''Pavakkoothu'' () is a 1990

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry ( Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam wa ...

-language film, directed by

Sreekumar Krishnan Nair Sreekumar Krishnan Nair (born 17 June), often credited on screen as K. Sreekuttan) is an Indian filmmaker, best known for directing the 1993 film ''O' Faby'', which was India's first full-length live action/animation hybrid feature film. He is ...

(as Sreekuttan) and produced by Panthalam Gopinath. It stars

Jayaram Jayaram Subramaniam, (born 10 December 1965) known mononymously as Jayaram, is an Indian actor who predominantly appears in Malayalam cinema, Malayalam,Tamil cinema, Tamil films, along with a few Telugu cinema, Telugu films. He is also a chend ...

, Parvathy,

Ranjini Ranjini is a Sri Lankan refugee to Australia since 2010, who has been held in indefinite detention with her children since 2012 due to a negative assessment by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), while at the same time a rec ...

, and

Innocent Innocence is a lack of guilt, with respect to any kind of crime, or wrongdoing. In a legal context, innocence is to the lack of legal guilt of an individual, with respect to a crime. In other contexts, it is a lack of experience. In relatio ...

. The film is a remake of the 1984 American movie ''

Micki & Maude ''Micki & Maude'' is a 1984 American romantic comedy film directed by Blake Edwards and starring Dudley Moore. It co-stars Tony Award-winning actress and dancer Ann Reinking as Micki and Amy Irving as Maude. With the exception of appearances as h ...

''. It has a musical score by

Johnson Johnson is a surname of Anglo-Norman origin meaning "Son of John". It is the second most common in the United States and 154th most common in the world. As a common family name in Scotland, Johnson is occasionally a variation of ''Johnston'', a ...

. Earlier in 1987, this film was already made in Tamil, as ''Rettai Vaal Kuruvi'' (lit. 'Two-tailed Sparrow') starring Mohan,

Radhika Radha ( sa, राधा, ), also called Radhika, is a Hindu goddess and the chief consort of the god Krishna. She is worshiped as the goddess of love, tenderness, compassion, and devotion. She is the avatar of goddess Lakshmi and is also de ...

, and Archana, with direction by Balu Mahendra and Abdul Kader as producer, with excellent music by Ilayaraja.

Plot

''Pavakoothu'' is a story of a couple, Prakash and Sumitra. Prakash has an extra-marital affair with Krishna. Both his wife and girlfriend get pregnant at the same time. He tries to hide it from both using shenanigans resembling a puppet show, but finally, they come to know the truth in the moments they are rolled on to the labour room in the same hospital. Sumitra develops complications during delivery and the baby dies. She also had to have her uterus removed, so she will never conceive a baby again. Meanwhile, Krishna learns of Sumitra's situation, gives her baby to the couple, and leaves.

Cast

as Prakash *

Parvathy Jayaram Ashwathy Kurup (born 7 April 1970), better known by her stage name Parvathy and married name Parvathy Jayaram (Aswathi Jayaram) , is a former Indian actress, costume designer and classical dancer, who appeared in Malayalam films. Parvathy was ...

as Sumitra *

as Krishna *

as Chakkochen *

Mamukkoya Mamukkoya (born 5 July 1946) is an Indian actor known for his work in Malayalam cinema, and has also appeared in French film ''Flammens of Paradise''. He has mostly appeared in comedic roles. His unique usage of the Mappila dialect and style ma ...

as Kanjirakutti *

M. G. Soman M. G. Soman (28 September 1941 – 12 December 1997) was an Indian actor and former Indian Air Force officer who appeared in Malayalam films. He was one among the leading star actors doing hero roles in Malayalam Cinema during the late 1970s an ...

as M. P. Purushothaman Pilla *

Nedumudi Venu Kesavan Venugopal (22 May 1948 – 11 October 2021), better known by his stage name Nedumudi Venu, was an Indian actor and screenwriter from Kerala, who predominantly worked in Malayalam cinema. He acted in more than 500 films, primarily in ...

as Padit Adithya Varma *

Valsala Menon Valsala Menon (born 1945) is an Indian actress who works in Malayalam films. She has acted in over 200+ films. Currently she is active in Malayalam television serials. Early life Valsala Menon was born in 1945 to Raman Menon and Devakiyamma in ...

as Malathy Ramachandran, Dooradarshan Director *

Philomena Philomena ( el, Ἁγία Φιλομένα), also known as Saint Philomena or ''Philomena of Rome'' was a young virgin martyr whose remains were discovered on May 24–25, 1802, in the Catacomb of Priscilla. Three tiles enclosing the tomb bore ...

as Nurse *

Poojappura Radhakrishnan Poojappura known as "The heart of Trivandrum" is a Suburb of Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum) in India. It is located in the south-east part of the city, surrounded by Jagathi, Karamana, Mudavanmugal and Thirumala. This place was once used as ...

as Moorthy *

Kalabhavan Rahman Kalabhavan Rahman is a Malayalam film actor in Kerala. Career Rahman started his film acting career in 1986 with a unimportant role. Reghunath Paleri directed the title Onnu Muthal Poojyam Vare. He hails from Aluva in Kerala. Rahman is al ...

as Attender *

T. P. Madhavan T. P. Madhavan (born 7 November 1935) is an Indian actor who appeared in Malayalam films. He started acting at the age of 40. He has acted in more than 600 films. He came into the film industry playing villain roles; later he started doing com ...

as Doctor * Trichur Elsi as Doctor

Trivia

*This movie contains the famous comedy sequence in which

, playing a writer, describes a copycat version of Ramayana with merely names changed, as his new story. *The movie ends with shots of Krishna wishing that Prakash and Sumithra would name the baby Malavika, so they could call her Malu. Coincidentally, the actors

and Parvathy married in real life two years later and their girl child born in 1996 was in fact named Malavika.

Soundtrack

The music was composed by

with lyrics by

K Jayakumar K. Jayakumar (born 6 October 1952) is an Indian civil servant, poet, and author. He is an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer from Kerala who retired as the Chief Secretary of the Government of Kerala. He has also worked as lyricist, tr ...

References

External links

* 1990 films 1990s Malayalam-language films Films shot in Thiruvananthapuram Indian remakes of American films Films directed by Sreekumar Krishnan Nair {{1990s-Malayalam-film-stub