The critic from '' The Indian Express '' wrote on 17 January 1964 , " Reproducing the incidents from the '' Mahabharatha '' , the film has all the aspects demanded by the subject " , adding that Panthulu had not spared any effort to do justice to the theme , and was appreciative of Ganga 's art direction and Ramamurthy 's cinematography . The critic from '' Ananda Vikatan '' wrote that while the film 's effort to improve the quality og Tamil cinema quality was praiseworthy , they could not see the dignity of the epic , only the dominance of the extravaganza . In a review dated 8 February 1964 , T. M. Ramachandran of '' Sport and Pastime '' praised the film 's extravaganza but added , " What fundamentally makes a film truly great is its absorbing presentation without a dull moment . This aspect seems to have been lost sight of by the makers . " Film historian Firoze Rangoonwalla , in his 1975 book '' 75 years of Indian cinema '' , called the film a " spectacular mythological " . Despite being released theatrically in 1964 , the film won the Certificate of Merit for the Third Best Feature Film at the 11th National Film Awards , which honoured films released in 1963
11th National Film Awards
11th National Film Awards
Karnan (film)