Thiruvilaiyadal

For the 2006 film, see Thiruvilaiyaadal Aarambam.

Thiruvilaiyadal
File:Thiruvilayadal Sivaji.jpg Theatrical release poster
Directed by	A. P. Nagarajan
Produced by	A. P. Nagarajan
Starring	Sivaji Ganesan Savitri K. B. Sundarambal
Cinematography	K. S. Prasad
Edited by	Rajan T. R. Natarajan
Music by	K. V. Mahadevan
Production company	Sri Vijayalakshmi Pictures
Distributed by	Sri Vijayalakshmi Pictures
Release date	31 July 1965
Running time	155 minutes
Country	India
Language	Tamil

Thiruvilaiyadal ([The Divine Game] Error: {{Lang-xx}}: text has italic markup (help)) is a 1965 Indian Tamil Hindu devotional film written, directed, produced and distributed by A. P. Nagarajan. The film features Sivaji Ganesan, Savitri and K. B. Sundarambal in the lead roles with T. S. Balaiah, R. Muthuraman, Nagesh, Manorama, T. R. Mahalingam and Nagarajan himself playing pivotal roles. The film's soundtrack and score were composed by K. V. Mahadevan, while the lyrics of the songs were written by Kannadasan and Sankaradas Swamigal.

The story of Thiruvilaiyadal was conceived by A. P. Nagarajan with inspiration taken from the tales of the Thiruvilaiyadal Puranam, a collection of 64 Shaivite devotional epic stories which record the actions and antics of Lord Shiva appearing on Earth in various disguises to test his devotees. Out of the 64 stories, four are depicted in the film. The first is of the tale of the poet Dharumi. The second is that of Dhatchayini (Sati). The third is where Shiva's wife Parvati is born as a fisherwoman and how Shiva retrieves and remarries her in the guise of a fisherman. The fourth and final is that of the singer Banabhathirar. The soundtrack received positive reception and songs like "Pazham Neeyappa Gnaana Pazham", "Oru Naal Podhuma", "Isai Thamizh Nee Seidha", "Paattum Naane" remain popular today among the Tamil diaspora.

Thiruvilaiyadal released on 31 July 1965 to positive critical feedback, with praise directed at the film's screenplay, dialogues, direction, music and the performances of Ganesan, Nagesh and Balaiah. The film was a commercial success, and became a trendsetter for devotional films as it was released at a time when Tamil cinema focused on making films based mainly on social melodramas. It won the Certificate of Merit for the Second Best Feature Film in Tamil as well as the Filmfare Award for Best Film – Tamil. The film was dubbed into Kannada as Shiva Leela Vilasa and was the first Tamil film to be dubbed into Kannada after ten years. A digitally restored version of Thiruvilaiyadal was released in 2012, and was also commercially successful.

Plot

Lord Shiva gives a sacred fruit brought by the sage Narada to his elder son, Vinayaka for outsmarting his younger brother Muruga in a competition for winning the fruit. Angered by his father's decision, Muruga goes to Palani in the garb of a hermit, despite Avvaiyar attempting to convince him to return to Mount Kailash. His mother, goddess Parvati arrives there and narrates four of the divine games of Shiva to calm Muruga down.

The first story is about the opening of Shiva's third eye when he visits Madurai, the capital city of the Pandya Kingdom, ruled at that time by Shenbagapandian. Shenbagapandian wants to find the answer to a question posed by his wife (whether the fragrance from a woman's hair is natural or caused by the cosmetics she uses on her hair) and announces a reward of 1000 gold coins to anyone who could come up with the answer. A poor poet named Dharumi desperately wants the reward and starts breaking down in the Meenakshi Amman Temple. Shiva, who hears his cries, takes the form of a poet and gives Dharumi a poem containing the answer. Overjoyed, Dharumi takes it to the court and recites the poem, but Nakkeerar, the court's head poet, claims the poem's meaning to be incorrect. After arguing with Nakkeerar about the poem's accuracy, Shiva burns him into ashes. Later, he revives Nakkeerar, saying that he only wanted to test his knowledge. Nakkeerar requests the king to give the reward to Dharumi.

