Irutinte Atmavu

aka The Soul of Darkness 1967 147’ b&w Malayalam d/lyr P. Bhaskaran p P.I. Muhammad Kasim pc Sony Pics s M.T. Vasudevan Nair c E.N. Balakrishnan m Baburaj lp Prem Nazir, Thikkurisi Sukumaran Nair, P.J. Anthony, T.S. Muthaiah, Balaji, Sharada, Ushakumari (aka Vijayanirmala), M.S. Namboodiri, Shankaradi, Adoor Bhasi, Shanta Devi, Philomena, Padmini, Selina, Rukmini, Shobha

One of scenarist Vasudevan Nair’s best-known scripts, critiquing the feudal values of a declining Nair community in Kerala. The key figure prising out the biases and attitudes of the family headed by the karanavar (Thikkurisi Sukumaran Nair) is the partiarch’s mentally retarded nephew Velayudhan (Nazir). To the family his condition symbolises the curse that has led to its decline. He has a good relationship with Ammukutty (Sharada), his cousin and traditionally his future bride. When she is molested by a foreign-returned relative, he protests his innocence but is chained and locked up in a cage. She is married off to an old widower, but when she too rejects his pleas to reconsider her decision, Velayudhan finally acknowledges defeat and agrees to be defined as mad. The film was also cut out as an actorial challenge for megastar Nazir, playing his role with aplomb in scenes such as the one where he swings in ecstacy from one areca tree to another, and generally exploits the tearjerking sympathy generated by his character.

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