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Thenmavin Kombath

1994 164’ col/scope Malayalam d/s Priyadarshan pc Prasidhi Creations p N. Gopalakrishnan lyr Girish Puthencherry c K.V. Anand m Berny, Ignatuis background m Venkatesh lp Mohanlal, Shobhana, Nedumudi Venu, Kaviyoor Ponnamma

Frontier melodrama about Kerala’s Thazavad manorial system which is based on matrilineal kinship. Sreekrishna (Venu), the brother of the Madambipura House’s leader, Yashoda, is extremely friendly with his servant Manikan (Mohanlal). Another servant, Appikala, envious of Manikan’s favoured status, is the film’s official villain. The Madambipura House is locked in an ancestral rivalry with the equally large establishment run by Ganjimuda Gandhari, which usually finds expression in the bullock cart race at the annual Pongal festival. Both Sreekrishna and Manikan fall in love with the beautiful itinerant theatre actress Karuthambi (Shobhana), causing Manikan to briefly fall out of favour with both Yashoda and the local law. The film’s camerawork adopts the glossy style (diffusers and angled lighting calibrated to the exposure of high-speed colour stock) made fashionable by Tamil cinematographer P.C. Sriram. Shot mostly at dawn and dusk, the camerawork creates a glittering fantasy world that in turn determines both plot and performances.

Film