K.L.V.VASANTHA ,GLOMOUR ACTRESS IN 1940`S
Tribute A star of 1930s and ’40s, K. L. V. Vasantha, passed away recently. Her fans still recall her hit films with pleasure.
She was lovely and glamorous. Her films such as ‘Ramabayin Kaathal,’ ‘Bhooloka Ramba’ and ‘Madanakamarajan’ were hits. The famed heroine of the late 1930s and 1940s, K. L. V. Vasantha, passed away recently at the age of 85. She spent the later years of her life with her family in seclusion.
Vasantha was S. S. Vasan’s first choice to play the title role of his magnum opus, ‘Chandralekha’ (1948).
Born in 1923 in Kunrathur, the sacred town, then in Ramnad District, Vasantha showed keen interest in singing and dancing even as a very young girl.
According to the leading star of yesteryears, S. D. Subbulakshmi, Vasantha appeared in a minor, uncredited role in the Thyagaraja Bhagavathar-SDS starrer, ‘Pavalakodi’ (1934).
Becomes a star
As she grew into an attractive and glamorous teenager, she played Ramba in the box-office hit, ‘Rambaiyin Kaathal’ (1939). Directed by the noted filmmaker of that time, B. N. Rao, it ran for 25 weeks in many areas even outside Madras Presidency. Its hero was comedian-character actor K. Sarangapani. The film made Vasantha a star. (‘Rambaiyin Kaathal’ was the inspiration for the Vadivelu starrer, ‘Indralogathil Na. Azhagappan’.)
Rao also cast her in the hit ‘Bhooloka Ramba’ (1940) in which her hero was T. K. Shanmugam. This film ran into difficulties due to lack of funds.
S. S. Vasan, then a film distributor with his Gemini Pictures Circuit, came to the rescue and bankrolled the production. At that time he met Vasantha. When Gemini Studios opened in 1941, Vasantha played heroine in its debut feature ‘Madanakamarajan,’ financed again by Vasan and shot in his studios. It was released as the first Gemini Studios’ Tamil movie though it was launched by Dindigul Amritham Talkies. The talented Carnatic musician V. V. Satagopan played the hero in this folk tale written by B. S. Ramaiah. It was also a major hit, and enhanced Vasantha’s reputation.
When Vasan planned ‘Chandralekha’ in 1943, he named Vasantha as its heroine. But various reasons made her opt out of it and she was replaced by T. R. Rajakumari. Vasantha relocated to Salem and became a part of T. R. Sundaram’s movie empire, Modern Theatres. Sundaram cast her as heroine in many of his films such as ‘Rajarajeswari’ (1944), ‘Burma Rani’ (a 1945 Second World War Propaganda movie in which T. R. Sundaram played the villain, a Japanese commander), ‘Subhadhra’ (1946) and ‘Sulochana’ (1947, a story of Ravana and his son Indrajit played by Sundaram) whose dialogue was written by rebel poet Bharathidasan.
R. M. Krishnaswami, who later became a successful producer-director, was the film’s cinematographer. He narrated an interesting incident. In some shots, where Indrajit had to carry his lady love Sulochana (Vasantha), and walk, he often dropped her interrupting the shot! Finally, she had to lie down on a narrow table while TRS pretended to carry her. Sundaram had also planned a mammoth production around the popular story of poet Bilhana and his love for the king’s daughter with Vasantha and Thyagaraja Bhagavathar in the lead roles. But the shocking arrest of Bhagavathar for his alleged involvement in the sensational Lakshmikantham murder case, made him abandon the project.
Attracted attention
Being a good dancer and singer, she did both in most of her films. Her dance-drama sequence in ‘Madanakamarajan’ had attracted a lot of attention at that time.
In 1946 she played the lead roles in two of Modern Theatres’ productions. One was ‘Chitra,’ directed by Wahab Kashmiri (which did not do well), and the other was ‘Subhadhra’ (some of its songs became popular and whose music was by Papanasam Sivan).
After a few forgotten films, she returned to Madras and lived a quiet life in Thyagaraya Nagar till her death.
She is remembered by her fans, who recall with pleasure some of her hit films.
K.L.V Vasantha made her debut in Sri Kantha Leela, a Premier Cinetone, Coimbatore production, directed by H.S. Mehta, and written by L. Nanjappa Chettiar. Vasantha was one of the popular heroines of early Tamil cinema, who could also sing and dance well. Since she hailed from Kunrathur near Karaikudi, she was originally known as Kunrathur Vallikannu. In fact, she had even acted in a few plays under that name.
Vasantha hit a high note with 1939 film Rambayin Kaadhal , directed by noted filmmaker B.N. Rao. The film is said to have run for 25 weeks in a few places.
Then came Bhooloka Rambha (1940) directed by B.N. Rao, in which Vasantha and T.K. Shanmugam played the lead. During the making of this film, the producers ran into financial problems and the shooting was halted. That was when S.S. Vasan was getting into Tamil cinema as distributor-financier, and he offered help if the film released on a festival day, and also if Rao would be the director for the first film Vasan was planning to produce. Bhooloka Rambha was released with success, and Rao directed Vasan’s first film Madanakamarajan (1941). Vasantha played the lead along with Carnatic musician V.V. Satagopan. This film was a success, establishing Vasan’s position as a producer.
Not many know that Vasan chose Vasantha to play the lead role in the Gemini Studios’ magnum opus Chandralekha (1948), which was under production for five long years. Indeed, the first ad in English for Chandralekha mentions ‘Vasantha in and as Chandralekha’. However, she opted out, moving to Salem where she became part of the T.R. Sundaram-Modern Theatres family. She also married him and played many roles in his productions.
Saalivaahanan
| Saalivaahanan | |
|---|---|
Theatrical poster
| |
| Directed by | B. N. Rao |
| Produced by | Bhaskar Pictures |
| Written by | B. S. Ramaiah (story) Kambadasan (dialogue) |
| Starring | Ranjan T. R. Rajakumari M. G. Ramachandran K. L. V. Vasantha |
Release dates
| 16 February 1945 |
| Country | India |
| Language | Tamil |
Saalivaahanan (Tamil: சாலிவாகணன்) is a Tamil language film starring Ranjan, T. R. Rajakumari, M. G. Ramachandran and K. L. V. Vasantha. The film was released in the 1945.
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