Malayalam movie Review: Manichithrathaazhu (1993)

 "Vidamaatte? Appo nee ividennu enne ingerundu enkeyum poka vida maatte? "

Malayalis who haven't been living under a rock all these years would surely be familiar with this dialogue from the blockbuster psychological thriller movie Manichithrathazhu. What a movie and how easily it developed a cult following!

Manichithrathazhu' is one of my all-time favourite Malayalam movies. Yesterday I made my son watch this movie for the first time. I say 'made' because he is not much interested in Malayalam movies. But after some time into the movie, he was truly engrossed. And yes, he watched till the end which is a miracle in itself! That is the magic of this movie!

So what is the story about?

The story revolves around the strange happenings in the mysterious mansion, Madampalli. When young couple Nakulan (Suresh Gopi) and Ganga (Shobhana) decide to stay at this mansion during their visit to Nakulan's native place, they are met with concerned advice and scary stories. The scary story went thus: Around 150 years ago, the then head of the house Sankaran Thampi brought a dancer named Nagavalli from Tanjore to Madampalli. He had fallen in love with her but alas she was already in love with another dancer, Ramanathan. Ramanathan stayed in a house near Madampalli and they used to meet up secretly. When Sankaran Thampi came to know of this he flew into such a rage that he killed them both in Nagavalli's room, the Thekkini (a room located in the South). But Nagavalli was not to be got rid of so easily. 

She came back from the dead as a blood-thirsty ghost and tried to kill Sankaran Thampi. He recruited the best of sorcerers from the area, who somehow managed to trap her spirit in the Thekkini. However, Sankaran Thampi later committed suicide and his spirit too was contained in the Thekkini.

Nakulan and Ganga are too modern to believe in such silly stories and they decide to stay at the mansion anyway. Nothing happens at first until Ganga decides to open the infamous Thekkini hoping to find valuable antics in the room. Everyone is so convinced that something bad will befall them, that Nakulan's cousins Sreedevi (Vinaya Prasad) and Chandu move in with them to share whatever was in store.

What follows is a series of bewildering events which pushes everyone to the edge. Pots and windows break on its own, mysterious screams and singing are heard, a woman in a white saree with long untied hair is spotted and so on and so forth- enough for Nakulan's relatives to ask the couple to vacate the house immediately. However Nakulan has his suspicions on Sreedevi who had an unhappy marriage. With her big staring eyes and serious face she certainly fit the bill of a probable suspect and always seen around the places where strange occurrences happened.

And then upon Nakulan's request, his friend Dr. Sunny (Mohanlal) who is a renowned psychiatrist, arrives. What ensues is more mayhem and chaos as we ponder the question of  'Madampalliyile manorogi aara?'

Viewpoint 

As one of the most popular and successful movies in Malayalam, Manichithrathazhu ran for more than 300 days in theatres! It has been remade into 4 other languages, which in my humble opinion did not come anywhere near the original.

As Science faces- off superstitions in the story, the viewers are posed with the question of whether either of them could completely explain the whole truth. Interestingly, in the end, both modern Science and sorcery work hand-in-hand to get the desired outcome.

The story touches on the topic of 'Dissociative identity disorder' which until then had been unknown to Keralites. New and interesting topics always pique curiosity and thanks to the story writer Madhu Muttam for giving such a great gift to Malayalam cinema. The story is said to be loosely based on the murder that took place in Alummoottil Meda, Madhu Muttam's ancestral home.

[Read More: Alummoottil meda haunted House that Inspired Movie 'Manichitrathazhu' (manoramaonline.com)]

The locations for the movie include Hill palace at Trippunitura and Padmanabhapuram palace. The painting of Nagavalli was done by Shri. R. Mahadevan. The voiceover of Nagavalli is fabulously creepy and done by Ms. Durga and not by Ms. Bhagyalakshmi, as I believed until recently reading about it.

[Read more: Durga, the crouching Nagavalli in 'Manichithrathazhu' (manoramaonline.com)]

The comedy scenes in the movie do make us laugh (even after all these years). Innocent, Pappu,

Ganeshan and Mohanlal have all done their best in delivering these scenes.

In all, it is a complete package of entertainment, suspense, horror and beautiful music.

Watch this movie here:

Directed by: Fazil
Written by: Madhu Muttam
Cinematography: Venu, Anandakuttan, Sunny Joseph
Starring: Mohanlal, Suresh Gopi, Shobana, Thilakan, Innocent, KPAC Lalitha, Pappu