Haridas (1944 film)

Haridas
Promotional poster of the film with a picture of M. K. Thyagaraja Bhagavathar displayed prominently, highlighting the film's successful three-year run at Broadway theater (1944, 1945 and 1946) in Madras.
Directed by	Sundar Rao Nadkarni
Produced by	Royal Talkies
Written by	Ilangovan
Starring	M. K. Thyagaraja Bhagavathar T. R. Rajakumari N. C. Vasanthakokilam N. S. Krishnan T. A. Madhuram Pandari Bai S. R. Krishna Iyengar
Music by	Papanasam Sivan G. Ramanathan
Cinematography	Adi Irani T. Muthuswamy
Edited by	Sundar Rao Nadkarni
Release date	16 October 1944
Running time	117 minutes
Country	India
Language	Tamil
Box office	₹20 lakh

Haridas is a 1944 Tamil language film directed by Sundar Rao Nadkarni and starring M. K. Thyagaraja Bhagavathar, T. R. Rajakumari and N. C. Vasanthakokilam. It holds the record of being the first film to run continuously for 110 weeks at a single theatre.IBN Live included Haridas in its list of 100 greatest Indian films of all time. This film had a colour sequence which was manually colored by labourers. The film was entirely recoloured and released in year 1946. The poster in this page mentions that in has released with a full colour copy (below the title).

Haridas (Thyagaraja Bhagavathar) is a vain individual who spends his life in luxury and lust ignoring his wife (Vasanthakokilam). But when his wealth is appropriated by a courtesan (T. R. Rajakumari), he realizes life's realities, reforms and spends the rest of his days serving his parents and God.

Haridas was directed by Sundar Rao Nadkarni, a Marathi film director, and produced by Royal Talkies. The film was adapted from the book Sri Krishna Vijayam by Elangovan. It was based on the story of the life of a poet-saint called Haridas. The role of Haridas was played by M. K. Thyagaraja Bhagavathar, who was the highest paid actor in the Tamil film industry at the time. It was very short (10,994 Feet) compared to other films from the same period. Featuring a number of melodious songs sung by Bhagavathar, the film was released on Diwali (16 October) 1944. Classical musician N. C. Vasanthakokilam, who was often compared to M. S. Subbulakshmi as a singer, played the role of Haridas' wife. The film also marked the debut of renowned Tamil actress Pandari Bai. The comedic duo of N. S. Krishnan and T. A. Mathuram were cast in this film.

All songs in this film became hits. The song "Manmadha leelayai vendrar undo" celebrating erotic love has become an enduring hit and the phrase has entered every day Tamil usage. Papanasam Sivan was the composer and G. Ramanathan was in charge of the orchestration. A partial list of songs from Haridas: