Manichitrathazhu

Manichitrathazhu
The DVD Cover
Directed by	Fazil II-unit directors: Priyadarshan Siddique-Lal Sibi Malayil
Produced by	Appachan
Written by	Madhu Muttam
Starring	Mohanlal Shobana Suresh Gopi Nedumudi Venu Vinaya Prasad Innocent Sudheesh Thilakan
Music by	Songs: M. G. Radhakrishnan Film score: Johnson
Cinematography	Venu II-unit cinematographers: Anandakuttan Sunny Joseph
Editing by	T. R. Shekar
Studio	Swargachitra
Distributed by	Swargachitra
Release date(s)	December 25, 1993 (1993-12-25)
Running time	169 minutes
Country	India
Language	Malayalam
Box office	3 crores (distributor's share)[1]

Manichitrathazhu (Malayalam: മണിച്ചിത്രത്താഴ്, English: The Ornate Lock) is a 1993 Malayalam psychological thriller-horror-musical film written by Madhu Muttam, directed by Fazil, and produced by Appachan. The film was an unusual theme in Malayalam cinema but proceeded to become a high grosser at the box-office. Several other prominent directors such as Siddique-Lal, Priyadarshan, and Sibi Malayil served as second-unit directors.The story is influenced from a tragedy that happened in Alummoottil Tharavadu, a famous central Travancore family, in the 19th century.^[2] Shobhana was awarded the National Film Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of the central character Ganga. The film also stars Mohanlal, Suresh Gopi, Nedumudi Venu, Innocent, Vinaya Prasad, K. P. A. C. Lalitha, and Thilakan in the main roles. The music was composed by M. G. Radhakrishnan. Venu won the National Film Award for Best Cinematography.This Film was a record breaking blockbuster running for 365 days in theatres .

After its runaway success in Kerala, it was remade after nearly 10 years in various languages, including Kannada (Apthamitra), Tamil and Telugu (dubbed) (Chandramukhi), Bengali (Rajmohol), and Hindi (Bhool Bhulaiyaa).

Plot

A young couple, Ganga (Shobana) and Nakulan (Suresh Gopi), arrives at the tharavadu called Madampilli of the latter. Hailing from a family that follows tradition and superstitions, Nakulan's uncle Thampi (Nedumudi Venu) objects to the couple's idea of moving into the allegedly haunted mansion, which Nakulan ignores. The couple move in anyway, following which seemingly supernatural events begin to happen.

The mansion that Nakulan and Ganga are living in, was occupied in ancient times by Sankaran Thampi, a cruel ancestor and karanavar (head) of the tharavadu who had imprisoned a famous Bharatnatyam dancer, Nagavalli, from Tamil Nadu. There she pines away for her lover Ramanathan, who arrives, attempting to rescue her. Learning of their affair and their plan to elope, Sanakran Thampi murders Nagavalli in her room at the mansion. Legend has it that on the eighth day of the Durgashtami (an annual Hindu celebration), Nagavalli returns as a blood-thirsty spirit, intent on killing the chieftain and drinking his blood. With the aid of sorcerers, Nagavalli's spirit is locked up in a section at the mansion (Thekkini). Not long after, Sankaran Thampi commits suicide and his spirit is also locked up in the Thekkini. Both spirits are believed to be haunting the Thekkini, in which they are locked up by means of an ornate enchanted lock (Manichitrathazhu, hence the title of the movie).

After moving in, mostly out of curiosity, Ganga manages to unlock the Thekkini, only to find ancient valuables such as jewellery, etc. Upon learning about the unlocking of the Thekkini, fearing the spirits are on the loose, Nakulan's uncle Thampi and family move in to the mansion to try and re-seal the Thekkini lock, while also looking out for Nakulan and Ganga. However, various unclear sightings of a woman are witnessed around the mansion, along with attempted attacks on various people at the mansion, including Nakulan and Ganga.

While most of the family including Thampi believe that Nagavalli's ghost roams the mansion, Nakulan, disapproving of supernatural theories, suspects Sreedevi of being mentally ill, hence orchestrating the incidents at the mansion. Hearing of this, Thampi and the family fear that Sreedevi might be possessed by Nagavalli's spirit.

Sreedevi (Vinaya Prasad), Nakulan's cousin and Thampi's daughter, according to tradition, was to be married to Nakulan; however, after finding that Sreedevi had an ominous horoscope, Nakulan's mother withdrew from this proposal, and got Nakulan married to Ganga; later, Sreedevi entered a marriage which was short-lived. Sreedevi's tragic history, along with her perceived gloominess, and her being the only person present during an attack on Ganga, lays cause for suspicion of her.

