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Parinayam

1994 163’(130’) col/scope Malayalam d T. Hariharan pc Seven Arts p G.P. Vijay Kumar s M.T. Vasudevan Nair lyr Yusuf Ali Kacheri c S Kumar m Bombay Ravi lp Mohini, Vineeth, Thilakan, Shanthi Krishna, Manoj K. Jayan, Nedumudi Venu, Jagathi Srikumar, Oduvil Unnikrishnan, Sukumari

In 1940s Kerala, the 17 year-old Unnimaya (Mohini) is widowed shortly after she has become the fourth wife of an elderly Namboodiri Brahmin. When she becomes pregnant, the local Brahmins incarcerate her for refusing to name her lover. Her progressive stepson Kunjunni, a man of her own age, offers her shelter when she is ritually excommunicated. Her lover was the effete Kathakali dancer Madhavan, whom she rejects when he finally turns up to acknowledge his responsibilities to her child. Vasudevan Nair’s script returns to his familiar concerns addressing a decaying feudalism in pre- Independence Kerala. The film’s sensitive cinemascope camerawork as well as Thilakan’s remarkable performance as the Brahmin inquisitor stand out.

Film