Manichitrathazhu


Manichitrathazhu is a 1993 Indian Malayalam-language psychological horror film directed by Fazil, written by Madhu Muttam, and produced by Swargachitra Appachan. The story is inspired by a tragedy that happened in the Alummoottil tharavad, a central Travancore family, in the 19th century. The film stars Mohanlal, Suresh Gopi and Shobana with Nedumudi Venu, Innocent, Vinaya Prasad, K. P. A. C. Lalitha, Sridhar, K. B. Ganesh Kumar, Sudheesh, and Thilakan in supporting roles.
Directors Priyadarshan, Siddique-Lal, and Sibi Malayil served as the second-unit directors. The cinematography was by Venu, and Anandakuttan and Sunny Joseph served as the second-unit cinematographers, the film was edited by T. R. Shekar. The original songs featured in the movie were composed by M. G. Radhakrishnan, while the original score was composed by Johnson. The film won the National Film Award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment and Shobhana was awarded the National Film Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Ganga / Nagavalli.
The film dealt with an unusual theme which was not common in Indian cinema at the time. Manichitrathazhu became the highest-grossing Malayalam film ever at the box-office and received widespread critical acclaim. It is considered as one of the best Malayalam films ever made. The film ran for 365 days in theatres. Manichitrathazhu was remade in four languages – in Kannada as Apthamitra, in Tamil as Chandramukhi, in Bengali as Rajmohol and in Hindi as Bhool Bhulaiyaa – all being commercially successful. Geethaanjali, a spin-off directed by Priyadarshan and Mohanlal reprising the role of Dr. Sunny Joseph was made in 2013.

Plot

A young couple, Ganga and Nakulan, arrives at Nakulan's tharavadu, Madampalli. Hailing from a traditional family that believes in superstitions, Nakulan's uncles Thampi and Unnithan object to the couple's idea of moving into a mansion that is believed to be haunted, which Nakulan ignores. The couple moves in, following which seemingly supernatural events are triggered.
The mansion was occupied decades ago by Sankaran Thampi karanavar, a feudal lord of the province and the then-head of the family. In his heyday, he had brought in a dancer girl, Nagavalli, from Tamil Nadu as his concubine. But she was already in love with a man named Ramanathan, a dancer who came along with her secretly and settled in the cottage next to the mansion. Learning of their affair and their plan to elope, Thampi murders Nagavalli in her room. Legend has it that on the eighth day of Navaratri, on Durgashtami night, Nagavalli returned as a spirit for the murdering Karanavar, but he escaped upon chanting some mantras. With the assistance of sorcerers from Aalappara, her spirit was locked in the southernmost portion of the mansion called Thekkini by placing a talisman over the lock. Later the Karanavar committed suicide and his spirit was locked up beside the same room, by means of an ornate enchanted lock called manichitrathazhu.
In the present-day, a curious Ganga manages to unlock the Thekkini, only to find paintings of the Karanavar and Nagavalli, and ancient valuables such as jewellery and musical instruments. Upon learning about the unlocking of the Thekkini, fearing the spirits are on the loose, Thampi and family move into the mansion to try and re-seal the Thekkini lock, while also looking out for Nakulan and Ganga. However, apparitions of a woman are witnessed around the mansion, along with paranormal attack at people at the mansion, including Ganga and Unnithan's daughter Alli. Nevertheless, Nakulan, disapproving of any supernatural activity, suspects Thampi's daughter Sreedevi of orchestrating the incidents as she was present during all events of attack. Hearing about his suspicion, Thampi and family fear that Sreedevi might be possessed by Nagavalli's spirit.
Sreedevi, who is Nakulan's cousin, 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 past, 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, a brilliant yet frolicsome Psychiatrist and Nakulan's close friend is called from the United States to investigate. Soon enough Dr. Sunny finds out that Nakulan's conclusions are not as obvious and he predicts a murder to happen during the upcoming Durga Ashtami festival. Few days later, while the entire family is watching a Kathakali performance, Ganga goes missing in the middle and Sunny and Nakulan goes in search of her. They spot Mahadevan, a renowned novelist and the family's next-door neighbor and Alli's fiance, having a tussle with Ganga. Thinking that Ganga was being abused by him, Nakulan attempts to beat Mahadevan but Sunny stops him. Mahadevan is Ganga's favourite writer. The narrative also leaves hint that Ganga could be displaying her needs to be with Mahadevan as an escape from her servile relationship with Nakulan which is against the norms of monogamous societies. After Ganga's fit and by being unconscious, the three men take her to the mansion and she goes to sleep. Sunny reveals certain shocking truths to the other two.
Right from the night of his arrival, Sunny begins to suspect that Ganga could well be the cause. He digs into Ganga's past with the help of Thampi's son and Sreedevi's younger brother Chandu. Ganga grew up in a highly superstitious family and had partaken in various religious rituals as a child. Her parents had left her to her grandmother at the age of three and never bothered about her due to their busy lifestyle. This made her sensitive as an individual; so when she came to know that her parents were moving her to Calcutta she was unable to come to grips with it. She had become very close to her grandmother and did not want to leave her village and her ancestral home. It was a period of great emotional and psychological turmoil for her, and she slowly developed multiple personality disorder. Years later, Madampalli with its share of superstitions and dark tales evokes memories of her childhood and Ganga slowly develops the personality of Nagavalli after having empathised with her and her devastating backstory.
Meanwhile, Thampi having lost faith in Dr. Sunny, calls in a renowned tantric expert Pullattuparam Brahmadathan Namboothiripad to get rid of his family's supernatural menace. As fate has it, both the Namboothiripad and Sunny are old acquaintances and mutually admire each other's expertise in their respective fields. At his own risk, Sunny reveals the secret to Namboothiripad and also adds some of the facts which he observed from Ganga's behaviour. When Ganga transforms into Nagavalli, her alter ego assumes the man staying in dancer Ramanathan's ancient house as Ramanathan. Similarly she assumes Nakulan to be the Karnavar, thereby waiting to kill him on Durga Ashtami night to take her revenge.
Ganga gets a loose idea of her illness during a manifestation of her alter ego by Nakulan under Sunny's instructions. Sunny, with help of the Namboothiripad, plans an elaborate Tantric ceremony to create a suitable atmosphere and invoke Ganga's Nagavalli persona and make it believe that it will finally kill Thampi. The plan is put into action and Namboothiripad orders Nagavalli in Ganga to exact revenge on Karanavar by making Nakulan lie down on a platform, and giving a sword to Nagavalli. As Nagavalli is about to pick up the sword, Namboothiripad sprays ash in front of Nagavalli blinding her and simultaneously Sunny turns the platform over, revealing a blood-filled dummy resembling the Karanavar. Thus, Nakulan is saved, and he escapes. Ganga, in her extreme rage, as Nagavalli, stabs the dummy multiple times and thinks that she actually kills the Karanavar, and drinks the dummy's blood, thereby making her feel like she has accomplished her task. Ganga falls down into a hypnotic sleep while Nagavalli leaves her.
Ganga wakes up from her hypnotic sleep and learns that she is completely cured of the illness. Sunny expresses his intent to marry Sreedevi, and they all drive off happily.

