Prahalada (film)


Prahalada is a 1939 Tamil film directed by B. N. Rao. It deals with the story of Prahlada and his devotion to Lord Vishnu. The film was made 20 times in numerous languages, with the remakes generally being successful at the box office. The languages include Hindi, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali and Assamese. It is also the only story which has been made so many times, generally to box-office success. The film's story is based on the story of Narasimha and Prahlada. It features M. G. Ramachandran as Lord Indra This was the sixth film of Ramachandran who later became one of the popular actors of the Tamil film industry. The film also featured a sword fight sequence between M.G. Ramachandran and Santhanalakshmi.

Plot

The story is from a short episode in the Vishnu Purana, a holy text of Vaishnavites, that narrates the story of Prahlada, an ardent devotee of Lord Vishnu much against the wish of his father Hiranyakashipu, a demon. All of Hiranyakashipu's attempts to change his son's attitude are in vain. Finally, when he decides to kill his son, Lord Vishnu comes to the rescue of the son, in the form of Narasimha, and kills the king.

Cast

Cast according to the opening credits
;Male
;Female
The production was by Salem Shankar Films and Central Studios in Coimbatore. The story and the dialogues of the Tamil film were closely followed for the Malayalam version. The script and dialogues of the Malayalam version was by N. P. Chellappan Nair. The film was an average success at the box office.

Inspiration and remakes

The story was originally filmed in Telugu as Bhakta Prahlada in 1939; it was remade in 1942 with the same title. The film was made 20 times in numerous languages, with the remakes generally being successful at the box office. The languages include Hindi, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali and Assamese. It is also the only story which has been made so many times, often with box-office success.