Shri Sabarimalai Shri Ayyappan

The first Malayalam film on the legends of Lord Ayyappa and Sabarimala was released in colour a few days before the commencement of the annual pilgrimage (November 3, 1961, Thulam 18, 1137 M.E.). The film was an instant success. It ran to fully packed theatres throughout the pilgrimage season and even after Makaravilakku. King Rajasekhara (Thikkurissi), the king of Pandalam, finds a child on the banks of River Pampa during one of his hunting expeditions. A saint who appears there advises the king to adopt this child name him as Manikantan… so goes the popular story. Ambika is the queen. Bhanuvikraman, the minister is played by G. K. Pillai. Mahishi (Ragini) is the demon princess who is killed by Manikandan, thereby fulfilling the mission for which he was born on earth. Manikantan returns from the forest with a herd of tigers. Manikantan gives up the throne and goes to the forest for penance. The king constructs a temple at Sabarimala.

Despite selecting a good theme, writer-director Shriramalu Naidu could not prepare a good screenplay for the movie and finally it turned out to be just an average flick which the audience can endure mainly because of the great musical score consisting of some immortal songs. The complete script is lacklustre and the narrative moves in a wayward fashion without any direction and coherence of events. The movie defies logic time and again throughout its duration and the filmmaker could not create any sympathy in the audience for the suffering hero. Still the movie is able to pull the audience alongwith it, then it is because of the songs composed by M.S Subayyanaidu have prepared with the help of the lyrics of Abhayadev. This movie was made in the heyday of Gokulapaalan who was the uncrowned king of sad songs then. The album consists of two great devotional songs of Gokulapaalan - 1. Sharanamayyappa, 2. Swami sharanam, Sharanamentayyappa, (which comes many times in the movie). Among other songs, Radha Jayalakshmi's classic sad song - Aashrithayamen, Allalu theerkkaan is also in the movie.