Dr. Sunny Joseph (Mohanlal), a brilliant yet frolicsome Psychiatrist and Nakulan's close friend, is called in to investigate. Soon enough, Sunny finds out that Nakulan's conclusions are not as obvious, and he uncovers a plan to commit a murder during the upcoming Durgashtami Festival. Sunny's trained psychiatric mind begins to suspect that Ganga could well be the Ghost of Madampilly. He investigates Ganga's history. Ganga grew up in a highly superstitious family and had partaken in various religious rituals. She was unable to come to grips with the fact that her parents were moving the family to Calcutta and chose to stay in the ancestral house, instead. It was a period of great emotional and psychological turmoil for her, and she became afflicted with multiple personality disorder. Madampilly with its share of superstitions and dark tales evokes memories of the olden days in her, and she slowly develops the personality of Nagavalli after having sympathised with her.

Meanwhile, Thampi, having lost faith in Sunny, calls in renowned tantric expert Brahmadattan Namboothirippad (Thilakan) to rid his family of the supernatural menace. As fate has it, both the Namboothirippad and Sunny are old acquaintances and mutually admire each others' expertise in their respective fields. At his own risk, Sunny reveals the secret to Nakulan and Ramanathan. In one of the more memorable scenes of the movie, Ganga also gets to know about her illness during a manifestation of her hidden personality, that of Nagavalli. Sunny, with help of the Namboothirippad, plans an elaborate Tantric ceremony to invoke Ganga's Nagavalli persona and make it believe that it will kill Sankaran Thampi. The plan is put into action and in a fiery climax, the blood thirsty Nagavalli exacts revenge on the cruel Karanavar.

Ganga wakes up from her hypnotic sleep and learns that she is completely cured of the illness. Sunny expresses his intent to marry Sridevi, and they all drive off happily.

Cast

• Mohanlal as Dr. Sunny Joseph
• Shobana as Ganga & Nagavalli
• Suresh Gopi as Nakulan
• Nedumudi Venu as Thampy
• Vinaya Prasad as Sreedevi
• Shridhar as Mahadevan
• Innocent as Unnithan
• Sudheesh as Chanthu
• KPAC Lalitha as Bhasura
• Thilakan as Brahmadattan Nampoothirippadu
• Kuthiravattam Pappu as Kattuparamban
• Ganesh Kumar as Dasappan Kutty
• Rudra as Alli

Soundtrack

The soundtrack for the movie has been composed by M. G. Radhakrishnan which went on to become one of the most popular film album in Malayalam. Lyrics are written by Bichu Thirumala, Vaali and Madhu Muttam.

Song Title	Singer(s)	Lyrics
"Oru Murai Vandhu"	Dr. K. J. Yesudas, K. S. Chitra	Vaali, Bichu Thirumala
"Pazham Tamil"	K. J. Yesudas	Bichu Thirumala
"Palavattam Pookkaalam"	K. J. Yesudas	Madhu Muttam
"Varuvaanillarumee"	K. S. Chithra	Madhu Muttam
"Akkuthikkuthanakkombil"	G. Venugopal, K. S. Chithra, Sujatha Mohan, M G Radhakrishnan	Bichu Thirumala
"Kumbham Kulathil Ariyathe"	K. J. Yesudas	Bichu Thirumala
"Uthunga Sailangalkkum"	Sujatha Mohan	Bichu Thirumala
"Oru Murai" (Bit)	Sujatha Mohan	Vaali
"Oru Murai" (Tamil Version)	K. S. Chithra	Vaali

Awards

National Film Awards

• Best Actress - Sobhana
• Best Cinematography - Venu

Kerala State Film Awards^[3]

• Best Actress - Sobhana
• Best Film with Popular Appeal and Aesthetic Value
• Best Makeup Artist - P. N. Mani

