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Cinema Plus
Blast from the past
Sabapathy 1941
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T. R. Ramachandran, Kali N. Ratnam, K. Sarangapani, R. Padma, C. T. Rajakantham, P. R., Mangalam, Hiranaiah
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hilarious Sabapathy
Handy Andy is one of the popular
comical characters of English
literature created by
Samuel Lover . He had the knack
of doing everything wrong! Tamil
theatreperson, Pammal
Sambandam Mudaliar, wrote
several `farces', built around a
`Handy Andy-ish' servant Sabapathy,
the `Man Friday' of a notso-
bright young man by the
same name. Such farces were
enacted by Sambandam Mudliar
with his troupe, Suguna
Vilas Sabha, and proved popular.
A. T. Krishnaswamy, the
neglected but talented writerdirector-
producer (Arivali, Vidyapathi,
Manam Oru Kurangu)
suggested to AV.
Meiyappan, with whom he was
working in Pragathi Pictures, to
make a comedy built around
Sabapathy.
Those were days of the Second
World War. Life was grim
and
so, people loved a good
laugh. AVM agreed, and A. T.
Krishnaswamy wrote the film,
based on Mudaliar's farces. T.R.
Ramachandran, who was with
Pragathi on a princely salary of
Rs. 35 per month, was cast as
hero, while comedian and character
artiste Kali N. Ratnam
played Handy Andy. `Lux Soap'
beauty R. Padma played the
hero's educated wife, who
teaches her husband English.
The slim and saucy Rajakantham
played the Man Friday's
heartthrob. Another noted comedian
of the day, K. Sarangapani,
played a Tamil
ragged by his students. During
that period, Tamil teachers
were the butt of jokes because
they were considered inferior
to those who taught English!
For the first time, AVM's
name appeared as director in
the credits, along with A. T.
Krishnaswamy, though the film
was written and directed by the
latter. Padma was active in Tamil
cinema during the 1940's,
but never made it to the top;
she is barely remembered today.
But Rajakantham made it as
comedienne with Kali N. Ratnam
and the pair was only next
in fame to the legendary N. S.
Krishnan and T. A. Mathuram.
Contrived humour, jokes
built around wrong usage of
English, and those making fun
of Tamil teachers - this was
Sabapathy. However, moviegoers
lapped it up, making it a
big success. T. R. Ramachandran
achieved star status with
this film and was mentioned in
the same breath as N. S. Krishnan.
For a while, even MGR
called himself `M. G. Ramachandar'
to be different!
Sabapathy placed AVM firmly
on the ladder of success, and
he was well on his way to
becoming a movie mogul. It
also brought A. T. Krishnaswamy
into prominence as a talented
director and comedy writer.
Produced at around Rs.
40,000, Sabapathy was a boxoffice
success. It is often
screened on Tamil TV channels
and quite familiar to folks even
today, 60-plus years after it was
made.
Remembered for : The
comedy sequences of T. R. Ramachandran,
Kali N. Ratnam
and Sarangapani.
RANDOR GUY
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