Deivapiravi (1960 film)

Deivapiravi (transl. Noble Soul) is a 1960 Indian Tamil-language film, directed by Krishnan–Panju. The film stars Sivaji Ganesan, Padmini, S. S. Rajendran, K. A. Thangavelu and M. N. Rajam. The film was dubbed and released in Telugu as Anumanam and released on 24 June 1961.^[1] At the 8th National Film Awards, the film won the All India Certificate of Merit for the Third Best Feature Film.^[2] It was remade the same year in Hindi as Bindya.

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Deivapiravi
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Krishnan–Panju
Written by	K. S. Gopalakrishnan
Starring	Sivaji Ganesan Padmini S. S. Rajendran
Cinematography	S. Maruti Rao
Edited by	S. Panjabi
Music by	R. Sudarsanam
Production company	Kamaal Brothers
Release date	13 April 1960 (1960-04-13)
Running time	182 minutes
Country	India
Language	Tamil

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Madhavan is a well-to-do businessman and respectable bigwig in the society. He has a brother Manohar. Madhavan marries Thangam and her brother, Ramu, comes to live with them and is educated with Madhavan's help. Unlike Manohar who turns out to be good-for-nothing, Ramu works hard earning the respect of Madhavan. Ramu and Manohar, both are in love with Thilagam while Thilagam prefers Ramu. Perceiving this as betrayal, Thangam convinces Ramu to give up Thilagam for Manohar.

Unknown to the rest of them, Nandhini is Madhavan's stepsister. He decides to help her by asking her to live with them. She starts to manipulate the household by raking in controversies between Ramu and Manohar, Madhavan and Thangam by insinuating an affair between her and Nair while making it look like she is having an affair with Madhavan subtly there by aiming to take over the family's wealth.

Ultimately, Ramu forces a frank conversation by all regarding their individual relationships. Madhavan confesses that Nandhini is his sister while Thangam says that she and Nair too treated each other as siblings. Ramu make it clear to Manohar that he will not marry Thilagam. Seeing her plot break open, Nandhini runs away with family gold only to be caught by Nair and Manohar. Thangam, however, decides to give off the family jewels to her so that she can marry and have a normal life.

Deivapiravi was written by K. S. Gopalakrishnan. A writer accused him of story theft and Gopalakrishnan was taken to court, but was exonerated after his story was found to be original.^[4] S. P. Muthuraman who went on to become a popular director made his acting debut with this film portraying a small role of Angamuthu's son.^[3]

The music was composed by R. Sudarsanam. The lyrics were written by Thanjai N. Ramaiah Dass, Udumalai Narayana Kavi, Kavi Rajagopal and K. S. Gopalakrishnan.^[5][6][7]

Deivapiravi was released on 13 April 1960.^[8] The Indian Express praised the performances of the lead actors, and called Thangavelu's comedy a major attraction.^[9] The film was a success, running for over 100 days in theatres.^[10]

Before AVM Productions remade Deivapiravi in Hindi as Bindya in the same year, Ganesan advised them not to remake the film as he felt it would not come well.^[11] However AVM ignored him and went on to make the film in Hindi. Bindya was a failure and many years later, M. Saravanan expressed regret for ignoring Ganesan's advice.^[12]