''Asthram'' () is a 1983 Indian

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 P. N. Menon. The film stars

Bharath Gopi Gopynathan Velayudhan Nair (2 November 1937 – 29 January 2008), popularly known by the stage name Bharat Gopy, was an Indian actor, producer and director. He was one of the first actors to be associated with the New Wave cinema movement in K ...

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 ...

Mohanlal Mohanlal Viswanathan (born 21 May 1960), known mononymously as Mohanlal, is an Indian actor, film producer, playback singer, film distributor, and director who predominantly works in Malayalam cinema besides also having sporadically appe ...

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 ...

and Jyothi in the lead roles. The film has musical score by

Shyam Shyam is a name of Krishna and an Indian masculine given name and surname. Notable people with this name include: ;Shyam * Shyam (actor), Indian Hindi film actor * Shyam (composer), an Indian music composer from Kerala *Shyam Benegal, Indian film ...

. This movie is loosely based on the Nanavati murder case. Author Bibekanada Ray described the film as one of Menon's films "dealing with various contemporary political and social concerns" in her book about India's offbeat cinema.

Plot

Capt. C. S. Nair, a Naval officer, and Rekha constitute a happily married couple. Inspector Stephen and captain are good friends. When the captain leaves for his job, Rekha has to spend a lonely life in their big mansion. She occasionally takes a drive and spends time with Stephen's daughter Lilly. The Captain's elder sister Sharada, who was staying separate from her husband, had a kid Biju. Sharada had died of a tumor and since then Rekha was taking care of Biju like her own son. During the next occasion of leave, when captain is informed that Sharada is no more, he suggests to admit Biju in a boarding school, so that he gets the best schooling possible. The Captain meets Balu, a photographer, accidentally, he likes him very much and treats him as his own brother. They spend times together along with Balu's friends in outings and other leisure events. Captain leaves for his job and Rekha and Balu fall in an affair accidentally. Balu realizes that it is a mistrust and runs away from the affair. Rekha had a difficult time to recover from the incident. However she could not conceal it for long, and during the next visit of the Captain she discloses about the affair. Though she doesn't reveal the man, the Captain traces that Balu is the culprit owing to the indifference in behaviour of Balu. As he couldn't be the same husband again, Captain insists that Balu marry Rekha, which Balu declines, leading to what is in his mind, forming the climax.

Cast

as Captain C. S. Nair *

as Balu *

as Dasan *

as Krishnanunni * Jyothi as Rekha * Sukumari as Sharada Chechi *

Jagathy Sreekumar Sreekumar P. K. (born 5 January 1951), better known by his stage name Jagathy Sreekumar or simply Jagathy, is an Indian actor, director and playback singer, who has appeared in over 1500 Malayalam films in a career spanning almost four decad ...

as Philip * Sankaradi as Nanu Maashu *

Isaac Thomas Isaac Thomas (November 4, 1784 – February 2, 1859), was an American politician representing Tennessee in the United States House of Representatives. Biography Thomas was born in Sevierville, Tennessee. After the death of his parents, Thomas ...

as Dr. Thomas * Jesey as Rev. Father * Lissy as Lilly * Vijayan * Balan K. Nair as Stephen *

Bhagyalakshmi Bhagyalakshmi (born 1 November 1962) is an Indian dubbing artist, actress and activist. She works primarily in Malayalam Film Industry and has dubbed for more than 4000 films in Malayalam cinema, most notably for actresses Shobana and Ur ...

*Chamundeswary *Master Twinku as Biju *

Meghanathan Meghanathan is an Indian actor who appears in Malayalam cinema, Malayalam and Tamil cinema, Tamil films. The son of actor Balan K. Nair, he debuted in 1983 in the Malayalam film ''Asthram''. He has acted in more than 50 Malayalam films. Backgr ...

as Johny *Punnapra Appachan * Chaplin *Raghu * Joli * Chamundeswari

Soundtrack

The music was composed by

and the lyrics were written by Poovachal Khader and

Sathyan Anthikkad Sathyan Anthikad is an Indian film director, screenwriter, and lyricist who predominantly works in Malayalam cinema. In a career spanning five decades he has directed more than 50 films, been the lyricist for 12 films and been the scriptwriter f ...

References

External links

* 1983 films 1980s Malayalam-language films Films directed by P. N. Menon (director) {{1980s-Malayalam-film-stub