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Agniputhri

1967 144’ b&w Malayalam d M. Krishnan Nair p Prem Nawaz pc Prem and Balaji Movies s S.L. Puram Sadanandan lyr Vyalar Rama Varma c N.S. Mani m Baburaj lp Prem Nazir, T.S. Muthaiah, T.K. Balachandran, S.P. Pillai, Adoor Bhasi, Bahadur, Sheela, Vasantha, Aranmulla Ponnamma, Baby Usha, T.R. Omana, Meena

Melodrama taking Malayalam cinema’s fascination with incest to its limit. The respectable college teacher Rajan (Nazir) marries Sindhu (Sheela), the orphaned inmate of a home for destitutes. The feudal conservative hypocrisies of the hero’s family are graphically criticised: Rajan’s cousin Chandran admits he once had sex with Sindhu, and Rajan’s snooty brother, the doctor Jayadev, fathered Sindhu’s daughter Bindu. Sindhu further confesses on her wedding night that she suffers from venereal disease, and eventually dies. The gruesome film is adapted from a popular play by Nazir’s brother Prem Nawaz. The theatrical gestures and painted backdrops were maintained in the film version. The film was remade in Hindi as Darpan (1970) starring Sunil Dutt and Waheeda Rehman.

Film