Rathi Nirvedham

aka Adolescent Desire 1978 124’ col Malayalam d Bharathan p Prathap Pothan pc Supriya Creations s Padmarajan lyr Kavalam Narayana Panicker c K. Ramchandra Babu m P. Devarajan lp Soman, Krishnakumar, Adoor Bhasi, Bahadur, Kaviyoor Ponnamma, Manohar, Baby Sumathi, V.J. Jose, Jayabharati, Meena, T.R. Omanna

The painter and sculptor’s 3rd feature tells of Pappu, an adolescent boy, and his sexual awakening, with a scenic tea plantation estate as backdrop, as he falls in love with the slightly older girl next door, Rathi. The consummation of the relationship is treated in high Gothic style with thunder and lightning accompanying the midnight union in a deserted cobra shrine, culminating in the woman being bitten by a snake and dying. Next morning, presumably feeling like a real man at last, he sets out for college and a new life. The most disturbing aspect of the film is not that sexuality is seen as some cataclysmic event but that the death of a woman is presented both as the price paid for sex by women and as a price worth paying by a boy to achieve manhood.

Film