Thenmavin Kombath

RATED 9/10 Language: Malayalam Source: Amazon Prime RECOMMENDED

I liked this one very much. The premise and characters are so much better and suited very well with the story. The comedy and sentiment are handled very well. Another movie to prove that originals are always better... after seeing this I started to dislike the first half of "Muthu" movie and started to like Mohanlal more... So original and so funny.... must watch.

Firstly, this review does not contain any spoilers whatsoever so read on. Frontier melodrama about Kerala's Thazavad manorial system which is based on matrimonial Kinship. Sreekrishna (Venu), the brother of the Madambipura House's leader, Yashoda, is extremely friendly with his servant Manikan (Mohanlal). Another servant, Appakala, envious of Manikan's favored 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 theater actress Karuthumbi (Shobhana), causing Manikan to briefly fall out of favor with both Yashoda and the local law. The film's camera-work adopts the glossy style (diffusers and angled lighting calibrated to the exposure of high-speed color stock) made fashionable by Tamil cinematographer P.C.Sriram. Shot mostly at dawn and dusk, the camera-work creates a glittering fantasy world than in turn determines both plot and performances.

The film is centered around a village in which panchayat meetings are held to determine the fate of adulterers, cows and people wash in the river, tribal women wear special saris, and Pongal is celebrated with exciting bullock-cart races! It sounds like one of *those* village films, but it actually stays pretty lighthearted and silly until the intermission.

This movie has beautiful images, cinematography, scenery. The story could've been better instead too many curves and twist and drama. Great acting from all.

One of Priyadarshan's completely original movies, this was (not surprisingly) the biggest Malayalam hit in 1994. We see Mohanlal as Manikyam, who happen's to be the loyal Man Friday/friend/brother to Sreekrishnan (Nedumudi Venu). Both of them fall head over heels for village beauty Karthumbi (Shobana). Mohanlal does a great job, but this is Nedumudi's movie. His act as the jealous lover forms the centrefold of the movie; everything else revolves around it. Adding fuel to his seething envy is Appakkala (Sreenivasan, who is genuinely hilarious as always).

The cinematography by Santosh Sivan is breath-taking, no wonder he is lauded so much. The beautiful music is another aspect to be noted. The soundtrack went on to become the most sold soundtrack ever in Malayalam cinema, as of 1994-95.

The Hindi and Telugu remakes do grave injustice to the simplicity of the original. Refrain from watching them.