Deiva Magan

The Bengali novel Ulka by Nihar Ranjan Gupta had been adapted for the screen three times: a 1957 Bengali film by the same name, the Hindi film Meri Surat Teri Ankhen (1963) and the Tamil film Thayin Karunai (1965), all of which failed commercially. Despite this, director A. C. Tirulokchander was interested in adapting the novel, and wrote a screenplay largely different from the previous films.[1] The film was produced by Periyanna of Shanthi Films,[2] and the dialogues were written by Aaroor Dass. Cinematography was handled by Thambu, editing by B. Kanthasamy and art direction by A. Balu.[3] The film was initially titled Uyiroviyam before being retitled Deiva Magan.[4]

Sivaji Ganesan portrayed three roles: Shankar, and his sons Kannan and Vijay.[5] This was the second time he portrayed three roles in film after Bale Pandiya (1962).[6] For the characterisation of Kannan, he took inspiration from Quasimodo, the protagonist of the Victor Hugo novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1831), by making him aggressive with "roughness and brute strength", while Vijay's body language and style were taken from those of C. V. Sridhar.[2] J. Jayalalithaa portrayed Vijay's love interest Nirmala, Pandari Bai portrayed Shankar's wife Parvathi, Sundarrajan appeared as the doctor Raju, M. N. Nambiar as the antagonist Anand,[5] Nagesh in a comical role as the palmist Boopathy,[7] Vijayasree as Anand's lover Julie,[8] and V. Nagaiah as the Baba.[5]

Periyanna initially wanted to the film to be in colour, but it was shot in black and white at Ganesan's suggestion.[2] The makeup for the scarred characters portrayed by Ganesan was done by R. Rangasamy and his son Jayanth Kumar.[9] Rangasamy gave different looks to Ganesan's characters: a sophisticated one for Shankar, while Kannan was made to have a skin tone slightly darker than Vijay's. Though the original idea was for Kannan to resemble Quasimodo as seen in The Hunchback of Notre-Dame's 1939 film version, Ganesan insisted that the makers reduce the character's unattractiveness, after trying out prosthetics. He wanted viewers to sympathise with Kannan for his shortcomings, not feel repulsed.[2]

There were difficulties in filming the scene where Kannan, who is hiding in a cupboard, gestures Shankar to give Vijay the cheque originally meant for Kannan, since it required Ganesan to change "his makeover between the shots, as the camera could not be moved", meaning he "had to stand in a particular spot to mouth his lines, quickly change his makeover to play the second character, and stand in the same spot again and act for the camera". To ease the process, he requested Tirulokchander to stand in for him.[2] Kanthasamy told Tirulokchander this scene needed trimming as it was seven minutes long, but after re-watching it multiple times, Tirulokchander refused since he could not find what to cut and liked the way Ganesan performed as the three characters.[4][2]

The Tamil magazine Ananda Vikatan said in its review that the makers had tried to build a hall with only one pillar and that pillar was Ganesan.[8] The Indian Express echoed this view; the reviewer praised Ganesan's performance as Shankar, along with the performances of Pandari Bai and Nagesh, but felt the latter had "little to do with the story". The reviewer went on to praise the set designs, Thambu's cinematography and Viswanathan's music, concluding that Tirulokchander "can relax for having directed a successful commercial melodramatic film."[7] After watching the film, C. V. Sridhar appreciated Ganesan's performance as Vijay, saying only he "could have done it so beautifully".[2]

At the Tamil Nadu State Film Awards, Deiva Magan won the Third Best Film award, and Ganesan won the Best Actor award.[15] It was selected as India's official entry for the Best Foreign Language Film nomination for the 42nd Academy Awards, thus becoming the first ever Tamil film to be submitted by India in contest for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.[2][16]