Thiruvilaiyadal

1965 film A. P. Nagarajan
the 1965 film

Thiruvilaiyadal is a 1965 Indian Tamil language Hindu mythological film written, directed and co produced by A. P. Nagarajan. The film stars Sivaji Ganesan, Savitri, and K. B. Sundarambal, with T. S. Balaiah, R. Muthuraman, Nagesh, T. R. Mahalingam, K. Sarangapani, Devika, Manorama, and Nagarajan in supporting roles. K. V. Mahadevan composed the film's soundtrack and score, and Kannadasan and Sankaradas Swamigal wrote the song lyrics. Thiruvilaiyadal was inspired by the Thiruvilaiyadal Puranam: a collection of sixty four Shaivite devotional, epic stories, written in the 16th century by Paranjothi Munivar, which record the actions (and antics) of Shiva on Earth in a number of disguises to test his devotees. Thiruvilaiyadal depicts four of the stories. The first is about the poets Dharumi and Nakkeerar; the second concerns Dhakshayani. The third recounts how Shiva's future wife, Parvati, is born as a fisherwoman; Shiva, in the guise of a fisherman, finds her and marries her. The fourth story is about the singers Banabhathirar and Hemanatha Bhagavathar. Thiruvilaiyadal was released on 31 July 1965 to critical praise for its screenplay, dialogue, direction, music and the performances of Ganesan, Nagesh and Balaiah. The film was a commercial success, running for over twenty five weeks in many theatres and becoming a silver jubilee film. It was also responsible for a resurgence in devotional and mythological cinema, since it was released when Tamil cinema was primarily producing social films. Thiruvilaiyadal received the Certificate of Merit for the Second Best Feature Film in Tamil at the 13th National Film Awards and the Filmfare Award for Best Film – Tamil. A digitally restored version was released in September 2012, which was also a commercial success.

The Hindu god Shiva gives a sacred mango fruit, brought by the sage Narada, to his elder son Vinayaka as a prize for outsmarting his younger brother Muruga in a competition. Angry with his father, Muruga (dressed as a hermit) goes to Palani. He meets Avvaiyar, one of his devotees, along the way. Despite her attempts to convince Muruga to return to Mount Kailash, he remains adamant about his decision to leave his family. His mother, the goddess Parvati, arrives there and tells the stories of four of Shiva's divine games to calm Muruga. The first story is set in Madurai, the capital city of the Pandya Kingdom. Shenbagapandian, the king, wants to find the answer to a question posed by his wife (whether the fragrance of a woman's hair is natural or artificial), and announces a reward of 1,000 gold coins to anyone who can come up with the answer. Dharumi, a poor poet, desperately wants the reward, and starts to break down in the Meenakshi Amman Temple. Shiva, hearing him weeping, takes the form of a poet and gives Dharumi a poem containing the answer. Overjoyed, Dharumi takes the poem to Shenbagapandian's court and recites it; however, the court's head poet Nakkeerar claims that the poem's meaning is incorrect. On hearing this, Shiva argues with Nakkeerar about the poem's accuracy and burns him to ashes when he refuses to relent. Later, Shiva revives Nakkeerar and says that he only wanted to test his knowledge. Realising it was Shiva's will that Dharumi should get the reward, Nakkeerar requests Shenbagapandian to give it to Dharumi. The second story focuses on Shiva marrying Sati against the will of her father, Daksha. Daksha performs a Mahayajna without inviting his son in law. Sati asks Shiva's permission to go to the ceremony, but Shiva refuses to let her go because he feels that no good will come from it. Sati disobeys him and goes, only to be insulted by Daksha. She curses her father and returns to Shiva, who is angry with her. Sati says that they are one; without her, there is no Shiva. He disagrees, and burns her to ashes. He then performs his Tandava, which is noticed by the Devas, who pacify him. Shiva restores Sati to life (who is reborn as Parvati) and accepts their oneness. In the third story, Parvati is banished by Shiva when she is momentarily distracted while listening to his explanation of the Vedas. Parvati, now born as Kayarkanni, is the daughter of a fisherman. When she is playing with her friends, Shiva approaches in the guise of a fisherman and tries to flirt with her. The fishermen are troubled by a giant shark who disrupts their way of life, and Shiva says that he alone can defeat the shark. After a long battle, Shiva subdues the shark (who is the bull deity Nandi in disguise) and marries Parvati. The last story is about Banabathirar, a devotional singer. Hemanatha Bhagavathar, a talented singer, tries to conquer the Pandya Kingdom when he challenges its musicians. The king's minister advises the king to seek Banabathirar's help against Bhagavathar. When the other musicians spurn the competition, the king orders Banabathirar to compete against Bhagavathar. Knowing that he cannot win, the troubled Banabathirar prays to Shiva—who appears outside Bhagavathar's house in the form of a firewood vendor the night before the competition, and shatters his arrogance by singing "Paattum Naane". Shiva introduces himself to Bhagavathar as Banabathirar's student. Sheepish at hearing this, Bhagavathar leaves the kingdom immediately and leaves a letter for Shiva to give to Banabathirar. Shiva gives the letter to Banabathirar, and reveals his true identity; Banabathirar thanks him for his help. After listening to the stories, Muruga realises that this too was one of Shiva's divine games to test his patience; he then reconciles with his family. The film ends with Avvaiyar singing "Vaasi Vaasi" and "Ondraanavan Uruvil", in praise of Shiva and Parvati.

