July 1965, and distributed by Sivaji Films. During a screening at a Madras cinema, several women went into a religious frenzy during a scene with Avvaiyar and Murugan. The film was temporarily suspended so the women could be attended to. According to artist Jeeva, the management of the Raja Theatre built a replica of Mount Kailash to promote Thiruvilaiyadal. A commercial success, the film ran for twenty-five weeks at the Ganesan-owned Shanti Theatre. It also ran for twenty-five weeks at the Crown and Bhuvaneshwari Theatres in Madras and other theatres across South India, becoming a silver jubilee film. It added to Ganesan's string of successful films. At the 13th National Film Awards, Thiruvilaiyadal received the Certificate of Merit for the Second-Best Feature Film in Tamil. It also received the Filmfare Award for Best Film – Tamil. Reception Thiruvilayadal was praised by critics. The Tamil magazine Kalki, in a review dated 22 August 1965, considered the film a victory for Tamil cinema. Shanmugam Pillai and Meenakshi Ammal of Ananda Vikatan jointly reviewed the film on the same day. Shanmugam Pillai praised the tandava and said Nagarajan deserved to be appreciated for taking such a long epic and making it into a film. Although Meenakshi Ammal felt it was unnecessary to have a Tamil poet (Dharumi) do comedy, Shanmugam Pillai applauded Nagesh for showing his comic skills even in a mythological. Meenakshi Ammal noted that at a time where social films were dominating Tamil cinema, a mythological like Thiruvilaiyadal was a welcome change and deserved another viewing. On 7 August 1965, The Indian Express appreciated Nagarajan for treating the four episodes adapted from the Thiruvilayadal Puranam with "due reverence and respect" and chaste Tamil dialogue (a "delight to the ears"). However, the reviewer derided Nagarajan's "unimaginative" handling of the fisherman episode and Ganesan's "awkward" gestures, which turned what would have been a "sublime, divine love story" into a typical "boy-meets-girl affair". They also criticised technical aspects such as "jumpy" shots, the colour scheme, Shiva's fight with the shark and the facial make-up. The reviewer criticised Ganesan for overacting while opining that Savitri had nothing to do, but commended the performances of Sundarambal, Mahalingam, Balaiah, Nagesh, Sarangapani, Muthuraman and Nagarajan. On 4 September 1965, T. M. Ramachandran wrote for Sport and Pastime, "Both for the devout Hindu and the average movie fan, the picture provides such elements that sustain their interest from beginning