''Thinkalaazhcha Nalla Divasam'' () is a 1985

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

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super- ...

, written and directed by

P. Padmarajan P. Padmarajan (23 May 1945 – 23 January 1991) was an Indian film maker, screenwriter and author who was known for his works in Malayalam literature and Malayalam cinema. He was the founder of a new school of film making in Malayalam cinema, a ...

. The film stars

Mammootty Muhammad Kutty Panaparambil Ismail (; born 7 September 1951), known mononymously by the hypocorism Mammootty (), is an Indian actor and film producer who works predominantly in Malayalam films. He has also appeared in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, H ...

Kaviyoor Ponnamma Kaviyoor Ponnamma is an Indian actress who appears in Malayalam films and television. She began her career performing in theatre dramas before foraying into cinema. She has also acted in TV serials and commercials and has playback singing cred ...

Karamana Janardanan Nair Karamana Janardanan Nair (25 July 1936 – 24 April 2000) was a Malayalam film actor, who was active during the 1980s and 1990s. He was especially known for his character roles. He won wide acclaim especially for the role of the protagonis ...

and

Srividya Srividya (24 July 1953 – 19 October 2006), also known as Sreevidya, was an Indian actress best known for her work predominantly in Malayalam and Tamil films, along with few Telugu, Kannada and Hindi films. In a career spanning for 40 years, ...

. It tells the story of a man who wants to sell his ancestral house and put his mother in an old age home. ''Thinkalaazhcha Nalla Divasam'' won the

National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Malayalam The National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Malayalam is one of the National Film Awards presented annually by the Directorate of Film Festivals, the organisation set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India. It is one of sev ...

for exploring the layers of family relationship in a rural setting threatened by urban culture and explains how the imminent breakdown of the joint family is prevented by a death.

Plot

Janakiyamma stays in a spacious ancestral house with the help of a distant relative girl and servants who help her take care of her cows and poultry. Her elder son is Narayanankutty, married to Ambika, both central government servants in Bombay (Mumbai). They have two girls, Sheenu and Meenu. Her younger son Gopan is married to Bindu and is working in the Middle East. She also had a deceased daughter (not shown in the movie) and her son is Venu. The story starts with the children and grandchildren arriving at their ancestral house to celebrate the mother's 60th birthday. Janakiyamma is very happy with everybody's enthusiasm and thinks everyone is genuinely enjoying their stay at the house. Meanwhile, Gopan and Bindu have paid advance for a flat in Bangalore and want to get their share of the ancestral property (the house in which Janakiyamma lives) to be sold to pay the rest of the amount. Narayanankutty and Ambika learns about this and are shown upset at uprooting the mother. Narayanankutty is helpless and disappointed because they have not yet bought a house for themselves in Bombay and is visibly envious of the prosperity of his brother. One night they have a visitor Kochu/Kunju, who was their father's old servant. He is now well off and has four sons in the Middle East. He offers to buy the property, which upsets Narayanankutty because it is Kochu who is the buyer. Bindu has bought a TV for Amma (mother) and tries to project to her that Amma is not safe alone in that house. Janakiyamma overhears Bindu and Ambika discussing about selling the house and waiting for Amma to die. She is heartbroken and accepts the house to be sold. She also agrees to go to an old age home suggested by Bindu and Gopan. She refuses to go with Narayanankutty and Ambika. She goes to the old age home and passes away the next day. Gopan, now with only his family in the house waiting to be sold has nightmares. He feels really guilty of his deeds and loses his peace of mind. He decides not to sell the house his mother loved so much and decides to spend the rest of his life there. The film depicts how materialistic people become given the circumstances and how their past does not have any value in such people's lives. There is also a side track of on and off love angle between Sheenu and Venu and Gopan's girls enjoying the stint in the ancestral house, running around with livestock, bathing in ponds, etc. The girls finally force their father to stay back making his decision to stay in his ancestral house easier. Sheenu, brought up in Mumbai, initially does not like the relative girl at the house because of her over friendly approach. She later learns in an embarrassing moment from Venu that she understands all the bad words Sheenu used in English because the girl is more educated than her. Padmarajan, with his skillful narrative clearly shows how urban people generally consider villagers primitive.

Cast

as Janakiyamma *

as Gopan *

as Narayanankutty *

as Ambika *

Unnimary Unni Mary (born 12 March 1962) is an Indian actress who works mainly in Malayalam films. She has also worked in Telugu, Tamil and Kannada films, where she had used the screen name Deepa. Personal life Unnimary was born to Augustine Fernandes ...

as Bindu * Ashokan as Venu *

Achankunju Achankunju ( ml, അച്ചൻകുഞ്ഞ്) (1930 - 16 January 1987) was an Indian actor in Malayalam cinema. He started his career in the 1980s, mainly portraying villainous roles. He acted in more than 50 films in Malayalam. Backgrou ...

as Kunju * Kukku Parameshwaram as Sheenu * Ramachandran

Music

The film's soundtrack album and the score were composed by music director Shyam. The lyrics are penned by Chunakkara Ramankutty.

References

External links

* * {{National Film Award Best Feature Film Malayalam 1980s Malayalam-language films 1985 drama films 1985 films Films with screenplays by Padmarajan Films directed by Padmarajan Best Malayalam Feature Film National Film Award winners