Deiva Magan

Deiva Magan
Directed by	A. C. Tirulokchandar
Produced by	Periyanna
Written by	Aarur Das (dialogues)
Screenplay by	A. C. Tirulokchandar
Story by	Dr. Nihar Gupta
Starring	Sivaji Ganesan Jayalalitha Major Sundarrajan M. N. Nambiar
Music by	M. S. Viswanathan
Cinematography	Thambu
Edited by	B. Kandasamy
Production company	Shanthi Films
Distributed by	Sivaji Productions
Release dates	5 September 1969 (1969-09-05) [1]
Running time	188 mins
Country	India
Language	Tamil

Deiva Magan (English: Divine Son) is a 1969 Tamil language film directed by A. C. Tirulokchandar. The film was produced by Periyanna under Shanti films. The film was an adaptation of Bengali stage play Ulka by Dr. Nihar Ranjan Gupta. The dialogues for the film was written by Aarur Dass. The film stars Sivaji Ganesan (in three roles), Jayalalitha in lead roles with Pandari Bai, M. N. Nambiar and Chittoor V. Nagaiah in supporting roles.

The plot revolves around a lawyer with a scarred face, gets married to Pandari Bai. The couple lead a happy life and Pandari Bai gives birth to twin brothers, a son with a scarred face (Also Ganesan) like his father and a brother (Also Ganesan). Their father unable to tolerate his eldest son's face leaves him under the custody of another person and tells his wife that the first child is dead. As years pass by, the father becomes a justice and his younger son, a happy-go-lucky college-going timid son, falls in love with Jayalalithaa. In the meanwhile, the elder son comes to know about his family and tries to meet his mother and brother but he is asked by his father not to reveal his identity to them.

It was the first Tamil film to be submitted by India in contest for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Thambu and D. Kandasamy handled cinematography and editing respectively. The soundtrack was composed by M. S. Viswanathan and lyrics for all songs was written by Kannadasan.

Deiva Magan was released on September 1969 to positive critical acclaim with the praise directed towards Sivaji's performance. The film was dubbed in Telugu as Koteeswarulu. Its success led to a Kannada remake Thayi Mamathe (1985). None of the Hindi films including Bairaag were not remakes of this film.

Plot

Sivaji Ganesan, a lawyer with a scarred face, gets married to Pandari Bai. The couple lead a happy life and Pandari Bai gives birth to twin brothers, a son with a scarred face (Also Ganesan) like his father and a brother (Also Ganesan). Their father unable to tolerate his eldest son's face leaves him under the custody of another person and tells his wife that the first child is dead. As years pass by, the father becomes a justice and his younger son, a happy-go-lucky college-going timid son, falls in love with Jayalalithaa. In the meanwhile, the elder son comes to know about his family and tries to meet his mother and brother but he is asked by his father not to reveal his identity to them. M. N. Nambiar, a man once punished by the father, kidnaps the younger son in order to take revenge on him. In the end, the elder son rescues his brother, killing M. N. Nambiar. He succumbs to his injuries and dies on the lap of his mother.

Cast

• Sivaji Ganesan
• Chittor V. Nagaiah
• Pandari Bai
• Jayalalitha
• Vijayasree
• Major Sundarrajan
• M. N. Nambiar

Production

Deiva Magan was adapted from Bengali play Ulka by Nihar Ranjan Gupta. G. V. Iyer earlier adapted the play into a film called Thayin Karunai (1965) with Muthuraman which failed at the box office, "Deivamagan" was the second adaptation of the play.^[1] Sivaji who was impressed with the plot decided to make the film and made his friend Periyanna to produce the film.^[2] The film was initially titled as "Uyiroviyam" before finalising "Deivamagan".^[2]

The film involved the characters of father and his two sons which would be tough to be acted by the same person so the director wanted two young actors to play the characters of two sons. However Sivaji accepted the challenge and acted in the role of both sons, bringing a difference in body language and mannerisms to each role.^[2] Sivaji Ganesan portrayed three roles: an insecure father, a timid son and an angst-ridden twin brother for the second time in his career after Bale Pandiya.^[3][4][5] The makeup for one of the Sivaji's character with a scarred face was done by R. Rangasamy and his son Jayanth Kumar.^[6]

Music

The soundtrack was composed by M. S. Viswanathan and lyrics were written by Kannadasan. The film had a song "Deivamae Deivamae" sung by T. M. Soundararajan which became very popular.^[7]

All lyrics written by Kannadasan; all music composed by M. S. Viswanathan.

Reception

Tamil magazine Ananda Vikatan said in its review, "A film with multiple roles of same actor without any confusion which itself a milestone, Makers have tried to build a hall with just one pillar and that was Sivaji Ganesan!".^[2]

The film was the first ever Tamil film to be submitted by India in contest for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.^[2][8][9]

Remakes

The film was dubbed in Telugu as Koteeswaralu. The film was not remade ever in Hindi and plot of Bairaag (1976) with Dilip Kumar had no similarity with original film. ^[2] It was also remade in Kannada as Thayi Mamathe (1985).^[10]

Deiva Thirumagal, a 2011 Tamil film starring Vikram which was earlier titled as Deiva Magan^[11] was thought to be the remake of this film, however the director denied it by saying the story of both these films are no way connected with each other and eventually the new film's title was changed as Deiva Thirumagal.^[12] Debutant Vetrivendhan initially named his debut directorial as Deivamagan though the title was changed as Aathi Narayana after pressure from the makers of an old film with the same name.^[13]

See also

• List of submissions to the 42nd Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film
• List of Indian submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film

References

External links

• Deiva Magan at the Internet Movie Database

Bibliography

• Dhananjayan, G. (2014). Pride of Tamil Cinema: 1931 to 2013. Blue Ocean Publishers.