Ningalenne Communistaki

aka You Made Me a Communist 1970 155’ b&w Malayalam d/s Thoppil Bhasi p Kunchako pc Udaya Studios (Alleppy) lyr Vyalar Rama Varma m P. Devarajan lp Sathyan, Prem Nazir, Sheela, Ummar, Jayabharati, Kottyam Chellappan, S.P. Pillai, Thoppil Krishna Pillai, Lalitha, Adoor Pankajam, P. Rajamma, Vijayakumari, Alumoodan, Kundara Bhasi

Bhasi’s version of his own landmark socialist realist play (1952) popularising official CPI ideology in Kerala. Gopalan, after obtaining a college degree, devotes himself to trade union work to the distress of his father, the tradition- bound Paramu Pillai whose family fortune has been eroded. Gopalan and his working-class friend Mathew oppose the evil landlord Kesavan Nair’s schemes to obtain ever more land through fraud and intimidation. They are beaten up by the landlord’s hired thugs and hospitalised. In the end, Paramu Pillai, radicalised by the need to defend himself against the landlord, emerges from his house brandishing a red flag and joining the collective struggle against exploitation. A subplot has Gopalan in love with Kesavan Nair’s daughter although the one who truly loves him is Mala, the daughter of a poor, aged tenant farmer also about to be evicted by the villain. The film, produced by the owner of Udaya Studios, was not as successful as the play. Bhasi went on in the same agit-prop vein, backed by the CPI, with e.g. Enippadikal (1973).

Film