Chella Pillai is a 1955 Tamil-language comedy-drama film directed by M. V. Raman and produced by A. V. Meiyappan under his AVM Productions company. The film script was written by Javar Seetharaman. Music by R. Sudharsanam is an asset to the film. It stars K. R. Ramasamy, Savitri, T. S. Balaiah, B. R. Panthulu and P. Kannamba playing lead, with Pandari Bai, K. A. Thangavelu, Javar Seetharaman and Kaka Radhakrishnan in supporting roles. The film was remade in Telugu as Vadina. Showering affection or enforcing firm discipline, which one is necessary in bringing up a child, especially if he is an orphan? That was the theme of Chella Pillai.
Plot
Mani is an orphan brought up by his brother and his wife. Fond of the growing child, she covers for all mischievous deeds, even petty crimes, without bothering to correct him. Soon, he grows into an irresponsible young man addicted to gambling. He meets a young woman, who dreams of becoming a movie star. He promises to introduce her to movies. Meanwhile, the family decides to get him married to a modest young woman in the hope that he would become better human being. The hero leaves home to make a movie with the young woman. Needing money for the productions, he commits a theft in the shop where his brother works, resulting in the kind man losing his job. The hero gets involved in the printing of fakes notes and when the brothers seek his help. He gives him the counterfeit currency, resulting in the poor man getting arrested. How the erring hero changes his ways forms the rest of the plot.
Chella Pillai was remade in Telugu for the same year as Vadina. Akkineni Nageswara Rao replaced K. R. Ramasamy in Vadina. The remake ran for 100 days in Vijayawada.
Reception
stated in The Hindu article for a different kind of story for the day, Chella Pillai had good performances by K. R. Ramasamy, P. Kannamba, B. R. Panthulu and Savitri. T. S. Balaiah as the film director Yaman and K. A. Thangavelu as Avatharam contributed to the laughs.
Soundtrack
Music was by R. Sudharsanam and lyrics were written by Udumalai Narayana Kavi, K. P. Kamakshi, Ku. Ma. Balasubramaniam and V. Seetharaman. Singer is K. R. Ramaswamy. Playback singers are T. M. Soundararajan, A. L. Raghavan, P. Susheela, Jikki, T. S. Bagavathi and M. S. Rajeswari. Most of the tunes were straight lifts from the Popular Hindi movies.