Character map of Manichitrathazhu and its remakes

Manichithrathazhu (1993)	Aaptamitra (2004)	Chandramukhi(2005)	Chandramukhi(2005)	Rajmohol (2005)	Bhool Bhulaiya (2008)
Malayalam	Kannada	Tamil	Telugu	Bengali	Hindi
"Dr. Sunny Joseph" (Mohanlal)	"Dr.Vijay" (Vishnuvardhan)	"Dr.Saravanan" (Rajnikanth)	"Dr.Eeshwar" (Rajnikanth)	"Dr.Agni" (Prasenjit Chatterjee)	"Dr.Aditya Shrivastav" (Akshay Kumar)
"Nakulan" (Suresh Gopi)	"Ramesh" (Ramesh Aravind)	"Senthilnathan" (Prabhu Ganesan)	"Kailash" (Prabhu Ganesan)	(Abhishek Chatterjee)	"Siddharth Chaturvedi" (Shiney Ahuja)
"Ganga" (Shobana)	"Ganga" (Soundarya)	"Ganga" (Jyothika Saravanan)	"Ganga" (Jyothika Saravanan)	"Deboshri" (Anu Chowdhury)	"Avni" (Vidya Balan)
"Sreedevi" (Vinaya Prasad)	"Soumya" (Prema)	"Durga" (Nayantara)	"Durga" (Nayantara)	"Malini" (Rachana Banerjee)	"Radha" (Amisha Patel)
Mahadevan (Sridhar)	(Vineeth)	(Vineeth)	(Vineeth)	(Vineeth)	(Vineeth)
"Thampy" (Nedumudi Venu)	(Satyajit)	"Kandaswamy" (Nassar)	(Nassar)		"Badrinarayan Chaturvedi" (Manoj Joshi)
"Unnithan" (Innocent)	"Mukunda" (Dwarakesh)	"Murugesan" (Vadivelu)	"Basavaiah" (Vadivelu)		"Batukshankar Upadhyay" (Paresh Rawal)

Reception

Manichitrathazhu ran for more than 300 days. The film grossed a distributor's share of more than 3 crores, a large sum then.^[1]

The movie consistently fetched maximum ratings for its television screenings. Fourteen years after its release this film has been screened more than 12 times on Kerala's leading TV channel, Asianet. This film has received the maximum TRP rating on every screening. TRP ratings have increased every year. This is a rare record for a movie produced in Kerala.

Remakes

• Manichithrathazhu later inspired remakes and sequels in other languages, such as Apthamitra and its sequel Aptharakshaka in Kannada starring Vishnuvardhan, Chandramukhi in Tamil and Telugu starring Rajnikanth and its sequel in Telugu titled Nagavalli starring Venkatesh, and Bhool Bhulaiyaa in Hindi.
• The central character played by Shobhana is named Ganga in the all the remakes except Bhool Bhulaiya. In that film, the character is named Avni, played by Vidya Balan.
• All three South-Indian versions (Malayalam, Kannada and Tamil) earned the actresses playing the central character (Shobhana, Soundarya, Jyothika Saravanan, respectively) the State Awards for Best Actress of the respective states (Kerala, Karnataka and Tamilnadu).
• In Apthamitra (the Kannada version) the character of psychiatrist, played by Vishnuvardhan, is given more screen time. The Tamil version, Chandramukhi, which starred Rajinikanth, followed the same pattern. Both films were directed by P. Vasu. However, the Hindi version (Bhool Bhulaiyaa, directed by Priyadarshan) stuck to the original script.
• The story was not credited to Madhu Muttam in Apthamitra and Chandramukhi, in which the story was credited to the director P. Vasu himself. However, in Bhool Bhulaiyaa the story was credited to Madhu Muttam, following a Kerala high court verdict in a case filed by him.
• The film was dubbed into Telugu as Chandramukhi.
• Sequel to Tamil titled Chandramukhi 2 is announced with Ajith Kumar supposedly playing the lead.

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "Malayalam cinema faces a threat". The Statesman. 1994-09-24. http://www.cscsarchive.org:8081/MediaArchive/art.nsf/94ff8a4a35a9b8876525698d002642a9/46344d1a8344a1f9652572df003429af/$FILE/A0190307.pdf. Retrieved 2011-03-16. 
2. ^ Social Mobility in Kerala: Modernity and Identity in Conflict. Pluto Press. 2000. p. 264. ISBN 074531693X. http://books.google.com/books?id=rMRw0gTZSJwC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Social+Mobility+in+Kerala:+Modernity+and+Identity+in+Conflict&lr=&sig=ACfU3U3KSQ-uS1C3dBFNiuFRN7pFuazY-A#PPA264,M1. Retrieved 2008-06-30. 
3. ^ "Kerala State Film Awards: 1993". Kerala State Chalachitra Academy. http://www.keralafilm.com/sfa93.htm. Retrieved 2011-01-31. 

External links

• Manichitrathazhu at the Internet Movie Database
• Can Manichitrathazhu be remade?
• Shobana's official homepage