Cast

Filming

The climax scene and major parts of the film were filmed in Padmanabhapuram Palace and Hill Palace, Tripunithura.

Dubbing credits

Shobana's voice was dubbed by two dubbing artistesBhagyalakshmi and Durga. Bhagyalakshmi dubbed her voice for Ganga, while Durga gave voice to the character's alter-ego, Nagavalli. Nagavalli's voice is heard only in the minor part of the film compared to Ganga's. Durga was not credited in the film or its publicity material and until 2016, the popular belief was that Bhagyalakshmi solely dubbed both voices.
In January 2016, in an article Ormapookkal published by Manorama Weekly, Fazil revealed that initially Bhagyalakshmi dubbed for both Ganga and Nagavalli, but during post-production, some of the crew, including editor Shekar, had a feeling that both voices sounded somewhat similar even though Bhagyalakshmi tried altering her voice for Nagavalli. Since Nagavalli's dialogue are in Tamil language, Fazil hired Tamil dubbing artiste Durga for the part. But he forgot to inform it to Bhagyalakshmi, hence she was also unaware of it for a long time. Fazil did not credit Durga in the film; according to him, it was a difficult to make changes in the titles at that time, which was already prepared and her portion in the film was minor. The credits included only Bhagyalakshmi as the dubbing artiste for Shobana. Other dubbing artistes were Anandavally and Ambili, who dubbed for Vinaya Prasad and Rudra.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack for the film was composed by M. G. Radhakrishnan which went on to become one of the most popular film albums in Malayalam. The album consists of nine tracks. The lyrics sung are in Malayalam and Tamil written by Bichu Thirumala and Madhu Muttam for Malayalam and Vaali for Tamil.

Reception

Box office

Manichitrathazhu performed well at the box office and became the highest-grossing Malayalam film ever, to that date. It ran for more than 365 days in some centres. The film gained a profit of 3 crore for the producer.

Awards

AwardCeremonyCategoryNomineeResult
National Film Awards41st National Film AwardsBest Popular Film Providing Wholesome EntertainmentSwargachitra Appachan, Fazil
National Film Awards41st National Film AwardsBest ActressShobana
Kerala State Film Awards34th Kerala State Film AwardsBest Film with Popular Appeal and Aesthetic ValueSwargachitra Appachan, Fazil
Kerala State Film Awards34th Kerala State Film AwardsBest ActressShobana
Kerala State Film Awards34th Kerala State Film AwardsBest Makeup ArtistP. N. Mani

Legacy

Manichitrathazhu is hailed as one of the best films ever made in Malayalam cinema. The film has consistently fetched maximum ratings for its television screenings. Even twenty years after its release it has been screened more than 12 times a year on an average on Kerala's leading TV channel, Asianet. The film has received the maximum TRP rating on every screening; TRP ratings have increased every year, a rare record for a film produced in Kerala.
In a 2013 online poll by IBN Live, Manichitrathazhu was listed second in India's Greatest Film of All Time. The poll was conducted as part of the celebration of Indian cinema completing 100 years. The poll constituted a list of 100 films from different Indian languages. As per the statistics of 2015, Manichitrathazhu is the most reviewed horror film ever in IMDb, surpassing Alfred Hitchcock Psycho with 2517 reviews.

Remakes

A spin-off titled Geethanjali was released on 14 November 2013, with Mohanlal reprising his role as Sunny.