Swapnadanam

aka Journey through a Dream aka Somnambulism 1975 121’ b&w Malayalam d/co-sc K.G. George pc K.R. Films Int st E. Mohammed co-sc Pamman c K. Ramchandra Babu m Bhaskar Chandavarkar lp Mohandas, M.G. Soman, P.K. Abraham, Isaac Thomas, Venukuttan Nair, Rani Chandra, T.R. Omana, Prema, Mallika, Sonia

George’s commercially successful art-house debut is a marital psychodrama without the usual songs and dances. Hero Gopi (Mohandas, a medical practitioner as well as an actor) is unhappily married to Sumitra (Rani Chandra), his cousin and traditional bride. The problem is complicated by his indebtedness to her father (Nair) who sponsored his education. The film works through extensive use of flashbacks (George’s favourite storytelling device) as the hero is treated by a psychiatrist (Thomas), haunted by memories of the woman he loved at university. He ends up in a mental asylum.

Film