The strength of the film, apart from the performances of the cast including Sivaji (Narada & the mute young man Vidyapathi), Savithri (Saraswathi) Devika (Lakshmi) Padmini (Parvathi) K R Vijaya (Selvambigai, the beggar girl turned queen) and Gemini Ganesan (Veeravallan, the coward turned strongman), was the dialogues penned by APN. The film had a moralistic touch in that it sought to drive home the point that knowledge, wealth and strength are complementary to each other and need to co-exist amicably. The interludes between these characters form the crux of the film, which after several twists and turns ends with the holy trinity of Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma pacifying the goddesses and making them bury the hatchet. The goddesses choose three human beings with Saraswathi turning a mute young man into a repository of knowledge, Lakshmi making a beggar girl wealthy and Parvathi bestowing strength and bravery to a coward and turning him into a powerhouse of strength. They turn rivals at the instigation of the eternal celestial troublemaker Narada. This time, he set his films in the celestial world with the three goddesses Saraswathi, Lakshmi and Parvathi representing the three forces of knowledge, wealth and strength. Thiruvilayadal however set a trend as far as devotional films were concerned and has certainly stood the test of time, if the popularity of the digital version is any yardstick.īuoyed by the success of Thiruvilayadal, APN next embarked on another mythological project. While the audience lapped it up, the film critics of the time felt that the film was too preachy and even picked holes in the performance of the lead actor Sivaji Ganesan. Nagarajan cast himself as Nakkerar, the poet laureate of the king’s court who defies the Lord himself. This, despite help from a stranger (Lord Siva in disguise ) whom he meets in a temple and with whom he engages in a lengthy conversation.īaliah’s portrayal of the egotist classical singer Emanatha Bhagavathar who is brought down to earth with a thud by the woodcutter (Lord Siva) and has his ego deflated, too, was engrossing. The scenes which really struck a chord were the ones where the penury stricken poet Dharumi (Nagesh) pours out his angst at having been deprived of the prize money announced by the king.
However, though the film was shot in a single set in a Madras studio, APN managed to salvage it with some stupendous performances by Sivaji, Savithri, T S Baliah and Nagesh.
The film had an overdose of melodrama and a theatrical touch as well, with theatre props being liberally used to portray various locations. The film attained cult status thanks to the performance of Sivaji Ganesan who played by turns, a poet, a hot headed husband who turns his wife to ashes for defying his diktat, fisherman and lumberjack. Well over fifty years after its release, Thiruvilayadal, which in its digitalized format released in 2012, stormed the box office and had a silver jubilee run when it was first released. This film drew its plot from a set of 64 stories penned by a sage Paranjothi Munivar and APN who produced, wrote and directed the move encapsulated four episodes all related to the human avatars taken by Lord Siva.
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