Thiruvilayadal (1965)

Original title

திருவிளையாடல்

Directed by

A. P. Nagarajan

Genre

epic film

Country

India

Runtime

2h 34m

Rating

7.6 of 10 from 9 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

The film retells four stories from a collection of Hindu myths about the god Shiva testing his devotees on Earth. It follows poets, lovers, and singers as they encounter the divine in unexpected forms.

epicdevotionalmythologicaldramaticemotionalmusicalslow-burnreverent

What happens

Thiruvilaiyadal (transl. The Divine Game) 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 Shiva's actions 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. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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