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Tamil Mythological Cinema 99

films—for example, the story of Sita’s wedding in Sita Kalyanam (1933) or
a series of events from Krishna’s youth in Krishnaleela (1934).
During the first years of Tamil cinema all Hindu religious films were
referred to as mythologicals, but from about 1935 the term devotional
started to be widely used to designate films, which, instead of having gods
as the main characters, followed the biographical life narratives of great
saints and devotees (sants and bhaktas). In south India these saints were
singing poets considered to be historical figures associated with specific
places, temples, divine miracles, and devotional musical traditions (Zvelebil
1973). For example, the song book for the Tamil film, Bhaktha Purandardas
(1937), introduced the story synopsis with the claim that “India has for a
long time been the abode of many a great devotional bard who illuminated
the hearts of people by preaching morals and devotion, through a natural
flood of beautiful melodious songs so keenly appealing to everyone from
prince to peasant.” The commercial intent behind this promotional claim
was to link the film to the tradition of devotion that bhakti saints had used
to overcome differences of caste and class and fashion popular religious
movements through the medium of music.
Many of these devotional films followed a similar plot development.
They started with the saint’s early life, which frequently involved various
forms of immorality such as a miserly attachment to wealth, consumption
of alcohol, and illicit sexual relationships. Greedy and/or debauched behav-
ior was eventually punished by some hardship or misfortune that would
lead to a religious awakening, penance, and supreme devotion resulting in
miracles and a manifestation of the divine. The promotional headline syn-
opsis on the film song book for the Tamil film Baktha Tulasidas (1937)
succinctly summarized this typical plot: “Can you believe this! First he was
victim to a Prostitute. He had no other thought than women. But lo!
Miraculous is the change now. He has become a great Baktha! Now he has
no other thought than God! So he stands supreme, devoted by all.” These
films shared a simple egalitarian message of salvation through self-less acts
of devotion, such as worship, singing, praying, and pilgrimage open to all
(Vasudevan 2005).
The introduction of sound not only posed a new set of problems and

constraints, but also created new opportunities to reinvent cinema accord-
ing to south Indian performance genres. Even though Indian silent film
conventions were an obvious precedent, sound technology allowed early
Tamil filmmakers to draw upon and adapt from the already familiar musi-
cal stage drama materials. In ways that had been beyond the reach of
Indian silent cinema, but similar to the south Indian gramophone compa-
nies before them, Tamil cinema immediately tapped into what was then a
thriving commercial business in live stage performances with a well-known