Synopsis
Ambikapathy is a 1937 Indian Tamil musical period film directed by Ellis R. Dungan.
The film stars M. K. Thyagaraja Bhagavathar, M. R. Santhanalakshmi, and other notable actors including T. S. Balaiya, N. S. Krishnan, and P. G. Venkatesan.
Directed by Dungan, who did not know Tamil, the film was inspired by Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and incorporates some of its scenes into the script.
The story features a Romeo-Juliet type romance between Bhagavathar and Santhanalakshmi, as written by Tamil scholar Thanigachalam under the pen name Elangovan.
Ambikapathy is regarded as one of the greatest hits of pre-independence Tamil cinema and made critics regard Bhagavathar as the "first superstar of Tamil cinema".
