Kochaniyan

1994 106’ col Malayalam d/co-s Satheesh Venganoor p Itihas Films p Bushura Shahudeen co-s A. Shahudeen c V. Aravindakshan m Mohan Sitara lp Master Vineeth, Narendra Prasad, Maya Uthradamthirunal, A. Shahudeen, Baby Surendran

Malayalam children’s movie in which the young protagonist Kochunni (Vineeth) has problems with his disciplinarian father and sibling rivalry with elder sister Suma. He retaliates with some nasty pranks, while his grandmother’s tales provide an escape into private fantasies. The grandmother dies and the boy’s girlfriend, Nazima, moves away. He falls ill and, in the end, is reconciled with his distraught parents. Much of the film lovingly photographs the lifestyle of a traditional Nair family coming to terms with capitalist modernity, breaking out only with an elaborately shot dream sequence in which Kochunni imagines his tyrannical father in Kathakali costume.

Film