Samsaram

<p>A struggling clerk lives with his wife and two children. Their blissful lives are threatened by the arrival of his scheming mother and sister. A short time later, the clerk disappears, abandoning his family, and his brother comes to their rescue. Exploiting the fragile situation, mischief makers suggest an immoral relationship between the clerk’s brother and wife. Frustrated, the clerk’s wife sends her two children to beg on the streets. Several years later, the elder of the two children, now working in a mill, meets a bearded beggar who, unknown to him, is actually his father. He obtains his father a job in the mill, and the family later reunites. , the owner of , screened the Telugu film for his staff, family and friends. Impressed with the film, he bought the rights to remake it in two languages: Tamil and . The Tamil remake shared its title with the Telugu film, while the Hindi version was titled . Both versions were launched simultaneously; Chandru, the chief editor of Gemini, directed the Tamil version. Because South Indians actors of the era could not speak Hindi fluently, Vasan had the voices of the South Indian cast dubbed for , which he directed. was the music director, and his work was supervised by . wrote the lyrics. made his singing debut with this film, and his song “Samsaram… Samsaram…” became a breakthrough in his career. (Tamil) (Hindi) Both and were released in 1951 and became commercially successful. According to historian , the success of the former was attributed to its “emotionally strong and sentimental storyline”, elements, and the performances of Radha, Pushpavalli, Sriram, Vanaja, Sundari Bai and Ramachandran. However, journalist gave the film a negative review in his magazine , where he criticised the song “Amma Pasikkuthey, Thaaye Pasikkuthey” by arguing that “no mother would ever stoop to that level”. In Japan, the film was released under the title . The story of was again reused in Tamil as (1977).</p>