Burma Rani
| Burma Rani | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | T. R. Sundaram |
| Produced by | T. R. Sundaram |
| Starring | K. L. V. Vasantha T. R. Sundaram C. Honnappa Bhagavathar Serugulathur Sama T. S. Balaiah |
| Cinematography | W. R. Subba Rao |
| Edited by | D. Dorairaj |
| Music by | T. A. Kalyanam |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Modern Theatres |
Release date |
|
| Country | India |
| Language | Tamil |
Burma Rani (Tamil pronunciation: ['bəɾ.mɑː 'ɾaːɳɪ] transl. Queen of Burma) is a 1945 Indian Tamil-language war-spy film set against the backdrop of the Second World War.[1] Directed by T. R. Sundaram,[2] it starred K. L. V. Vasantha and Sundaram, himself. The film was released on 13 April 1945, during Puthandu.[3] It was believed to be lost until 2006, when it was rediscovered and made available on DVD.[4]
Plot
The main plot revolves around a spy ring in Japanese-occupied Burma. It is led by a Tamil woman named Mangalam.[2][5] She monitors General Bakjina, who is planning an attack on India. General Bakjina, the Japanese army commander, is modeled after Adolf Hitler.[6][7]
The story intensifies when three Indian pilots crash-land in Japanese-occupied Rangoon. They hide in the house of Rani, an Indian dancer. The secondary plot is a love story between Ranjit Kumar, one of the pilots, and Rani. The pilots are captured and taken prisoner, and Ranjit is eventually killed. The story of the escape of the other two pilots forms the plot of the movie.
Cast
- C. Honnappa Bhagavathar as Kumar
- Serukalathur Sama as Buddhist Monk
- K. K. Perumal as Uso
- T. S. Balaiah as Ranjith Singh
- S. V. Sahasranamam as Kundu Rao
- A. Dhasaratha Rao as Soni
- S. R. Sandow as Gotto
- N. S. Krishnan as Kunjitham
- Kali N. Rathnam as Koduchi
- V. M. Ezhumalai as Umpan
- M. E. Madhavan as Madhav
- K. L. V. Vasantha as Rani
- T. A. Mathuram as Banama
- C. T. Rajakantham as Miss Mangalam
- T. R. Sundaram as Colonel Bakinja
Reception
Burma Rani was one among four war-effort films released in Madras in 1945.[8] Upon its initial release, Burma Rani was appreciated by the British.[8][9] The local war propaganda officer, G. T. B. Harvey, presided over the premiere of the film.[8][10] However, Harvey later grew suspicious of the film’s portrayal of Japanese characters and withheld its commercial release, reflecting the ideological complexity of a war film set against the backdrop of India, Britain, and Japan.[8] While the Japanese characters were negatively stereotyped, the Indian spies and military officers were portrayed with a nuanced patriotism that could be interpreted as anti-colonial.[8][9]
It was eventually banned by the Madras censor board in post-independence India.[11]
References
- ^ Velayutham, Selvaraj, ed. (3 April 2008). Tamil Cinema: The Cultural Politics of India's Other Film Industry. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-134-15446-3.
- ^ a b Nathan, Archana (27 May 2017). "Rangoon has never been too far away from Madras – ask Kollywood". Scroll.in. Archived from the original on 2 November 2024. Retrieved 30 June 2024.
- ^ "Burma Rani". The Indian Express. 6 April 1945. p. 6. Archived from the original on 11 February 2025. Retrieved 11 February 2025 – via Google News Archive.
- ^ Baskaran, S. Theodore (5 October 2006). "War relic". Frontline. Archived from the original on 29 April 2020. Retrieved 30 June 2024.
- ^ "As The Temple Bells Beckon". Outlook. 5 February 2022. Archived from the original on 25 January 2025. Retrieved 30 June 2024.
- ^ Balasubramanian, Roshne (22 November 2017). "Untold war tales of Madras". The New Indian Express. Archived from the original on 25 January 2025. Retrieved 30 June 2024.
- ^ "The textile engineer who took Tamil film industry to new heights". DT Next. 29 September 2019. Archived from the original on 25 January 2025. Retrieved 30 June 2024.
- ^ a b c d e Mukherjee, Debashree (13 September 2023). "Media wars: Remaking the logics of propaganda in India's wartime cine-ecologies". Modern Asian Studies. 57 (5): 1585–1614. doi:10.1017/S0026749X22000427. ISSN 0026-749X.
- ^ a b Alonso, Isabel Huacuja; Amstutz, Andrew (13 September 2023). "Rethinking the Second World War in South Asia: Between theatres and beyond battles". Modern Asian Studies. 57 (5): 1449–1458. doi:10.1017/S0026749X2300015X. ISSN 0026-749X.
- ^ Baskaran, S. Theodore (1981). The Message Bearers: The Nationalist Politics and the Entertainment Media in South India, 1880–1945. Cre-A. p. 122. OCLC 9441794.
- ^ "South Indian Cinema: Changing times, changing films". The Cinema Resource Centre. 14 May 2024. Archived from the original on 14 May 2024. Retrieved 11 February 2025.
External links
- Burma Rani at IMDb
