Panchagni

aka Five Fires 1986 141’ col Malayalam d T. Hariharan p G.P. Vijay Kumar, M.G. Gopinath pc Seven Arts Films s M.T. Vasudevan Nair c Shaji N. Karun m Ravi lp Geetha, Mohanlal, Nadia Moidu, Thilakan As in the romantic socialist realism of Meenamasathile Sooryan (1985), this film Panchagni aka Five Fires 1986 141’ col Malayalam d T. Hariharan p G.P. Vijay Kumar, M.G. Gopinath pc Seven Arts Films s M.T. Vasudevan Nair c Shaji N. Karun m Ravi lp Geetha, Mohanlal, Nadia Moidu, Thilakan As in the romantic socialist realism of Meenamasathile Sooryan (1985), this filmextols the virtues of radical political activists but, contrary to Rajendran’s film, Hariharan exploits the unpleasant aspects of revolutionary violence. The central figure is Indira (Geetha), imprisoned for murder and on hunger strike. Allowed to visit her dying mother, a former activist in the Independence struggle, on a two-week pass, she encounters unmitigated hostility from some members of her family although her old mother welcomes her warmly. Persecuted by the villagers as well as by the police, Indira eventually turns to a journalist, Rashid (Mohanlal), to unburden herself, recounting the circumstances of her crime. In the politically turbulent 60s in Kerala, she had been a welfare officer who had led a group which hacked to death a particularly vicious landowner. Later, when she is released, she shoots the husband of her best friend for participating in a brutal gang rape of a servant girl. Then she calmly awaits being imprisoned again. The film was a commercial hit.

Film