Thalayanamanthram

A relevant movie even today . Urvashi is the first DIL of a middle class family . Her husband the first son , Sreenivasan is a contractor in a construction businesss . Not very highly educated , both lead a contended life with their only daughter and MIL. Her BIL. Jayaraman ( a kirana shop keeper ) gets married to a pretty Parvathy . Urvasi never misses a chance to say that she is uneducated she has no job the second DIL Parvathy has a job so they are better off and lucky .... Slowly cracks start appearing . Urvasi feels stung by every small thing Parvathy does . Her yearning to rise much above her economic level and lust for shallow things in life causes havoc and she manages to separate her family from her joint in laws' family . Sreenivasan though reluctant at first follows her . They rent a place in a much posh locality which is beyond her means . Slowly she starts getting trapped by glamour . She lies to her rich neighbours by saying that her husband is a big engineer , tries to get a costly dance teacher for her daughter , goads her husband to buy a car , wears costly flashy clothes .... Sukumari lights up the screen in her small role as her glamourous neighbour . When they hear the truth that he is just a worker and not a big engineer, they start sneering at her . She realises her mistake when the car has an accident , the dance master tries to molest her and her husband gets a notice from his company for being absent ... faced with growing bills . In the end they realise the futility of such squabbles and go back to their joint family . Over all a fine movie meant for the middle classes . The movie belongs to Urvasi. Parvathy is beautiful with expressive eyes , she wears simple cotton sarees to show her working girl status . Sreenivasan and Jayaraman dont have much role but they do shine as brothers caught in this squabble .

I watched this movie as a child. I rewatched it today, and the movie is still so relevant because the emotions dealt in the story are relevant. The opening track and scenes are so natural, that's how a wedding home looked in the early 90s-authenticity at its best. The plot revolves around an insecure wife, a gullible husband, and the former's aspirations to lead a luxurious life with no semblance to reality or the financial pressure her husband is experiencing. The ending is a bit harsh and preachy for my liking, but probably reflects life and cultural norms of the times. Lot of respect and love to the Sir/Shri Sreenivasan for writing tales about the common man (woman). All the actors are just fabulous, and the direction is par excellence. P.S: On Amazon Prime, the English subtitles are grossly incorrect at times, so proceed with caution😁. For example, Sukuettan is not Suku Brother 🤦‍♀️.

Urvashi stole the show from the beginning,she proved that she can ace any roles with ease. All actors have done their jobs pretty well. The story is plain and simple but written so well blended with humour and emotions. I've seen this a million times, still would watch it a billion more times. Fantastic!!