ചിദംബരം CHIDAMBARAM_RestoredFullHD1080p I G. Aravindan I 1985

Written, Produced and Directed by Govindan Aravindan Production - Saj Productions Presented by Sooryakanthy Story - C. V. Sreeraman Cinematography - Shaji N. Karun Music by Paravur G. Devarajan Executive Producer - Sethu Assistant Directors - Padmakumar, Rajeev, E.C. Thomas Sound Recording - Harikumar, Chandran Art Direction - Namboothiri Stills - N. L. Balakrishnan Makeup - Sunil Bose, Ramu Summary: Unfolding in exquisitely photographed poetic rhythms and coloured landscapes, this is the simple but cynical tale of Muniyandi (Srinivasan), a labourer on the Indo-Swiss Mooraru farm in Kerala. He brings a wife, Sivagami (Smita Patil), from the temple town of Chidambaram. She befriends Shankaran (Bharath Gopi), the estate manager and amateur photographer with a shady past. Their friendship transgresses the hypocritical but deeply felt behavioural codes the local men inherited from previous social formations: i.e. that women are to be denied what men are allowed to enjoy. The tragedy that ensues (Muniyandi suicide, Shankaran’s descent into alcoholism and Sivagami withering into a worn-out old woman) condenses the tensions between socioeconomic change (as tractors and machinery invade the landscape) and people’s refusal to confront the corresponding need to change their mentality. The tension is, however, most graphically felt in the way Sivagami life-force is extended into the naturescape, which is shot around her with garish colour (e.g. purple flower-beds) suggesting that the very nature of Kerala’s beauty and fertility, as she represents it, has been irredeemably corrupted from within. The film then shifts to the equally oppressive cloisters of the Chidambaram temple, as Shankaran and Sivagami meet once more: he is there to purify himself through religious ritual while she is now employed to look after the footwear of devotees and tourists. The nihilist film ends with a rising crane shot as the camera can only avert its gaze and escape, tilting up along a temple wall towards an open sky. (Summary Courtesy : Indiancine.ma) CAST Sreenivasan as Muniyandi Bharath Gopi as Shankaran Smita Patil as Sivakami Innocent as himself Nedumudi Venu as himself Murali as Cheriyan Dr Mohandas as Jacob James Release date : 8 March 1985 Running time : 99 minutes 54 Seconds Country : India Language : Malayalam with English subtitles(Hardcoded) Aspect Ratio : 1:1.33 Shot on 35MM Color Film Stock, Digitally Restored at NFAI, Pune. #சிதம்பரம் #GovindanAravindan #MalayalamwithEnglishSubs #RestoredFullHD1080p #ചിദംബരം #SmitaPatil #BharathGopi #Sreenivasan #CVSreeraman #MalayalamCinema #IndianParallelCinema