THE SHIFTING SHAPE OF MYTHOLOGICALS

FILMS have often travelled back to the past for inspiration. It is no surprise then that the origin story of Indian cinema should lie in Dadasaheb Phalke’s 1913 silent film, Raja Harishchandra, based on the myth about the honesty and integrity of the Hindu king who gave away himself, his family and kingdom for the sake of a promise made to saint Vishwamitra, that too in a dream.

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Many mythological followed in its wake—R Nataraja Mudaliar’s Keechaka Vadham (1917) took off from the episode in the Mahabharat describing Bheem’s slaying of Keechaka for having misbehaved with Draupadi, Franz Osten’s The Throw of Dice (1929) was inspired from the gambling episode in the Mahabharat, V Shantaram’s Ayodhyache Raja (1932) was yet another iteration of the legend of Harishchandra.

Homi Wadia’s Wadia Movietone and Basant Pictures were at the forefront of making mythologicals in the North. In the South, N T Rama Rao acquired divine status by playing Krishna in several films in the 1950s and Venkateswara in Sri Venkateswara Mahatyam (1960). Yet, he was radical enough to take the risk of becoming Ravana in Bhookailas (1958), a role he reprised in his directorial debut, Seeta Rama Kalyanam (1961). The versatile Sivaji Ganesan worked in several genres, including the mythological, with his most popular outing being as Shiva in Thiruvilayadal (1965).