The second story is when Shiva marries Dhatchayini against the will of her father Dhatchan. Dhatchan also performs a Mahayagna without inviting his son-in-law. Dhatchayini asks Shiva's permission to go to the ceremony but Shiva refuses to let her go as he feels no good will come out of it. Dhatchayini disobeys him and goes there, only to be insulted by Dhatchan. Dhatchayini curses her father and returns to Shiva to find him angry at her for disobeying him. Dhatchayini asserts that they are one and without her, there is no Shiva. He refuses to agree with her and burns her to ashes trying to prove her wrong and performs his Tandava, which is noticed by the Devas, who pacify him. Shiva decides to restore Dhatchayini to life.

The third story describes Parvati being banished by Shiva when her attention briefly deviated while listening to Shiva, who was explaining the essence of the Vedas to her. Parvati, now born as Kayarkanni, is the daughter of a fisherman. When playing with her friends, Shiva approaches in the guise of a fisherman and flirts with her, despite her disapproval. The fishermen often face problems due to a giant shark that disrupts their way of life. Shiva asserts that he alone can defeat the shark. After a long battle, Shiva subdues the shark (which is actually Nandi in disguise) and remarries Parvati.

The last tale narrated by Parvati is that of Banabathirar, a devotional singer. Hemanatha Bhagavathar, a skilled singer, tries to conquer the Pandya Kingdom when he challenges the kingdom's musicians. The King's minister advises him to seek the help of Banabathirar to challenge Hemanatha Bhagavathar. When all musicians reject the competition, the King orders Banabathirar to compete against Hemanatha Bhagavathar. Knowing that he cannot win, the troubled Banabathirar prays to Shiva, who shows up outside Hemanatha Bhagavathar's house in the form of a firewood vendor the night before the competition, and shatters his arrogance by singing the song, "Paattum Naane". The vendor introduces himself as Banabathirar's student to Hemanatha Bhagavathar, who becomes embarrassed on hearing this and leaves the kingdom immediately, leaving a note to Banabathirar informing him of his departure. Shiva gives the letter to Banabathirar and reveals his true identity to him. Banabathirar thanks Shiva for his timely help.

After listening to these stories, Muruga's rage finally subsides and he reconciles with his family. The film ends with Avvaiyar singing the songs "Vaasi Vaasi" and "Ondraanavan Uruvil" in praise of both Shiva and Parvati.

Cast

Lead actors

• Sivaji Ganesan as Shiva
• Savitri as Parvati (called by the names Uma, Sakthi, Dhatchayini and Kayarkanni in the film)
• K. B. Sundarambal as Avvaiyar

Male supporting actors

• T. S. Balaiah as Hemanatha Bhagavathar
• R. Muthuraman as Shenbagapandian
• Nagesh as Dharumi
• O. A. K. Thevar as King Dhatchan
• A. Karunanithi as Ponna/Sovai
• T. R. Mahalingam as Banabhathirar
• A. P. Nagarajan as Nakkeerar
• S. V. Sahasranamam as Kayarkanni's father

Female supporting actors

• Devika as Shenbagapandian's wife
• Manorama as Ponni

Production

Development

"We had to talk as we walked. We could not break up the dialogues for our convenience as that would slow down the tempo of the shot. We had such a degree of understanding that we enacted the scene with immaculate timing and with the required expressions in one continuous shot. It came out very well and is enjoyed by people even today."

 – Sivaji Ganesan on his experience while filming with Nagesh, as he was quoted saying in the English edition of Autobiography of an Actor: Sivaji Ganesan, October 1928-July 2001.

The first film where Sivaji Ganesan and A. P. Nagarajan collaborated was Naan Petra Selvam (1956). An episode which centred around the Tamil poet Nakkeerar is seen in this film. The episode shows Nakkeerar's sense of right and wrong as being so precise that he even accuses Lord Shiva when he commits an error in composing a poem. This episode laid the foundation for Thiruvilaiyadal.

The story of Thiruvilaiyadal was conceived by Nagarajan with inspiration taken from the tales of the Thiruvilaiyadal Puranam, a collection of 64 Shaivite devotional epic stories which record the actions and antics of Shiva appearing on Earth in various disguises to test his devotees. He also wrote and divided the film's screenplay into five portions. Nagarajan produced and distributed the film under the banner of Sri Vijayalakshmi Pictures. It was also his first film to be made in colour. K. S. Prasad was the cinematographer and Ganga was the art director, while Rajan and T. R. Natarajan were the editors. R. Rangasamy was Ganesan's make-up artist.

