Pollachi trip-5: Where they filmed Devar Magan

Villages around Pollachi has long provided the outdoor setting for numerous Tamil films. Film-goers are familiar with the Sulakkal temple because Kamalahasan's Devar Magan was filmed here.
Marimuthu is a walking 'Google' on Sulakkal, its folk history as well as the reputation of the place as a favoured outdoor destination for film-makers from Kodampakkam. Marimuthu, a Sulakkal native has been on the watch&ward staff of the temple for 32 years.
But for us in the Pollachi clan Sulakkal, seven km from our Pollachi residence,is the seat of our family deity. My great grand-father was a resident of the nearby Vadakkipalayam. I heard it from Bhagya that our great-grand-father's forefathers came from Tanjavur.

I have childhood recollection of visiting the Vadakkipalayam residence of one of our great-grand-mothers.I have known her as Vadakkipalayam patti; and she used to live with her brother Ganapathy. I knew him as parangikkai thatha; because he used to bring a pumpkin as gift whenever he visited my grand-father's place in Coimbatore. He knew of my fondness for parangikkai.

Another Amman temple my mother was keen on visiting during our Pollachi trip is what the locals call Kudaluruvi Mariamman.Located in a by-lane of a residential area this temple attracts devotees seeking a cure for their stomach ailments - kudal in Tamil refers to the intestine. My mother has no stomach complaint.Her interest in visiting the temple was purely devotional; besides, she heard about the place from her sister Sitalakshmi(Sitha chitti), who is an acknowledged temple expert in our family.
The kudal temple was closed when we went there, around noon. Not a time for visiting the temple, we agree. But then we had more temples to visit before calling it a day.

Pollachi is full of temples - mostly Amman's. Interestingly, local residents rely as much on temples for their cures as they do on medical practioners. And they visit designated places of worship seeking cure for varied ailments. Mariamman on the main bazar is worshipped for the collective well-being of Pollachi people;and for keepng the town free from endemic diseases.
These terracotta images are offered in thanks-giving by Sulakkal devotees who get cured of their problems pertaining to a specified part of the body - eyes, limbs, face, ears. Viewed in this sense, Sulakkal is a 'multi-speciality' temple to which devotees flock for assorted cures. Folks with jaundice visit a city dargha, where a fakir is believed to have the healing powers. Sambu chitti says there is a temple in town that is designated as 'Plague' Mariamman.