 Mm-hmm. Yes, just what you should bring to filming. Yep. Cottage cheese. It's better than if I was eating an omelet. But not better than if you were not eating anything. You're disgusting. I'm healthy. You can follow us on Instagram, Twitter for more juice content. Thank you for watching Patreon. Follow us on our official Twitter account, subscribe and hit that like button. You little shits. Gross. Not because of what you just ate, just your face in general. Yeah. Welcome back to Classic Month. Hard to handle so much greatness. Oh, I handle it every day. Yeah, welcome back to Classic Month. Stupid babies. And today we're doing a very old film. Are we going to do something? I think we're going to do something. Yeah. The 1965 Tamil film. I remember it well. Thiruvilayadal. Yep. Thiruvilayadal. Sounds right to me. Directed by AP Nagarajan, written by him as well, composed by KV Mahadevan. And starring a bunch of predominantly Shivaji Ganesan and Savitri. And then obviously a whole bunch of other people as well. But it's a big, how to exactly describe it, is Hindu mythology style film based off of a, read that. Yeah, it's a collection based on Parajrothi Munivazepik Thiruvilayadal Puranam, which is my understanding is it's Hindu mythology. It's 64 different stories and four of those stories are depicted in this. This is what it was described as. It translates to the divine play. It said that Lord Shiva, out of his love for his devotees, tests and plays with them. And there are 64 such stories where he takes human form and performs the play. This movie is a compilation of a few such stories. Actor Shivaji Ganesan, superstar's father in Paryapaya, plays the Lord Shiva. So that's who that is. He's in Paryapa? That's his father. Raja Kamstad, who died. Oh, wow. Just sorry, where was I? Wow. Plays the lead role of Lord Shiva and actress Shavitri, who you've watched her play the lead role in Maya Bazar, plays the role of Goddess Pavate. And the movie is an all-time favorite for many stuff like that. So obviously it came out in 1965. So this would be 100% spoiler review. So if you haven't watched it, there's many different versions. We saw a pretty good version, not a great, like how Maya Bazar was in terms of it was restored. I think they should do that. I think they absolutely can. And I don't know how much of it they can, because there were some moments where I think the original is just degraded so much that there's not much that can be done. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't the best either in terms of the quality of the picture. But there's a subtitled version, and then there's also other non-subtitled versions on the YouTube and many other places. You can go check those out. But Rick, your initial thoughts? Well, and subtitling on it was it's one of those subtitled ones where sometimes it's flying by too fast. I don't know if one of the translations was accurate, because at the beginning of the film he said, I feel groovy. So I don't know that that's the original dammel translation from the 16th century texts. I'm not sure that she felt groovy. There's probably an old word for groovy back in the day. Yeah, probably, probably. Probably back in the day. Yeah. So. That's funny. But so the film's a lot like Algebra for me. So it's a required course in order for you to get your diploma to say you've learned what you need to know, and it's an important thing for you. And I feel that way in terms of if you want to understand Indian cinema, particularly dammel cinema, this is something that you have to do. But also like Algebra for me, it's not something that was, I didn't, I wasn't fully engaged. There's a lot of it I didn't get and it's not something I would revisit. So for a classic for me, my subjective own thing, I appreciate a lot of the technical merits of it that we'll talk about. That's for sure. But on the whole, it was something that I'm glad I saw in light of the fact that I feel like you have to see it to have an understanding of dammel cinema, but it's not something I would revisit. Yeah, I enjoyed it not for like in the same way that I enjoy other classics, because it felt so different, because it felt like I was watching almost a play, like in different acts of a play, obviously, because it's based off of, so that makes sense. Obviously, because the way it's set up is there's this big broad thing that happened with, I believe it was Lord Shiva and his wife and their kids. And the mango, I think the fruit. People are Ram and, I believe, correct me if I'm wrong here, Ram and Ganesh, I believe was the other one. At least that's what I gather, because I've seen a little more of like the mythology kind of things than you have, like that thing last year with Prabhas and the anime that I watched. And so I've seen a little bit more of that, but these were all new stories. These weren't what I watched, but the character. Oh, okay, so yeah, the four stories were not something you'd see. No, no, no, this is not something in there, but the characters, I believe, were some of the same characters. So it was super interesting to watch each different part. And there were elements, there's no way I got all of it, because I'm not connected to these gods or these stories, because I didn't grow up with them. And so a lot of the people that I'm sure watched this were like, oh, this is the story that I've heard for the long time, then I'm seeing it on screen. And so, no, I did not get all of that, but it was super cool. Seeing all these different things, especially some of the technical sides. Yeah, the technical aspects in terms of production design, some of the stuff that they did for 1965 in Tamil cinema was really fun and cool. Yeah, some was fun and cool, and some of it was good grief that's putrid. Yeah, yeah. But, and then some of the old school style comedy that was involved. I did like some of the comedic things, particularly in the poem section, the poetry guy, and then the fight on the beach with the shark