Savitri's portrayal of Goddess Parvati was the first on-screen portrayal of the deity in a South Indian film. Sivaji Ganesan was cast as Shiva, and K. B. Sundarambal was chosen to play Avvaiyyar, reprising her role from the 1953 film of the same name. Nagesh, R. Muthuraman and T. S. Balaiah were cast as the poet Dharumi, King Shenbagapandian and singer Hemanatha Bhagavathar respectively. Nagarajan himself makes an appearance in the film as Nakeerar. T. R. Mahalingam was cast as the devotional singer Bana Battar (called Banabathirar onscreen), Devika as Shenbagapandian's wife, Manorama as Kayarkanni's friend Ponni, S. V. Sahasranamam as Kayarkanni's father and O. A. K. Thevar as King Datchan.

Filming

Thiruvilaiyadal was filmed in Eastman Color. The portions featuring the conversations between Shiva and the poet Dharumi were not pre-planned by Nagarajan. Rather they were scenes improvised by both Nagesh and Ganesan. Those portions were filmed in a specially erected set at Vasu Studios. Nagesh had a call sheet of one and a half days to finish his portions due to his busy schedule at that time. When Nagesh learned that Ganesan's arrival would be delayed due to his make-up for the scene not been completed yet, he asked Nagarajan whether they could finish off any solo sequences. This involved a scene where Dharumi rants about his misfortune in the Meenakshi Amman Temple. While filming the sequences, Nagesh spontaneously came up with the dialogue, "Varamaattan. Varamaattan. Avan nichchaiyam varamaattan. Enakku nalla theriyum. Varamaattan" ([He won't come. He won't come. He will definitely not come. I know. He won't come] Error: {{Lang-xx}}: text has italic markup (help)). According to Nagesh, the scene was inspired by Ganesan's delay, by two assistant directors discussing whether Ganesan would be ready before lunch; one said he would be ready while the other said he would not, and by a passerby who he spotted talking to himself about how the world had fallen on bad times near the tank located at Adikesava Perumal temple, Mylapore.

After the scenes featuring Nagesh and Ganesan were completed, the dubbing process for the sequences were subsequently finished. Ganesan wanted to see the sequences and asked Nagarajan to show him the scenes. Unknown to Ganesan, Nagesh was also present at the time of the screening. After watching the scenes twice, Ganesan requested Nagarajan not to remove a single footage of Nagesh's portions from the final film version as he felt that those scenes along with Balaiah's portions would be one of the film's major highlights and appreciated Nagesh's performance in the film.

Thiruvilaiyadal was also the first Tamil film since P. U. Chinnappa's Jagathalaprathapan (1944) to have the lead actor play five roles in one sequence. Ganesan does so in the song "Paattum Naane" where four roles play the Veena, Mridangam, flute and Jathi while the fifth role has Ganesan singing. K. Bharathwaj, writing for The Times of India, says that the story of the competition between Hemanatha Bhagavathar and Banabathirar is similar to the concert-contest of the renowned Carnatic music composer Syama Sastri against Kesavvaya, a Carnatic musician from Bobbili. Sastri sought divine intervention from Goddess Kamakshi to defeat Kesavayya, similar to the way Banabathirar pleads for Shiva's help. When asked about the Tandava he performs in the film, Ganesan stated that he simply learnt the movements necessary for that particular situation and perform according to the choreographer's instructions. The final length of the film was 4,450 metres (14,600 ft).

Music

Untitled

The film's soundtrack and score were composed by K. V. Mahadevan, while the lyrics of the songs were written by Kannadasan, with the exception of the first portions of "Pazham Neeyappa", which were penned by Sankaradas Swamigal. The soundtrack was released under the label of Saregama. According to The Times of India, every line in the song "Oru Naal Podhuma" belongs to a different raga. Some of them include Darbar, Todi, Mohanam and Kalyani. The number "Pazham Neeyappa" is based on three ragas — Darbari Kanada, Shanmukhapriya and Kambhoji. "Isai Thamizh", "Paattum Naane" and "Illadha Thondrillai" are based on the Abheri, Gourimanohari and Simhendramadhyamam ragas respectively. Vikku Vinayakram and Cheena Kutty were the Ghatam and Mridangam players for "Paattum Naane" respectively.

