Sati Sulochana

Sati Sulochana (ಸತಿ ಸುಲೋಚನ) is a film made in Kannada language. The film was released in the year 1934 and is the first talkie film in Kannada language. It is also the first film to be screened in the erstwhile Mysore Kingdom.

Background

The producer of the film was a Marwari businessman from Bangalore(A native of AHORE, Jalore District of Rajasthan ) named Shah Chamanlal Doongaji, who started a film production company in Bangalore called South India Movietone in 1932. He decided to make a mythological movie called Sati Sulochana involving characters from the Ramayana like Ravana, Ravana's son Indrajit, Ravana's wife Mandodari and Indrajit's wife Sulochana. He engaged the services of Yaragudipati Varada Rao to direct the film as well as play a character of Lakshman in the film. He also engaged the services of Bellave Narahari Sastry to write the screenplay, dialogues and lyrics. Nagendra Rao, who had previous exposure to films, was selected to play the role of Ravana and was given an additional role of production management. M. V. Subbaiah Naidu was selected to play the role of Indrajit and two ladies; Lakshmi Bai and Thripuramaba were selected to play the roles of Mandodari and Sulochana respectively.

Production

Nagendra Rao chose to shoot the film at Chatrapathi Studio in Kolhapur. The production was started in December 1933 and took 2 months to complete. Shooting was entirely done in natural sunlight and the total amount spent for production was Rs. 40000. The film involved shooting a war scene and this was done using 2 cameras, which was unheard of in those days. The film was released on March 3rd 1934 at Paramount cinema theatre (later called as Parimala talkies) near the City Market of Bangalore. The length of the film was 170 min.. Being the first Kannada talkie film, it ran house-full at Bangalore for six weeks.

Plot

Sati Sulochana is based on the character Sulochana from the Ramayana. She is the wife of Indrajit and the daughter-in-law of Ravana, the demon-king in Ramayana. The film tries to portray the goings on of the war between the Hindu god Rama and Ravana as seen from the point-of-view of Sulochana. Ravana abducts Rama's wife Sita to his kingdom of Lanka, drawing Rama into a war. In the course of the war, Rama's brother Lakshman is knocked unconscious by an arrow from Indrajit and is revived by a medicinal herb called Sanjeevani. Rama kills Indrajit and makes Sulochana a widow. Ravana's defeat by Lord Rama and the killing of Indrajit is viewed through the eyes of Sulochana. Unable to bear the pain of husband's death, Sulochana commits sati sacrifice.

See also

• List of Kannada films
• Kannada cinema

Notes