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Daivathinte Vikrithikal'
1992 108’ col Malayalam d/sc Lenin Rajendran pc Souparnika Movie Arts st M. Mukundan lyr O.N.V. Kurup c Madhu Ambat m Mohan Sitara lp Raghuvaran, Srividya, Thilakan, Vineeth, Sudheesh, Siddique
Based on the writings of noted author Mukundan, the film is set near the river Mayyazhi (Mahe) in an ex-French colony with continuing cultural links to its former colonial power. Father Alphonse (Raghuvaran), a French-speaking priest, amateur magician and alcoholic, decides to stay when Independence comes and the colonial functionaries depart on the last ship to Paris, much to the despair of his Francophile wife Maggie (Srividya). Years later, when their son Michael leaves for France in search of the ‘good life’, he shatters Maggie’s hopes for redemption. Their daughter Elsie becomes pregnant by her childhood friend (Vineeth), the son of a landlord and former Congress Party worker (Thilakan), and Alphonse’s only remaining acquaintance. The younger son of this landlord quits a potentially successful career at University in order to join a radical Naxalite group. The original novel attempted to investigate the conditions of culturally marginalized communities in Independent India. Rajendran, who contested elections supported by the CPI(M), proposes a critique of the ruling Congress Party, presenting it as a once-radical movement now infested with corruption and challenged by the progressive Left. The cinematographer Ambat’s work is, as usual, outstanding, especially in its creation of claustrophobic spaces.