The album received positive reviews from critics. The songs "Pazham Neeyappa", "Oru Naal Podhuma", "Isai Thamizh" and "Paattum Naane" remain popular till date among the Tamil diaspora. Film historian Randor Guy stated in his 1997 book Starlight, Starbright: The Early Tamil Cinema that "Pazham Neeyappa", performed by Sundarambal, "became the favourite of millions". Film producer and writer G. Dhananjayan called the songs "evergreen" and stated that they contributed to the film's success. Meera Ramanathan of Behindwoods praised T. M. Soundararajan's singing in "Paattum Naane", saying "The pronunciations, pitch and tone is perfect and for a moment we think that the almighty would sing with the same booming modulations." On "Oru Naal Podhuma", another writer from the same website, Rekhs, said, "What’s special about this song is the garland of ragas intertwined by the lyricist and the composer enchantingly, sung mellifluously by Dr Balamuralikrishna". On "Vaasi Vaasi", which is based on the Neelambari raga, singer Charulatha Mani, writing for The Hindu, said it was "a pure and pristine depiction of the raga in the ringing voice of K. B. Sundarambal". Mani also praised M. Balamuralikrishna's rendition of "Oru Naal Podhuma". Mana Baskaran of The Hindu Tamil described the album as "an attractive package for all to listen to."

Tracklist

No.	Title	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"Pazham Neeyappa"	K. B. Sundarambal	06:29
2.	"Oru Naal Podhuma"	M. Balamuralikrishna	05:28
3.	"Isai Thamizh"	T. R. Mahalingam	03:50
4.	"Paarthal Pasumaram"	T. M. Soundararajan	03:44
5.	"Paattum Naane"	T. M. Soundararajan	05:54
6.	"Podhigai Malai Uchieley"	P. B. Sreenivas, S. Janaki	02:52
7.	"Ondraanavan Uruvil"	K. B. Sundarambal	03:04
8.	"Illadha Thondrillai"	T. R. Mahalingam	03:08
9.	"Vaasi Vaasi"	K. B. Sundarambal	05:57
10.	"Om Namasivaya"	Seerkazhi Govindarajan, P. Susheela	03:32
11.	"Neela Chelai Katti Konda"	P. Susheela	04:40
Total length:			45:30

Release

Nagesh (pictured in 2005) received major praise for his performance.

Thiruvilaiyadal was released on 31 July 1965. During the screening in a Madras (now Chennai) cinema house of a sequence with Avvaiyar and Murugan, several women went into a religious frenzy. This led to the projection being temporarily suspended, so that the women could be attended to. According to artist V. Jeevananthan, the management of one of the theatres called Raja Theatre erected a cut-out of Mount Kailash to promote the film.

The film was a commercially successful venture at the box office. It ran for 25 weeks in Shanti, a theatre owned by Ganesan. It also had a 25-week run in the Crown and Bhuvaneshwari theatres in Madras and in theatres across South India. It went on to have a total theatrical run of 26 weeks, thereby becoming a silver jubilee film.

Thiruvilaiyadal was dubbed into Kannada as Shiva Leela Vilasa, making it the first Tamil film to be dubbed in the language after ten years as there was a ban on dubbing other language films into Kannada.

Critical reception

Thiruvilayadal received positive critical feedback, with praise directed at the film's screenplay, dialogues, direction, music and the performances of Ganesan, Nagesh and Balaiah. The film contributed to Ganesan's long string of successful films. Ananda Vikatan, in its review dated 28 August 1965, appreciated the film and mentioned, "When social films have started dominating Tamil Cinema, it is a welcome change to see a very good devotional film like this which made everyone happy. The film deserves another viewing." M. Suganth and Karuna Amarnath of The Times of India praised Ganesan for showing his versatility through Shiva's various appearances in the film, and called it a "must watch". Tamil magazine Kalki called the film "a victory for Tamil cinema". Mana Baskaran appreciated the way Nagarajan blended contemporary social issues into a devotional film and said that the costume and set designs "gave a new dimension to filmmaking in Tamil cinema." Dhananjayan wrote in his book, Pride of Tamil Cinema, "There are few movies that can be termed as iconic and models for other movies; Thiruvilaiyadal makes it to the top of the list."

