Pakshe is a 1994 Malayalam romantic drama film written by Cheriyan Kalpakavadi and directed by Mohan. It stars Mohanlal and Shobhana. Though a usually repeated story in Malayalam films, the director is successful in saying the story in the most touching way. The film was critically acclaimed and was a box office success.
Plot
"Pakshe" revolves around the tragic and sacrificial life of Balachandra Menon, an IAS officer. Balan was brought up in a poor family whose properties were sold by his father to fund his legal cases. Unniyettan is Balan's teacher who motivates him to become an IAS officer. Balan is in love with Nandini, an aspiring writer and belongs to a rich family. Their relationship is accepted by both the families and a marriage date is fixed. Bala successfully completes the IAS exams Unfortunately, Balan's father commits suicide, after losing the long drawn out case for which he had sold all his family properties and borrowed heavily and incurring huge debts, which Balan has to repay. Balan who had passed the written exam also successfully completes the interview. In the meanwhile, the private money lenders harass him, asking him to repay the loans incurred by his father, and abuse him publicly, which leads to altercation between them and following these incidents, Nandini's family withdraws from the marriage arrangement and Nandini is not permitted to leave her house to meet with Balan. When the money lenders are about to take legal action for recovery of their dues, Vikaraman, a contractor is willing to offer Balan the money to settle the dues under the condition that he marries his daughter Raji. When Balan speaks to Nandini about this, she insists that he marries the girl and rescue his family. With a heavy heart, they decide to split calling it a "sacrifice" for their family. Balan, after marrying Rajeswari, aka Raji, repays all his debts. Raji is an arrogant woman and ill treats Balan and they endure a bad marital relationship. Vikaraman, his father-in-law, abuses Balan's position as an IAS officer to unscrupulously help his friends, and at one stage, when Balan refuses to cooperate, he is abused and criticized by his wife and father in law. Heartbroken, Balan, who was so far living in his Vikraman's house, decides to go and live alone, but Raji refuses to accompany him. Feeling insulted, he leaves home. He takes a week's leave from work and stays at a beach resort for a few days of relaxation and peace of mind, where he finds an amusing middle aged man, named Eenashu, who has a happy outlook to life and says he keeps himself young and sprightly through liquor and women. A friendship develops between them, which makes Balan forget his miseries for a while. One evening at the resort, he is shocked and surprised to know that Nandini is staying at the neighbouring cottage. He also learns that she is now an internationally acclaimed writer, and that she is still single, not having married anyone. After the initial hesitant moments, they gradually share their life stories, and gradually the old balettan-nandinikutty bond of yesteryear is revived. Due to Eanashu's influence on him, he has also slowly erased Raji from his mind. Slowly the old romance is revived between them, and both decide to live together thereafter, but fatefully, on the day they are about to leave the resort, Rajeswari, his wife and their children turn up. In his absence, she has realised her mistakes and asks for him to forgive her and accept her and the children back into his life. Nandini, coming to know of his, with a heavy heart, realises what is happening and Balan accepts Rajeswari and the children. Balan and Nandini suffer the pain of separation for the second time in their life. The film ends with Balan set to go back to his new life with Rajeswari and Nandini beginning a new life with memories of her life with Balan. The excellent onscreen chemistry between Mohanlal and Shobana, who along with Shanti Krishna, has given an exemplary performance. The director has handled the characters in a heart-touching way. Johnson, who gave music to the film, has given some good numbers.
