Kaliyuga Kannan

<p>While Sambu Iyer’s wife is a devotee of Krishna, Sambu Iyer questions God’s partiality and judgement. He happens to spend the money his wife had kept aside for God as an offering on a competition which he wins and uses to become rich. When the lord himself appears and asks for that money, he keeps putting off the return of the money taking credit for his success while blaming the lord for his failures. In the end, he concedes and acknowledges that God is fair, money is the root of all evil and reconciles with God at the time of his death. is the inaugural production of Ajantha Enterprises, and is an adaptation of , a play written by that featured as the protagonist. The play, which was written for actor ‘s Gopi Theatres, intended to convey the message that “money could not buy peace of mind”. When adapting the play as a film, the makers wanted to star. But Ganesan suggested Srinivasan, after being impressed with his performance in the play. Vaali wrote the dialogue for the film adaptation, which was produced by N. Elango. Cinematography was handled by . Besides directing, Panju co-edited the film (alongside Narasimhan) under the pseudonym “Panjabi”. The final cut of the film measured 3,993 metres (13,100 ft). The soundtrack was composed by , while the lyrics were written by . The playback singers were , , and Renuka. The songs featured were “Kannaiah”, “Kadhal Ponnedu”, “Jaichutte” and “Seven O’Clock”. was released on 13 November 1974. Kanthan of appreciated the film for Janaki’s performance and Vaali’s writing, calling it a good entertainer. The film emerged a commercial success. propelled Srinivasan to stardom. CV Aravind of praised it for the “riveting script by Vaali”. Playwright and comedian developed a desire to write a play with “God as the fulcrum” after watching the play , and encouraged him to solidify his plans, resulting in the play .</p>