Nalla Thanka
1950 film
Nalla Thanka is a 1950 Indian Malayalam-language mythological film directed by P. V. Krishna Iyer and produced by K. V. Koshy and Kunchacko under the banner of Udaya Studios and K & K Combines. It was the second film produced at the Udaya Studios, the first being Vellinakshatram (1949). The film stars Miss Kumari in the title role along with Augustine Joseph, Vaikom Mani and Miss Omana in supporting roles. The film is based on the legend of Nalla Thanka, which is based on a popular Tamil folk tale.
Cast
Principal cast
Miss Kumari as Nalla Thanka, Queen of Ratnapuri and Nallannan's sister
Augustine Joseph as Nallannan, the King of Madhurapuri
Vaikom Mani as Somanathan, the King of Ratnapuri and Nalla Thanka's husband
Miss Omana as Alankari, Queen of Madhurapuri and Nallannan's wife
Baby Girija as one of Nalla Thanka's children
S. P. Pillai
TR Omana
Muthukulam Raghavan Pillai as Lord Shiva
Production
Development
The success of Tamil operas based on the folk tale of Nalla Thanka in Kerala prompted Vaidyaratnam P. S. Varier to script a Malayalam drama based on the same story. He then authored the musical opera Nalla Thanka, for the drama troupe Kottakkal Paramasiva Vilasam. The drama became very popular in Kerala.
After the failure of their first feature film Vellinakshatram (1949), K. V. Koshy and Kunchacko were in deep debt. They decided to produce another feature film to recoup their losses. They decided to adopt the drama into a film as it was already popular and was a guaranteed success.
The public source identifies “Nalla Thanka” as 1950 film. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Nalla, Thanka and film.
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Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q13564513. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1950 and 1949.
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This entry incorporates text from “Nalla Thanka” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.