Originally Posted by
mahendra raj
Hi Kaliaperumal Vinayagam,
Thanks for highlighting certain facts. If that be the case I hope the others will list the 'firsts' in MGR films like the slow motion gravitational effects in outer space. I remember reading a very long time ago that this film ran into several problems ever since the project was first started somewhere in the late fifties hence the inordinate delay. It was finally released in 1963 but without much fanfare like what an MGR movie is accustomed to.
As for Rajshri, you may be right that it may have been her maiden film if at all the production was started in the late fifties. However, her films like 'Sengamalai Theevu' etc. were released before 'Kalai Arasi'.
I append below in verbatim what the local English daily Star entertainment correspondent had to say about 'Kalai Arasi' in today's edition in the tv highlights (What to Watch section) for the day. It is rare but gratifying that an 'obscure' old black & white MGR movie was highlighted in the midst of several new Tamil colour movies:-
"KALAI ARASI
(Vellithirai, Astro Ch 202, 9pm)
If you're into old Tamil films like I am, then you are probably a huge fan of M.G. Ramachandran, fondly known as MGR. Though he's long gone, some of his die-hard fans in India still believe he's alive! Now that is really something. And I have watched most of his movies but I was utterly shocked to discover that he was in a movie about alien invasion in the early 1960s! Purportedly the first alien invasion film of the Indian film industry, Kalai Arasi revolves around Mohan (MGR), a poor farmer who turns hero when he saves Vani from extraterrestrial invaders. ".