story. Yes, yes. That was fun. That was a lot of fun. Yeah, I liked that whole part. Yeah, and then the singer guy when everybody was coming out, and it was like very vaudevillian. Some of the comedy there. Even the sound was very vaudevillian. And so like I enjoyed it in those little, in those parts of just like, I was like marveling kind of like at this captured in time moment of cinema. And it's not like the same way I could enjoy like what we saw earlier this year in like Sree 420, which is obviously more of a familiar format of storytelling for us. Yeah, this is not even almost like set up like a movie. It's set up like you know these stories. We're showing you them on screen. Yeah, it's set up far more like the best thing I could give as an example. If you're familiar with this in any way is Japan's Kabuki Theater. It's very stylized theater. You don't apply to this the same criteria you do for cinema not just today, but even for back in the 1960s. It's very much a play put on screen. Yeah, yeah. And even how they obviously that was heavily the style back in the day. And I've noticed. And a kind of play. Yeah, yeah. And especially for when playing these gods or these deities and the way they played them. Correct. And how they're like the. Right. And even. They were talking like this and they're very played like. Yeah. And I also understand having read a couple of things about the film that there was some great appreciation in the day to the, not just the language itself but the way the actors spoke the language and it rang true to what people know about the text. Again, things we could never begin to comprehend. But first and foremost, the music and we have reacted to many songs. Yeah, I was, oh, I've seen this one. I've seen this one. It's just as incredible as when we reacted to them. Like, especially that, that Tamil, old Tamil woman. Her song is just. You know, vocals. Yeah. Vocals on that are incredible. A lot of songs. Doesn't he say that to her at one point toward the end? He just says flat out to her. Old Tamil woman. Yes. Once again. Yeah. Some titles who knows. Yeah, exactly. Maybe that's what the translation is. It may have been. But like the songs in this are incredible. I loved them just as much as I did when we reacted to them. Yeah, I enjoyed seeing them again. Because they're show shoppers, man. And a lot of this film is song as well. There's a lot of songs in this. Another aspect that you just notice immediately is, and we noticed in the songs, was the set design. Yeah. It's old school set design. Yeah. Which is so fun to just marvel at because it's one, it's for the day. Oh man, was it incredible? Yeah. But obviously now it's not at today's standards by any stretch. No. It's just cool to see that because it's, I love old school sets. I've said it many times just because it's so endearing. I know this is a set, but it's really pretty. Right. It's extremely pretty. And it does, it's funny because you don't, you're like your suspension of disbelief isn't altered because you just, you accept it as it is. Even, even something like again, the shark sequence where they, when they go from without hesitation, the edits go from we're in, we're on a real beach during the day. Now we're on a set at night. And now we're going from. Wendy and Stormi on the ocean. From one frame he's carrying her from a rock with real ocean behind her. And then the next they're on a set that looks nothing like where they were. But it is, but it's endearing. It was, that was such a fun sequence to watch. Hey, who would have thought this was, this was 10, only 10 years before Jaws. The shark, I, was this 10 years before Jaws? Yeah. It was only 10 years before Jaws. But in terms of the shark. I know it was awesome. In terms of cinema though, India's usually about, especially at this time, this would have been our fifties, I think. Like how, how, how we transcribed. Technologically. Technologically, right. This would have been more our fifties, I think. Probably. In that. Even earlier movie. Maybe. But, so you, but I know some of those things are just so endearing and so fun. I enjoyed that shark sequence so much. It was pretty funny. Fun to watch. And there's, if you watch Jaws, it's comedic actually. A lot of times that shark and then Jaws, if you watch. Back in the day, it wasn't. Back in the, so funny. People are scared, man. Terrified. I might have been the same way with this. I saw that movie with my dad. And I thought that was a real shark. And now you watch it today and you go, hmm, yeah, that's a robotic shark, obviously. Yeah. So maybe even back in the day, they would have been like that. And then there was just some stuff comedy-wise that was, that was funny. Some of the comedy obviously didn't land, but then there was other comedy that was like that. Like really vaudevillian, shtickish kind of three stuges at times. And some of the messaging didn't land. I said, well, the messaging was, hmm. Yeah, it might have been all part of the text. And so that's stuff that I can't really comment on at all. Exactly. So it's, I just leave that as like, okay, that's what we're going with. Well, and you can't not, you have to, like you have to depict it the way it's said it. The way it's said it. So you just, it is what it is. Yeah. Like we're not familiar with any of the old school text or these, the only thing we know about a lot of these gods are from film as well. If we've seen any, we have seen some of them, but. The other thing that was, I know is kind of daring about the film is that in the day. So it's my understanding that up until, oh, the 1930s I think, 1940s. I think it was the 1940s where until that point about 70% of Indian cinema was grounded in these mythology stories. It was mythological filmmaking. And then they changed to more societal and contemporary stories. So it had been like 20 years before somebody really attempted to do a mainstream film that was a hearkening back to the myth. And apparently that was a huge, really