Ormakalundayirikkanam

aka Memories and Desires 1995 91’ col Malayalam d/s T.V. Chandran pc Navadhara p Salim Karassery c Venu m Johnson lp Mammootty, Gopi, Nedumudi Venu, Srinivasan, Priyambada Ray, Nitin

Chandran’s follow-up to the hit Ponthan Mada (1993) addresses a small community in rural Kerala when the first Communist government was dismissed in 1959 by Nehru’s Central government after two years in power. Told through the eyes of a small boy, Jayan (Nitin), the film contrasts his relationship with the larger-than-life Communist supporter Bhasi (Mammootty) to that with his tyrannical, Congress-supporting father (Venu). A second father-figure is provided by the mad scientist Thakaran (Gopi) who promises the end of the world. The dismissal of the government and Bhasi’s arrest coincides with Thakaran’s death, as well as with Jayan’s own symbolic revenge against his father when he throws a bowl of curry in the patriarch’s face.

Film