Anbe Vaa ( ) is a 1966 Indian Tamil-language romantic comedy film written and directed by A. C. Tirulokchandar. The film stars M. G. Ramachandran and B. Saroja Devi, with S. A. Ashokan, Nagesh, T. R. Ramachandran, P. D. Sambandam, Manorama and T. P. Muthulakshmi in supporting roles. Based on the 1961 American film Come September, it follows JB, a wealthy industrialist who goes on vacation to his bungalow in Shimla, only to discover that his caretaker and his wife have left for Kasi after renting the bungalow to a family. The rest of the film revolves around JB's response to this situation.
Anbe Vaa was the first colour film of AVM Productions, and was shot in Eastmancolor. It was also the studio and Tirulokchandar's only collaboration with Ramachandran. Principal photography began in August 1965 and shooting took place in Shimla, Ooty, and at the hill station of Kufri. The soundtrack and background music were composed by M. S. Viswanathan while the lyrics for the songs were written by Vaali.
Anbe Vaa was released on 14 January 1966, during the festive occasion of Pongal. It received positive reviews from critics, who particularly praised Ramachandran's performance, as he was known for doing mainly action and drama films up until that point in his career. The film was also a commercial success, with a theatrical run of over 23 weeks.
Plot J. Balasubramaniam "JB" is a wealthy and popular industrialist who has been working without a vacation for two years straight. Exhausted after a Europe and New York trip, he decides to take a vacation at his bungalow in Shimla. Upon his arrival, he discovers that his caretaker Krishnaiah has rented the bungalow to a Bangalore-based couple, Punyakodi and Pappamma, and their daughter, Geetha.
Krishnaiah and his wife leave for Kasi after taking the money for the rent, leaving Krishnaiah's daughter Kannamma, and his brother-in-law Ramaiah, in charge of the house and the guests. JB decides not to reveal his true identity, instead pretending to be JB's personal secretary Balu, and pays the rent for a place in his own house. Ramaiah, who has never met JB, takes the money and gives JB's room to Balu without realising they are the same man.
Balu plays continual pranks on Geetha, during the course of which he also falls in love with her. She too falls in love with him, but circumstances and their egos, prevent them both from expressing their feelings. One day, Balu pretends to suffer from chest pain, which scares Geetha, causing her to finally admit that she loves him.
The next morning, when Geetha and Ramaiah go to Balu to enquire about his health, Balu, exiting from the bathroom, fails to see that Geetha is there. He tells Ramaiah about the prank he played on her. Enraged at having been deceived by Balu, Geetha begins to question whether or not his professed love for her is real. She brings her friends, who are vacationing in Shimla, to the residence and tries to drive Balu out of the house. When her plan backfires and her friends start supporting Balu, she becomes spiteful and tells her parents to move forward with a planned marriage to Sekar, her maternal cousin.
Geetha reconciles with Balu after he saves her from a weightlifter named Sitting Bull. But by the time Balu confesses his love for her, Geetha's engagement is already fixed to Sekar. Sekar turns out to be a school friend of JB, but he agrees to play along with the trick. When he discovers that Balu and Geetha are truly in love, he steps aside, wishing the couple well. When Balu finally reveals himself as JB, Geetha, again not knowing what to believe, thinks the wedding plans are yet another of his pranks and tries to run away. He finds her and clears up all of the misunderstandings between them. The two then get married.
Cast
Lead actors M. G. Ramachandran as J. Balasubramaniam (JB/Balu) B. Saroja Devi as Geetha
Male supporting actors S. A. Ashokan as Sekar C. K. Nagesh as Ramaiah T. R. Ramachandran as Punyakodi P. D. Sambandam as Krishnaiah S. V. Ramadas as JB's Personal Secretary
Female supporting actors Manorama as Kannamma T. P. Muthulakshmi as Pappamma Madhavi as Mary M. S. S. Bhagyam as Govindhammal
Pasi Narayanan, uncredited, plays a college student.
Production
Development As a fan of M. G. Ramachandran since childhood, M. Saravanan had wished to see him in an AVM Productions film. Director A. C. Tirulokchandar prepared the story of Anbe Vaa based on the American romantic comedy film Come September (1961), with Ramachandran in mind, contrary to AVM's general practice of choosing actors for completed scripts. He was paid ₹70,000 for directing the film. The film was produced by Saravanan and his brothers Murugan and Kumaran. Aaroor Dass wrote the dialogues, and S. P. Muthuraman worked as an assistant director. S. Maruti Rao, R. G. Gope and A. K. Shekar were in charge of the cinematography, editing, and art direction, respectively. A. K. Chopra was in charge of the dance choreography, and Raghuram, who went on to become a successful dance choreographer in Indian cinema, worked as an assistant to him. This was their first film together.
Casting Although the script differed from what Ramachandran was generally known for: action or drama films, he agreed to do the film because he liked the story. Tirulokchandar recalled, "I found [M. G. Ramachandran] smiling throughout the storytelling session. At the end he said, 'I'll do it. We will be mere puppets in your hands and the credit will go only to you.'". Ramachandran gave a call sheet of 72 days for participating in the film. Saravanan states in his 2005 book AVM 60 Cinema that 300,000 was Ramachandran's salary, but the latter demanded an additional 25,000; his final pay was 325,000. The Economic Times stated in 2010 that Ramachandran was paid 10% of the film's 3 million budget. Anbe Vaa remained his only collaboration with both Tirulokchandar and AVM.