appreciated thing by the masses at the time. It was a critical success because people loved the fact that it was a pulling back to stuff that came from the origins of Indian cinema. And again, that's part of why it's like someone would say, would you recommend watching this film? My feeling would be, well, that depends on what you're wanting and what you like. It's like, if you want to understand Indian cinemas, especially Tamil cinema, you kind of have to watch the film the way, again, my algebra connection for me. And there's some notorious, and some people love algebra. And there's some stuff in it that obviously I think is very notable for films, especially if you can get a really good copy. If we could get like a Maya Bazaar copy that we got. And this sets what would be even more grand and the costuming even more grand and the song's even more grand. And, but I can still appreciate a lot of those things even with, it was a good copy, not a great copy. Right, yeah, it wasn't a distractingly bad copy. We've had that. No, but it wasn't like what we've seen before in some of these other styles. Yeah, Maya Bazaar was just, we got a great copy of that. They should do restoration of some of these big classics. Well, I mean, Mughali Azam was beautiful. Yeah, but that's been restored. I don't know if they've done this one at all. I don't know, again, not distracting. But, and the biggest shout out, like if there's anything, if I'm giving it the biggest praise, it's the combination of the set and production design. So obviously. And the, I guess three things. The use of visual effects for the day. It was, some of them were so fun. Yeah, some of them were really, really good. And some were really, really just hokey. But for the time, it's not, it's not, you can't, I can't tell you what was hokey for back then. I don't think any of it probably was hokey. No, back in 1965 in Tamil. And the other thing, which we don't, we can't be critics of, I just know this by having read the stuff was the combination of it being pretty groundbreaking to be a throwback to the style of filmmaking when everything was societal at the time, as well as the integrity to the text. Apparently people who know the epics say that the text and the script is, for many of them, they said it was like poetry on the ears to hear the text brought to life like this. Yeah, if you're Tamil, if you're Hindu, and you've grown up with these stories. It's gotta be huge. I'm sure it's something that was really near and dear. And I can totally understand that. And I get it. Yeah, the, some of the technological stuff, cause we didn't fully go into it. When it was happening, I was like, Oh my God, no way. Like when he, I don't know what it was coming out of his mouth. The fire flame that comes out of him and goes to Parvati. Was it supposed to be a fire flame? Yeah, because he turns her to ash. When they're having the fight, the spirit. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And it starts with, he does the cobra, and then she does the hawk, and then he gets mad. I love the hawk. I love the hawk. And then, I think it was, it's interesting because he did burn her up, but he didn't burn her up the same way he burned up the poetry critic, which is probably what a lot of artists appreciate about this film the most is the fact that the actor completely incinerates the critic. Gotta love it. But yeah, that thing coming out of his mouth and then hitting her. And multiple other time, I thought it was actually very good VFX when they multiplied that singer. And we had seen this song. We had seen that. That was really well done. But for 1965, like I, you saw no like division. No. That was not easy back in 1965. Same with the split screen of he and she toward at the very, very end, that split screen was pretty flawless. And it was a bunch of other things of stuff that they did in many different aspects that I thought was just, for 1965 in Tamil cinema, it was, it felt groundbreaking and what they were doing. And I was like, in 1965, this would probably have been really cool to see one, the stories that you've grown up with on the big screen. And then also have these cool visual effects elements. Yeah. And same thing with like, with the sets. I like saying, even though it's nowhere near today's standard because it was what? Oh. 65 years ago. No, no, no, 50. No, 60. No. We're in 2023. Yeah, but I was born in 69 and I'm 54. And that's only four years pre-me. So it's 58. Oh, really? Yeah, 58 years. Because I'm, it's four years older than me and I'm 54. I was born in 60. You're not 100? No, not yet. Getting there day by day. Either way, almost 60 years. Yeah, almost 60 years old. That's all for film. Yeah. Especially for Indian cinema and especially for Tamil cinema. Yeah. To do those kind of visual effect things when that was not the common thing for Indian cinema. Yeah. To try those new things is fun and endearing. So yeah, I'm glad I watched it. It was a very different experience from a normal style classic that we've seen many times. Very play-like, like if you took it right off the stage and it almost, I don't know how much would change in it. The only thing that would change would be how you can do some of the visual effects. But, and that's the other thing too, is you can see how much it mattered to everybody to do what they were doing and try to just really stretch. I mean, it's so comparatively because technology has advanced so much. But I don't view this as any less herculean and attempt at filmmaking as say Cameron trying to do Avatar. Because it was really pushing the boundaries of what you could actually accomplish at the time. It was really doing the most you possibly could. Absolutely. Anyways, so yeah, let us know what you think about the film if you like it, if you didn't like it, what your thoughts on it are and what should be our next Tamil classic. We have so many to get to, obviously. But let us know what the next Tamil classic we should get to is down below.