NIRMMALYAM
1973/Malayalam/India/134 Mins
Direction, Screenplay – M T Vasudevan Nair
Producer – Novel Films
Cinematography – K Ramachandra Babu
Editing – Ravi
Music – K Raghavan
The bond between an aged oracle, Velichapad, and the temple where he serves, is profound. The priest of the temple gives up his job for another, and the young man who replaces him is the least interested in the non-worldly. He seduces the oracle’s teenage daughter. Caught stealing the sacred sword, the oracle’s son is forced to leave the village. When smallpox breaks out, the villagers set up a big festival in the temple to appease the Goddess – much to Velichapad’s delight. But on the festival day, he discovers that the young priest has seduced his daughter and that his wife has been selling herself to keep the wolf from the door. The film ends with the oracle performing the final ceremony dancing before the Goddess, and spitting at it for letting him down. Lead actor P J Antony creates, with great conviction, a larger –than-life character, anachronistic in a changing world.
