Malayalam film Oridathoru Phayalvaan, a cult classic, narrated the story of a small town wrestler’s rise to glory and subsequent fall, winning awards at many international film festivals. It was written and directed by P Padmarajan, known for his contributions to Malayalam literature and cinema.
Coimbatore District Collector Dr GS Sameeran, IAS discusses Padmarajan’s films and literary works in his Malayalam book that has now been translated into Tamil as Padmarajan Gandharvano Manithano. It was recently released at the ongoing Coimbatore Book Festival.
Padmarajan’s first directorial Peruvazhiyambalam that came out in 1979 based on his novel by the same name romanticised a certain kind of masculinity that and how people dread and adore at the same time. In Kallan Pavithran, that tells the tale of a petty thief (played by Nedumudi Venu) and his life-changing episode of theft, Padmarajan compels the audience to redefine the word, ‘thief’. “I draw a comparison to Satyajit Ray’s The Apu trilogy and connect the common thread running along these three films,” says Sameeran, who has also authored a biography on Muthukulam Raghavan Pillai, a poet and writer who wrote the songs, screenplay and story of Balan, the first talkie film in Malayalam that had 26 songs. The book has now been released in Tamil as Muthukulam Raghavan Pillai.