Thiruvilaiyadal was shot on a custom built set at Vasu Studios in Madras (now Chennai). Before he began filming, Nagesh learned that Ganesan's arrival was delayed because his make up had not been completed; he asked Nagarajan whether they could film any solo sequences, which included a scene where Dharumi laments his misfortune in the Meenakshi Amman Temple. Thiruvilaiyadal was the first Tamil film since Jagathalapratapan (1944) in which the lead actor plays five roles in one scene. Ganesan does so during the song "Paattum Naane", where he sings and plays four instruments: the veena, mridangam, flute and jathi. Asked by his biographer, T. S. Narayanawami, about the Tandava he performed in the film, Ganesan replied that he simply learned the movements necessary for the dance and followed the choreographer's instructions. Thiruvilaiyadal was the last film produced by Hameed, who died on 20 May 1965, a few days after the filming ended. R. Bharathwaj wrote for The Times of India that the story of the competition between Hemanatha Bhagavathar and Banabathirar is comparable to a contest between Carnatic music composer Shyama Shastri and Kesavvaya, a singer from Bobbili. Kannadasan wrote the song lyrics except for the first portions of "Pazham Neeyappa", which were written by Sankaradas Swamigal. Nagarajan initially wanted Sirkazhi Govindarajan to sing "Oru Naal Podhuma", but he refused and M. Balamuralikrishna sang the song. Each line in the song is from a different raga, Maand, and Mohanam. Shanmukhapriya and Kambhoji. "Isai Thamizh", "Paattum Naane" and "Illadhathondrillai" are based on the Abheri, Gourimanohari and Simhendramadhyamam ragas, respectively. Vikku Vinayakram and Cheena Kutty were the ghatam and mridangam players, respectively, for "Paattum Naane". Subbiah Asari made the Macha Veena seen in "Paattum Naane", and the crew of Thiruvilaiyadal purchased it from him for
Songs from the album, including "Pazham Neeyappa", "Oru Naal Podhuma", "Isai Thamizh", "Paarthal Pasumaram" and "Paattum Naane", became popular with the Tamil diaspora. and distributed by Sivaji Films. During a screening at a Madras cinema, several women went into a religious frenzy during a scene with Avvaiyar and Murugan. The film was temporarily suspended so the women could be attended to. According to artist Jeeva, the management of the Raja Theatre built a replica of Mount Kailash to promote Thiruvilaiyadal. A commercial success, the film ran for twenty five weeks at the Ganesan owned Shanti Theatre. It also ran for twenty five weeks at the Crown and Bhuvaneshwari Theatres in Madras and other theatres across South India, becoming a silver jubilee film. It added to Ganesan's string of successful films. At the 13th National Film Awards, Thiruvilaiyadal received the Certificate of Merit for the Second Best Feature Film in Tamil. It also received the Filmfare Award for Best Film – Tamil.

Thiruvilayadal was praised by critics. On 7 August 1965, The Indian Express appreciated Nagarajan for treating the four episodes adapted from the Thiruvilayadal Puranam with "due reverence and respect" and chaste Tamil dialogue (a "delight to the ears"). However, the reviewer derided Nagarajan's "unimaginative" handling of the fisherman episode and Ganesan's "awkward" gestures, which turned what would have been a "sublime, divine love story" into a typical "boy meets girl affair". They also criticised technical aspects such as "jumpy" shots, the colour scheme, Shiva's fight with the shark and the facial make up. The reviewer criticised Ganesan for overacting while opining that Savitri had nothing to do, but commended the performances of Sundarambal, Mahalingam, Balaiah, Nagesh, Sarangapani, Muthuraman and Nagarajan. On 4 September 1965, T. M. Ramachandran wrote for Sport and Pastime, "Both for the devout Hindu and the average movie fan, the picture provides such elements that sustain their interest from beginning to end." He noted that although there were anachronisms such as telephone and telegraph wires visible, "these defects pale into insignificance before the gloss and satisfying impact of the film as a whole on the minds of cinegoers." Ramachandran lauded Ganesan's performance, his tandava, the performances of Savitri, Nagarajan and the other supporting actors, Sundarambal's singing, K. S. Prasad's cinematography and Ganga's art direction.

In mid 2012, legal issues arose when attempts were made to digitally re release the film. G. Vijaya of Vijaya Pictures filed a lawsuit against Gemini Colour Laboratory and Sri Vijayalakshmi Pictures for attempting to re release the film without her company's permission. In December 1975, Sri Vijayalakshmi Pictures transferred the film rights to Movie Film Circuit; MFC transferred them to Vijaya Pictures on 18 May 1976. Encouraged by the success of the re release of Karnan (1964), C. N. Paramasivam (Nagarajan's son and the head of Sri Vijayalakshmi Pictures) found film negatives of Thiruvilayadal in a Gemini Films storage facility. Paramasivam restored the film and re released it in CinemaScope in September 2012. It received public acclaim and became a commercial success. Producer Ramkumar (Ganesan's son) said about the digitised version, "It was like watching a new film".