One of the best sources for Madras of the early 20th century is cinema. The black-and-white era keeps giving us precious nuggets every once in a while, even though most of those films were shot inside studios. A real gem among these is the 1942 film En Manaivi. A.V. Meiyappan was the man behind it, though his famous AVM studios was, by then, still in the womb of time. Having hired the Admiralty House at Mandaveli from the Maharaja of Vizianagaram, he was producing films there under the banner of Pragati Pictures.
Meiyappan had tried his hand at films several times before and undeterred by early disasters, he kept at it till he found success. En Manaivi was one of his early hits. It was based on Samshay Kallol, a Marathi play by G.B. Deval, which was based on Moliere’s 17th century French one-act verse play Sganarelle or the Self-Deceived Husband. The plot revolves around suspicion between two couples leading to many comic situations. The lead couple was Sarangapani and K.R. Chellam. It is interesting to see that the core of the story – a woman fainting on the street and a portrait landing in the wrong hands – remains unchanged across the original and the Indian versions.
A.V. Meiyappan | Photo Credit: The Hindu Archives