In 1999, Rediff described the questions and answers session between Shiva and Dharumi, and Shiva's Tandava dance as the film's "high points". Mohan V. Raman appreciated Balaiah's performance stating "Who can forget the sheer arrogance he portrayed in Thiruvilayadal [sic] as Hemanatha Bhagavathar and Balamuralikrishna singing ‘Oru Naal Podhuma’?" S. Theodore Baskaran commented on Nagesh's performance, "Nagesh has gone down in the collective memory of Tamil audiences as the actor who played the role of the penurious poet Dharumi [..] If there is just one role that he is remembered for, it is this". Baskaran also appreciated Ganesan's dialogue delivery during the scene where his character argues with Nakkeerar. Sify wrote, "[Nagesh] was at his comic best in this film, as poet Dharmi [sic]." Subha J. Rao and K. Jeshi, in their article "Laughter lines", praised Nagesh's performance, saying that he "brings the house down as the impoverished poet."

Accolades

At the 13th National Film Awards, Thiruvilaiyadal won the Certificate of Merit for the Second Best Feature Film in Tamil. It also won the Filmfare Award for Best Film – Tamil.

Legacy

Only two actors can pull the scene away from under my feet when we face the camera together — one is M. R. Radha, the other, Nagesh

— Ganesan while listening to an audio version of Thiruvilaiyadal

Thiruvilaiyadal attained cult status in Tamil cinema. It went on to revive and public interest in devotional films and became a trendsetter for future films in the genre as it was released at a time when social melodramas were dominant in Tamil cinema. The dialogues of various episodes became so popular that they were released on gramophone records, and sold well. Many critics consider Thiruvilaiyadal to be Nagarajan's greatest work, with film critic Baradwaj Rangan calling it "the best" of the epic Tamil films. Mohan V. Raman called Nagarajan the "Master of mythological cinema". Nagarajan and Ganesan went on to collaborate on several more films of the same genre, including Saraswati Sabatham (1966), Thiruvarutchelvar (1967), Kandan Karunai (1967) and Thirumal Perumai (1968). Other films which followed the trend include Sri Raghavendrar (1985) and Meenakshi Thiruvilayadal (1989). Savitri and Sundarambal reprised the roles of Parvati and Avvaiyar respectively in Kandan Karunai. The film became a milestone in Nagesh's career and the character of Dharumi is considered to be one of his best roles till date.

Kamal Haasan, Prabhu Deva and Thiagarajan Kumararaja included Thiruvilaiyadal among their favourite films. Director Boopathy Pandian's Thiruvilaiyaadal Aarambam (2006) was initially titled Thiruvilayadal, but this was changed after an outburst of objection from fans of Ganesan. In a May 2006 article by Behindwoods, the dialogue "Netrikkann thirapinum kutram kutramae!" ([Even if you open your third eye, a flaw is an flaw!] Error: {{Lang-xx}}: text has italic markup (help)) was ranked in the website's list of "Top 10 Punch Dialogues of Tamil Cinema" at number 8. After the Tamil cinema's platinum jubilee was held in 2007, when S. R. Ashok Kumar of The Hindu asked eight acclaimed directors to list ten films they liked most, Thiruvilaiyadal was chosen by C. V. Sridhar and Ameer. The latter said, "Director A. P. Nagarajan’s Thiruvilaiyadal is imaginative. It treats a mythological subject in an interesting way. It is one of the best films in the annals of Tamil cinema." In April 2012, Thiruvilaiyadal was included in Pavithra Srinivasan of Rediff's list, "The A to Z of Tamil Cinema". She called it "the best of the many divine tales [Ganesan] acted in." Thiruvilaiyadal is included with other Sivaji Ganesan-starrers in 8th Ulaga Adhisayam Sivaji, a compilation DVD featuring Ganesan's "iconic performances in the form of scenes, songs and stunts" which was released in May 2012. Uma S. Maheshwari of The Hindu included "Paattum Naane" in her list of the "Immortal songs of TMS", In May 2014, Rediff included Thiruvilaiyadal in its list of "The Best Mythological Films of Tamil Cinema".

