RUTH JOHN S
LEC052038
DR. JOSEPH KOYIPPALLY
16 JUNE 2021
MACBETH AND MARMAYOGI
Marmayogi is a Tamil movie released in 1951. It is an adaptation of Vengeance by Marie Corelli and Macbeth by William Shakespeare. M. G. Ramachandar, Anjali Devi and Madhuri Devi starred in it. The movie revolves around the story of Urvashi, the mistress of the king, Marmayogi. She, along with her lover, plan and kill the King by pushing him off a boat. The succeed and she wields power in her hands. The reign is filled with terror and she also kills everyone who may threaten her position, including her lover and the two princes of the king by setting fire to their palace. Meanwhile a Sage comes to the kingdom with his son, Veerangan and daughter, Kala. He joins the queen as an advisor. Years later, Veerangan grows to be the Army commander. Around the same time, there is a group of rebels in the countryside who oppose the evil reign of the Queen. They are led by Karikalan. Fearing his growing power, the queen orders his capture and they send Kala to as a spy. She ends up falling in love with him.
As days go by, the queen is scared by a ghost that regularly visits her to warn her of her impending doom. She orders for the capture of the rebel. Kala and Karikalan’s followers are captured. Karikalan undertakes a mission to rescue Kala and the other. He also receives a divine signal to capture the queen too. He succeeds in his mission and brings the queen to his hideout. She confesses to her crimes when the Ghost visits her there too. Just as she is about to be executed, Veerangan arrives with the army to save the Queen. She orders the execution of everyone. It is also revealed that the divine signals were in fact from the sage. The traitor, along with the rebels are about to be executed, when the sage reveals that Veerangan and Karikalan are brothers. He also removes his disguise to reveal himself as the King Marmayogi. He had escaped the attempts to kill him along with his sons and the commander’s daughter. He left one of sons behind in the forest and had returned to the kingdom in disguise. Seeing the King alive, the queen dies of shock. The king and his children return to the throne.
When compared with the original play, Macbeth by Shakespeare, we can only see a few elements of the play reflected in the movie. The plot against the King, the element of the ghost haunting the queen are some of the similarities. The queen is more similar to Lady Macbeth than she is to Macbeth. Both of them share the same greed for power and take the lead in plotting the murder. She also sees the apparition because of her guilt. Karikalan can be compared to Macduff who rallies an army to get back the throne. Therefore, once cannot consider the movie as an adaption, but rather as a movie that uses the certain elements from Macbeth.
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