S. A. Ashokan, who helped Tirulokchandar cast Ramachandran, portrayed the role of Sekar. Ramachandran recommended J. Jayalalithaa for the role of the female lead Geetha, but it eventually went to B. Saroja Devi. She was paid 90,000 for acting in the film. Her costume design was done by the Anna Salai-based Indian Silk House. Ramachandran initially recommended K. A. Thangavelu for the role of Geetha's father Punyakodi, but Saravanan said that his father wanted T. R. Ramachandran in the role due to their long-standing friendship. M. G. Ramachandran accepted the decision and told Saravanan not to tell T. R. Ramachandran about his initial choice.
Filming
Anbe Vaa was AVM Production's first colour film and was made in Eastmancolor. Principal photography began with a puja ceremony held on 12 August 1965. Although the story is set in Shimla, most of the film was shot in Ooty. Shooting in Shimla took place for only five days. For the sequences filmed in Shimla, P. N. Sundaram was hired as the cinematographer as Maruti Rao was taken ill at the time. The song "Pudhiya Vaanam" was shot in the small hill station of Kufri, located 13 kilometres from Shimla, as well as at Mall Road, Shimla. Portions of the film were also shot at a 200-year-old bungalow covering 15 acres in Ooty. In a scene where Punyakodi eats chicken, Tirulokchandar requested his caterer to make a cake shaped like a chicken for T. R. Ramachandran to eat as he was a vegetarian. Three or four lovebirds were bought for the filming of the song "Love Birds".
Savi, an editor who worked for the Tamil magazine, Ananda Vikatan, accompanied the production unit and published an article on the making of the film. He even appeared in "Pudhiya Vaanam" as an extra. "Naan Paarthathile" was one of the film's few songs that was shot outdoors, as M. G. Ramachandran did not want to attract attention from his large fan following. The Government Botanical Garden in Ooty was also used as a shooting location. The production unit, composed of 20 crew members, along with Tirulokchandar, M. G. Ramachandran, Saroja Devi and Savi, initially flew to Delhi. From Delhi, they travelled to Kalka by train, then continued on to Shimla, using three first-generation Chevrolet Impalas.
The film's skating scenes, involving Ramachandran and Saroja Devi, were completed in two days. Both Ramachandran and Saroja Devi were initially hesitant to perform the scene, but went through with it after they received encouragement from the local population. For some scenes in the film, Saroja Devi was made to walk with mincing steps and flutter her eyelashes. She and Ramachandran also performed the twist in the film. For the action sequence in which JB fights a wrestler, Tirulokchander asked Ramachandran to lift the wrestler overhead and hold him in the air for some time before trampling him, and Ramachandran obliged. For the climax, Ramachandran initially came with an idea of his and Ashokan's characters fighting vigorously, but Tirulokchandar felt it would not fit in a film of this nature and a soft natured ending was more suitable, to which Ramachandran agreed. The final length of the film was .
Themes Although Saravanan has acknowledged to Anbe Vaa being based on Come September, music historian Vamanan wrote for The Times of India that it was "structured as a Roman Holiday with a man as the protagonist". Folklorist and writer M. D. Muthukumaraswamy, writing for the same newspaper, compared JB to the sage Vishvamitra, describing the former as "the archetypal male figure who resists the advances of the beautiful damsels", similar to Vishvamitra resisting the temptations of Menaka the apsara. Sujatha Narayan, writing for The New Indian Express, noted that Anbe Vaa, like other films starring Ramachandran, reflected his personal belief of not being arrogant towards women, stating, "I recall one of my uncles telling me how MGR would never chase the heroine on screen, never display interest in her first, and how the heroine will always pine for him, even in an out-and-out romantic story like Anbe Vaa."
According to Tamil historian and author Sachi Sri Kantha, the song "Pudhiya Vaanam" had "delicately introduced" the symbol for the political party Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), a rising sun, through the lyrics which roughly translate to "While [the] rising sun shines, the world will become aware, the cool wind from Himalaya will touch the heart" in that pre-election year. Writing for the website Scroll.in, Karan Bali noted that though Anbe Vaa was not as "overtly political" as Ramachandran's other films, the black and red clothes he sports as JB in "Pudhiya Vaanam" was a reference to the colours of the DMK. V. Ramji of the magazine Kamadenu noted that, unlike most Ramachandran films which have seven or eight villains, the main villain in Anbe Vaa is egoism.
Music
The soundtrack and score were composed by M. S. Viswanathan, while the lyrics were written by Vaali. Kalyan Subrahmanyam, an anaesthetist and alumnus of Madras Medical College and Stanley Medical College, made his musical debut with this film, singing as part of the chorus. K. Sampath, a sound engineer who joined AVM Productions in the mid-1950s, created the chick mungu (also spelt chik mang) sound effect for the title track. The song "Naadodi", picturised on JB and Geetha performing a twist, was a rock and roll number.
"Pudhiya Vaanam" originally had the lyrics "udaya sooryanin paarvayile" (in the eyes of the rising sun), but after Meiyappan stated that the Censor Board would not accept it, Vaali amended the lyrics to "puthiya sooryanin paarvayile" (in the eyes of the new sun). Regarding this change, Vaali said that if Ramachandran enunciated the words, they would sound like "udaya sooryanin", and he was proven right. The sound effect of the horses' footfall in "Rajavin Paarvai" was created by Meesai Murugesan. The song "Once A Pappa" belongs to Baila, a Sri Lankan musical genre.