan Deepavali Malar, 1936, mentioning TPR’s production venture Sri Rajam Talkies. With this film, she became the first female director in South India, and the second one in India after Fatma Begum. She was a one-woman band, in other words. That’s how she became the first woman director in South India in 1936 with her film “Miss Kamala” -an adaptation of her own novel, “Kamalavalli.” She was omnipresent in the making of this movie-acting, singing, directing, editing, producing, and even expecting a baby as she was pregnant with her daughter (her daughter was born in November and named Kamala after her mother’s film). Indeed, after almost ten years of her career, she created her own production company, Sri Rajam Talkies, in order to make films by herself. She was also a writer, producer, director and an editor. Rajalakshmi’s thirst for art and cinema didn’t stop with the acting/singing parts. Rajalakshmi from the magazine Anandha Vikatan Deepavali Malar, 1937, mentioning her as the actor from Tamil talkies. She pursued her film career with box office successes like “Ramayan,” “Sathyavan Savithri,” and “Valli Thirumanam.” A still of T.P. One has to imagine the craze when this first talkie starring the most popular drama artist was released at the Madras Kinema Central-her name was announced from speakers, people used to stand outside theatres to see her acting she was the Super Star of early Tamil cinema. At a time when the Tamilness of movies remained a question mark as most of them where technically made in Kolkata or Mumbai, the multitalented Rajalakshmi became the main attraction for a Tamil audience-indeed, her songs and dialogues in Tamil were much awaited (the movie has more than 50 songs!). In 1929, she acted in her first silent film, “Kovalan” and above all, in 1931, she was the heroine of “Kalidas”, recognized as the first Tamil talkie even though it was, in fact, multilingual-the hero spoke Telugu, the heroine spoke Tamil and some other characters spoke Hindi. Her rise as a popular drama artist coincided with the first steps of Tamil Cinema as it didn’t take long for Rajalakshmi to take the plunge in the Tamil film industry. From there, the young teenager joined many drama troupes like Cunniah Company, travelled a lot, and captivated audiences with her singing and acting talent. Then, at a time when women were not allowed to act in dramas, she got involved in theatre and very soon met Sankaradas Swamigal, known as the father of Tamil Theatre, who recommended her in the milieu. As she and her mother fell into poverty, they moved to Thiruchi, and Rajalakshmi, who was a gifted child, started to sing to earn money for her family.
She also lost her father some time after. Image Credit: The Cinema Resource Centre, Chennai.īorn in 1911 in Saliamangalam village in the district of Tanjore, Rajalakshmi’s early life was punctuated by many traumas as she was the victim of a child marriage at the age of 7 and never went to her older “husband’s” house due to dowry issues.
Rajalakshmi from the magazine Cine Art Review, 1937. Yet, she is hardly known and celebrated nowadays !Ī still of T.P. She was part of the avant-garde that paved the way when film industry was in its infancy in South India, and she was definitely a pioneer in more than one respect, being one of the first female theatre artists in Tamil Nadu, the first actress of Tamil cinema, the first female director and producer of South Indian cinema. Rajalakshmi who became a major star of the nascent Tamil cinema in the 1930s. « Cinema Rani »: that’s the title earned by T.P.
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