Ponmudi

Producer T. R. Sundaram of wanted to make a film based on , a novel written by the Tamil rationalist poet . Ellis Dungan was hired to direct Bharathidasan’s script. The film was made at the Modern Theatres studio in Salem. Some scenes were also filmed in . For shooting beach scenes, Dungan had a beach set constructed in Salem, out of sand brought from beach. The film had intimate love sequences which were unusual in the (then) conservative Tamil film industry. The music was composed by while the lyrics were penned by and . was released on day, 14 January 1950, and was distributed by Broadway, Sun & Saraswathi in Madras. It was a commercial failure as its intimate scenes shocked the Tamil audience. The film was criticised in the press for being “vulgar” and Dungan was accused of “corrupting the population with American ways”. Despite this, J. G. Vijayam’s cinematography was acclaimed and won him an award.