''Thirumal Perumai'' () is a 1968 Indian

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

-language Hindu mythological film, directed by A. P. Nagarajan. The film stars

Sivaji Ganesan Villupuram. Chinnaiya Manrayar Ganesamoorthy (1 October 1928 – 21 July 2001), better known by his stage name Sivaji Ganesan, was an Indian actor and film producer. He was mainly active in Tamil cinema during the latter half of the 20th centur ...

and Padmini. It was released on 16 February 1968.

Plot

Thirumal Perumai tells three spell-binding stories about how far you can get with Lord

Vishnu Vishnu (; , , ), also known as Narayana and Hari, is one of the Hindu deities, principal deities of Hinduism. He is the supreme being within Vaishnavism, one of the major traditions within contemporary Hinduism, and the god of preservation ( ...

's grace, and how he can solve problems. ;

Andal Andal (ISO 15919: Āṇḍāḷ), also known as Godhai, Nachiyar, and Godha Devi, is the only female Alvars, Alvar. (Orthodoxy posits the number of Alvars as ten, though there are other references that include Andal and Madhurakavi Alvar, ...

Goddess

Lakshmi Lakshmi (; , , sometimes spelled Laxmi, ), also known as Shri (, , ), is one of the principal goddesses in Hinduism, revered as the goddess of wealth, fortune, prosperity, beauty, fertility, sovereignty, and abundance. She along with Parvat ...

reincarnated as the daughter of Periyalvar in

Srivilliputhur Srivilliputhur is a municipality in Virudhunagar district in the Indian States and territories of India, state of Tamil Nadu. As of 2011, the town had a population of 75,396. The most important landmark of Thiruvilliputhur is 11-tiered tower st ...

. She was named

or Kodhai. As she grew up, she learned about

Krishna Krishna (; Sanskrit language, Sanskrit: कृष्ण, ) is a major deity in Hinduism. He is worshipped as the eighth avatar of Vishnu and also as the Supreme God (Hinduism), Supreme God in his own right. He is the god of protection, c ...

and loved him. She sang the Tiruppavai to wake the deity every morning. Once, she dressed up as a bride and wore the deity's garland before it was offered to him. Just as she was admiring herself – her father caught her and slapped her. After much crying, she promised never to wear the deity's garland again. Periyalvar did puja to Vishnu and put a new garland on him. To his surprise, it fell off. Periyalvar learned that Vishnu only liked garlands that had been worn by Andal. Andal comes in with the previous garland and then they garland Vishnu. Periyalvar later arranges for Andal's marriage after she told him that she dreamed about Krishna marrying her. The two travel to

Srirangam Srirangam is a neighbourhood in the city of Tiruchirappalli in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. A river island, Srirangam is bounded by the Kaveri River on one side and its distributary Kollidam on the other side. Considered as the first among ...

and enter the sanctum of the

temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temples" in Engli ...

. Andal, dressed as a bride merges with the idol and Vishnu appears, telling Periyalvar that Andal was none other than Lakshmi herself. Andal was later considered as the only female Alvar saint and a shrine was built for her in both Srirangam and Srivilliputhur temples. ;The Thief There is a king, who makes one of his men a king of a city. He then gives his daughter in marriage to the new king. The new king is engrossed in war. His wife makes him change his views and he begins building a temple. Gradually he is reduced to the state of robbing to get money for Vishnu's temple. Once he comes across a wedding couple. He takes all their jewels and then looks at the groom's toe ring. He cannot remove it. The groom is actually Vishnu and the bride is the goddess Lakshmi. He falls at their feet and then accompanies the lord to his abode. ;The Dancer There is a dancer who goes to see a sage. Then she vows to make him her slave. Finally, the sage falls in love with her and then the dancer goes to visit her mother. While she is at the temple the sage arrives. The mother is disgusted seeing that he is not rich. Finally, Vishnu takes his jewels in a pot to the mother and she welcomes the sage. The sage is accused of stealing, and just before he is going to be killed, Vishnu comes and saves the day.

Cast

Main cast

Cameo appearance

Soundtrack

The music was composed by K. V. Mahadevan. The song "Thirumal Perumaikku" is a ragamalika that begins with Madhyamavati raga, followed by Dhanyasi, Mohanam, Kaanada, Saranga, Khamas, Paras, Saramathi, Surutti and Begada, ending with Madhyamavathi again. "Kakkai Chiraginiley" is based on Subramania Bharati's song of the same name.

Reception

Kalki Kalki (), also called Kalkin, is the prophesied tenth and final incarnation of the Hinduism, Hindu god Vishnu. According to Vaishnavism, Vaishnava cosmology, Kalki is destined to appear at the end of the Kali Yuga, the last of the four ages i ...

'' praised the acting of Sivaji Ganesan and other actors and Nagarajan's dialogues but called lack of outdoor scenes and the film's play like feel as drawbacks while also panning Kodhai's costume design and Nagesh's acting.

References

External links

* {{A. P. Nagarajan 1960s Indian films 1960s Tamil-language films 1968 films Films directed by A. P. Nagarajan Films scored by K. V. Mahadevan Films with screenplays by A. P. Nagarajan Hindu devotional films Hindu mythological films Tamil-language Indian films