Harischandra (1955), Malayalam’s first successful mythological film

As I mentioned about the timeless relevance of Harishchandra’s story as juicy meat for a film producer, I wonder how it would fare if someone were to make it today, when you have the best of the technical advancements available along with the sensibilities of our times. My guess is that it would fall flat on its face and the Producers know that. Harischandra (1955) was the first mythological film in Malayalam that was successful, prompting Merryland and Neela Productions to produce ‘blockbusters’ like Bhakta Kuchela,’ ‘Sree Guruvayurappan,’ ‘Devi Kanyakumari’, and Kumarasambhavam amongst others in the 69-odd movies that were produced in Merry Land. Harishchandra was directed by Antony Mithradas which has been erroneously credited to P Subramaniam on the cover of the VCD that I have ! Harischandra (1955), is according to B Vijayakumar,  a scene-by-scene ripoff of the Kannada version from 1943 and the Tamil indigenous production from 1944 (starring the legendary PU Chinnappa and Kannamba ) which surprisingly didn’t fare as well as the dubbed version from Kannada!