Mathilukal

aka The Walls 1989 119’ col Malayalam d/p/sc Adoor Gopalakrishnan pc Doordarshan st Vaikom Mohammed Basheer c Ravi Varma m Vijayabhaskar lp Mammootty, Thilakan, Murali, Ravi Vallathol, Karamana Janardanan Nair, Srinath, Babu Namboodiri, Jagannath Varma, Vempayan, Aziz, P.C. Soman

Based on an autobiographical novelette by the well-known Kerala writer Basheer, this is a love story, set in a prison cell the 40s, between the imprisoned Basheer (Mammootty) and a woman from the neighbouring prison compound. They are separated by a high wall so that they never see each other and have to devise ingenious ways of communicating. Produced for TV, the story is played out in confined spaces with a sense of claustrophobia and suppressed violence which enhances the emotional impact of the moving love story.

Film