Deiva Magan

Shankar is a successful businessman who has an inferiority complex due to his scarred face. When his wife Parvathi gives birth to a son who is also scarred, Shankar asks the doctor Raju to kill the child to prevent him from experiencing the same pain Shankar has experienced throughout his life. Rather than kill the baby, Raju takes him to an ashram, where he is raised by its Baba and named Kannan. Shankar and Parvathi are oblivious to Kannan's existence. Kannan receives little affection growing up at the ashram. Meanwhile, his younger brother Vijay is raised with much fondness and pampering. Vijay falls in love with a girl named Nirmala, who rejects him. Vijay's friend Ananth regularly extracts money to construct a hotel, which Vijay manages to get for him. When Baba is dying, he tells Kannan he is not an orphan and to meet Raju to learn more about his past. Nirmala is revealed to be Raju's daughter. Kannan meets Raju, who is shocked to see his resemblance to Shankar. At first, Raju refuses to tell Kannan about his parents but consents after Kannan guarantees he will only see his parents without revealing his identity. Kannan enthusiastically goes to see his parents at night but Shankar shoots him, thinking he is a thief. Nirmala later reciprocates Vijay's love. Kannan has a chance meeting with Parvathi at a temple, but she does not recognise him. Parvathi tells Shankar what happened at the temple; Shankar believes it must be his firstborn and meets Raju, who confirms it. Shankar meets Kannan; he offers Kannan a large amount of money so he can live prosperously but does not invite him to live with them. Kannan rejects the money, saying he is content to know his parents. Vijay comes and asks his father for money; Kannan, who is hiding in a cupboard, gestures Shankar to give the rejected money to Vijay. In the meantime, Ananth wants more money from Vijay, so he kidnaps Vijay and demands a large ransom from Shankar. When Shankar is about to leave with the ransom money, Kannan asks to go instead. Shankar refuses so Kannan knocks him out and goes to the planned meeting disguised as Shankar. Kannan rescues Vijay and kills Ananth but is mortally wounded in the process. Shankar, Parvathi and the police arrive at the scene of the shooting. Kannan dies in the arms of his mother, who accepts him as her son. == Cast ==

• Sivaji Ganesan as Shankar, Kannan and Vijay • Jayalalithaa as Nirmala • Sundarrajan as Raju • M. N. Nambiar as Ananth • Nagesh as Boopathy • V. Nagayya as the Baba • Pandari Bai as Parvathi • Vijayasree as Julie == Production ==

Development The Bengali novel Ulka by Nihar Ranjan Gupta had been adapted for the screen four times; a 1957 Bengali film by the same name, a Hindi film Meri Surat Teri Ankhen (1963), and a Tamil film Thayin Karunai (1965). Despite the poor commercial performances of Ulka, Meri Surat Teri Ankhen and Thayin Karunai, director A. C. Tirulokchander was interested in adapting the novel and wrote a screenplay that was largely different from those of the previous films. For the characterisation of Kannan, he drew inspiration from Quasimodo, the protagonist of Victor Hugo's novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1831), making Kannan aggressive with "roughness and brute strength", while Vijay's body language was taken from that of filmmaker C. V. Sridhar. Rangasamy gave Ganesan's characters different looks; Shankar's look is sophisticated while Kannan was given a slightly darker skin tone than Vijay's. The original idea was for Kannan to resemble Quasimodo in the 1939 adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre Dame but Ganesan insisted the filmmakers reduce the character's unattractiveness after trying out prosthetics. He wanted viewers to sympathise with Kannan for his shortcomings without feeling repulsed by the character. There were difficulties in filming the scene in which Kannan is hiding in a cupboard and gestures to Shankar to give a cheque to Vijay; the scene required Ganesan to change his look between takes because the camera could not be moved, meaning he had to stand in one spot, mouth his lines, quickly change his attire and makeup to play the second character, stand in the same place and act. To ease the process, he asked Tirulokchander to stand in for him. Kanthasamy told Tirulokchander this seven-minute-long scene needed trimming but after re-watching it several times, Tirulokchander refused because he could not find what to cut and liked the way Ganesan performed as the three characters. == Music ==

The soundtrack to Deiva Magan was composed by M. S. Viswanathan and the lyrics were written by Kannadasan. The song "Deivame Deivame Nandri Solven" is Ganesan's homage to politician C. N. Annadurai, which is evident when it is played over a scene where Kannan screams "Anna". The song, like many of Kannadasan's other songs, praises the Hindu god Krishna as "a simple god that responds to a poor man's prayer". The songs "Kaadhal Malar Kootam" and "Kaathalikka Katrukollungal" also became popular. == Release ==

Deiva Magan was released on 5 September 1969. After watching the film, C. V. Sridhar appreciated Ganesan's performance as Vijay, saying only he "could have done it so beautifully". The film was selected as India's official entry for the Best Foreign Language Film nomination for the 42nd Academy Awards; it was the first South Indian film to be submitted by India in the Best International Feature Film category. == Legacy ==

Kamal Haasan has acknowledged various films as influences on Michael Madana Kama Rajan (1990), namely Deiva Magan along with Nadodi Mannan (1958) and Yaadon Ki Baaraat (1973). == See also ==