Keechaka Vadham

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Keechaka Vadham

Directed by R. Nataraja Mudaliar

Written by C. Rangavadivelu

Produced by R. Nataraja Mudaliar

StarringRaju Mudaliar

Jeevarathnam

Cinematography R. Nataraja Mudaliar

Edited by R. Nataraja Mudaliar

Production

company

India Film Company

Release date 1917–1918[a]

CountryIndia

Language Silent

Budget ₹35,000[3]

Box office ₹50,000[4]

Keechaka Vadham (transl. The Extermination of Keechaka)[5] is an Indian silent film produced, directed,
filmed and edited by R. Nataraja Mudaliar. The first film to have been made in South India, it was shot in
five weeks at Nataraja Mudaliar's production house, India Film Company. As the members of the cast
were Tamils, Keechaka Vadham is considered to be the first Tamil film. No print of it is known to have
survived, making it a lost film.

The screenplay, written by C. Rangavadivelu, is based on an episode from the Virata Parva segment of
the Hindu epic Mahabharata, focusing on Keechaka's attempts to woo Draupadi. The film stars Raju
Mudaliar and Jeevarathnam as the central characters.
Released in the late 1910s, Keechaka Vadham was commercially successful and received positive critical
feedback. The film's success prompted Nataraja Mudaliar to make a series of similar historical films,
which laid the foundation for the South Indian cinema industry and led to his being recognised as the
father of Tamil cinema. Nataraja Mudaliar's works were an inspiration to other filmmakers including
Raghupathi Surya Prakasa and J. C. Daniel.

Contents

1 Plot

2 Cast

3 Production

3.1 Development

3.2 Filming

4 Release, reception and legacy

5 See also

6 Notes

7 References

8 Bibliography

8.1 Books

8.2 Newspapers

8.3 Websites

9 External links

Plot

Keechaka, the commander of King Virata's forces, attempts to woo and marry Draupadi by any means
necessary; he even tries to molest Draupadi, prompting her to tell Bhima, her husband and one of the
Pandava brothers, about it. Later, when Keechaka meets Draupadi, she requests him to rendezvous with
her at a secret hiding place. He arrives there, only to find Bhima instead of Draupadi; Bhima kills him.[6]
Cast

Raju Mudaliar as Keechaka

Jeevarathnam as Draupadi

Production

Development

A painting by Raja Ravi Varma

Painting of Keechaka and Draupadi by Raja Ravi Varma

R. Nataraja Mudaliar, a car dealer who was based in Madras,[b] developed an interest in motion pictures
after watching Dadasaheb Phalke's 1913 mythological film, Raja Harishchandra at the Gaiety theatre in
Madras.[8] The former then learned the basics of photography and filmmaking from Stewart Smith, a
Poona-based British cinematographer who had worked on a documentary that chronicled the
viceroyship of Lord Curzon (1899–1905).[9] Nataraja Mudaliar bought a Williamson 35 mm camera and
printer from Mooppanar, a wealthy landowner based in Thanjavur, for ₹1,800.[10][c] In 1915, he
established the India Film Company, which was South India's first production company. He then set up a
film studio on Miller's Road in Purasawalkam with the help of business associates who invested in his
production house.[12][d]

Nataraja Mudaliar sought advice from his friend, theatrical artist Pammal Sambandha Mudaliar, who
suggested that he depict the story of Draupadi and Keechaka from the Virata Parva segment of the
Hindu epic Mahabharata.[3] Some of Nataraja Mudaliar's relatives objected, feeling that it was an
inappropriate story for his debut venture, but Sambandha Mudaliar persuaded him to proceed with
making the film as audiences were familiar with the story.[14] Attorney C. Rangavadivelu, a close friend
of Nataraja Mudaliar, assisted him in writing the screenplay as the latter was not a writer by profession.
[15] The paintings of Raja Ravi Varma provided Nataraja Mudaliar with a source of inspiration for
recreating the story on celluloid.[16] Nataraja Mudaliar cast stage actors Raju Mudaliar and
Jeevarathnam as Keechaka and Draupadi, respectively.[15]

Filming

Keechaka Vadham was filmed on a budget of ₹35,000 (about $2,700 in 1917),[c] which was quite
expensive at the time.[15] Principal photography began in 1916–1917, and the film was shot over 35–37
days.[e] Nataraja Mudaliar imported the film stock from London with the help of an Englishman named
Carpenter, who worked for the Bombay division of the photographic technology company, Kodak.[19]
Film historian Randor Guy noted in his 1997 book Starlight Starbright: The Early Tamil Cinema that a thin
white piece of cloth was used as a ceiling for filming and sunlight was filtered through it onto the floor.
[20] Rangavadivelu was also experienced in playing female roles on stage for the Suguna Vilasa Sabha,
and coached the artists on set.[21] The film's production, cinematography and editing were handled by
Nataraja Mudaliar himself.[22]

The film was shot with a speed of 16 frames per second, which was the standard rate for a silent film, at
the India Film Company, with intertitles in English, Tamil and Hindi. The Tamil and Hindi intertitles were
written by Sambandha Mudaliar and Devdas Gandhi respectively, while Nataraja Mudaliar wrote the
English intertitles himself with the assistance of Guruswami Mudaliar and Thiruvengada Mudaliar, a
professor from Pachaiyappa's College.[23]

Keechaka Vadham was the first film made in South India; as the cast was Tamil, it is also the first Tamil
film.[24] According to Guy, Nataraja Mudaliar established a laboratory in Bangalore to process the film
negatives since there was no film laboratory in Madras. Nataraja Mudaliar believed that Bangalore's
colder climate "would be kind to his exposed film stock"; he processed the film negatives there each
weekend and returned on Monday morning to resume filming.[25] The film's final reel length was 6,000
ft (1,800 m).[26]

Release, reception and legacy

According to Muthiah, Keechaka Vadham was first released at the Elphinstone Theatre in Madras;[4] the
film netted ₹50,000 (about $3,850 in 1917)[c] after being screened in India, Burma, Ceylon, the
Federated Malay States and Singapore. The film yielded ₹15,000 (about $1,155 in 1917),[c] which
Muthiah noted to be a "tidy profit in those days."[4] Writer Firoze Rangoonwalla notes that a reviewer
for The Mail praised the film: "It has been prepared with great care and is drawing full houses".[27] Guy
pointed out that with the film's critical and commercial success, Nataraja Mudaliar had "created history".
[28] Since no print is known to have survived, this makes it a lost film.[29]

Keechaka Vadham's success inspired Nataraja Mudaliar to make a series of historical films: Draupadi
Vastrapaharanam (1918), Lava Kusa (1919), Shiva Leela (1919), Rukmini Satyabhama (1922) and Mahi
Ravana (1923).[30] He retired from filmmaking in 1923 after a fire killed his son and destroyed his
production house.[31] Nataraja Mudaliar is widely regarded as the father of Tamil cinema, and his films
helped lay the foundation for the South Indian cinema industry; his works inspired Raghupathi Surya
Prakasa, the son of Raghupathi Venkaiah Naidu, and J. C. Daniel.[32]
See also