In popular culture

Thiruvilaiyadal has been parodied in many films. In Netrikkann (1981), when Chakravarthy (Rajinikanth) refuses to change his character as a womaniser and vehmently deies being one, his son, Santhosh (Rajinikanth), replies "Appa, Netrikkann thirandhaalum kutram kutramae." ([Father, even if you open your third eye, a wrong deed is a wrong deed] Error: {{Lang-xx}}: text has italic markup (help)).

In Middle Class Madhavan (2001), Radhika Chaudhari's character imagines herself as Avvaiyar singing "Pazham Neeyappa" when she realises that she will meet with such a fate if she grows old and remains unmarried. When Vivek's character Aruchamy wishes to join Manickam's (Sathyaraj) lorry company in Vanakkam Thalaiva (2005), Manickam conducts an interview in a question-answer pattern similar to that of the conversation between Shiva and Dharumi. In Kanthaswamy (2009), a passerby becomes enthusiastic on seeing a Murugan Temple and starts picking up coconuts from Thengaikada Thenappa's (Vadivelu) shop. Thenappa demands money for breaking the coconut, to which the passerby scolds him for misbehaving with a devotee and frightens him by singing a portion from "Pazham Neeyappa". In Oru Kal Oru Kannadi (2012), when Meera (Hansika Motwani) puts forth a lot of terms and conditions for Saravanan (Udhayanidhi Stalin) to win her love, Saravanan replies she will never find a boy who will accept them and that she would end up like Avvaiyar and emulates the poet by singing "Pazham Neeyappa". The character of Dharumi was parodied in Iruttula Thedatheenga, a play hosted in November 2013.

In April 2008, Raadhika Sarathkumar launched a television series titled Thiruvilaiyadal, which covers all the 64 stories in the Thiruvilaiyadal Puranam, unlike the film which covered only four.

Re-release

In mid-2012, legal issues cropped up when attempts were made to digitally re-release the film. G. Vijaya of Vijaya Pictures had filed a lawsuit against Gemini Colour Laboratory and Sri Vijayalakshmi Pictures for attempting to re-release the film without her production company's permission to do so. The reason being that in December 1975, Sri Vijayalakshmi Pictures had transferred the entire rights of the film to Movie Film Circuit, who in turn transferred it to Vijaya Pictures on 18 May 1976. Vijaya Pictures approached the Gemini Colour Laboratory for digitising the film so as to re-release it, but Sri Vijayalakshmi Pictures, however, requested the laboratory authorities not to release the film without their prior consent. Sri Vijayalakshmi Pictures also disputed Vijaya's claim by issuing an advertisement in a Tamil newspaper on 18 May 2012, stating that it was the owner of the film's rights and anybody who wished to exhibit it in digital format should only do so with their permission. R. Subbiah, the judge who presided over the case, ordered status quo to be maintained by both the parties.

Bolstered by the success of the re-release of Karnan (1964), Nagarajan's son and present head of Sri Vijayalakshmi Pictures, C. N. Paramasivam, found film negatives of Thiruvilayadal from the storage facility at Gemini Films. Paramasivam restored the film scanned, restored and re-released the film in October 2012 in CinemaScope format. The digitised version had its premiere at the Woodlands Theater in Royapettah, Chennai. Despite being a re-release, the film earned public acclaim and was again a commercially successful venture at the box office. On the digitised version, Ganesan's son, producer Ramkumar said, "It was like watching a new film".

Bibliography

• Dhananjayan, G. (2011). The Best of Tamil Cinema, 1931 to 2010: 1931 to 1976. Galatta Media. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Dhananjayan, G. (2014). Pride of Tamil Cinema: 1931 to 2013. Blue Ocean Publishers. ISBN 978-93-84301-05-7. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Ganesan, Sivaji; Narayanaswami, T. S. (2007). Autobiography of an Actor: Sivaji Ganesan, October 1928 – July 2001. Sivaji Prabhu Charities Trust. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Guy, Randor (1997). Starlight, Starbright: The Early Tamil Cinema. Amra Publishers. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Panikkar, K. N. (2002). Culture, Ideology, Hegemony: Intellectuals and Social Consciousness in Colonial India. Anthem Press. ISBN 978-1-843-31039-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

External links

• Thiruvilaiyadal at IMDb