Synopsis
Chembankunju’s
(Kottarakkara Sreedharan Nair) only aim in life is to own
a boat and a net. He finally succeeds in buying both with
the help of Pareekutty (Madhu), a young Muslim trader, on
condition that the fish hauled by the boat will be sold
to him. Chembankunju’s pretty daughter Karuthamma
(Sheela) and Pareekutty love each other. Karuthamma’s
mother, Chakki, knows about it and reminds her daughter
about the life they lead within the boundaries of strict
social tradition. Karuthamma sacrifices her love for Pareekutty
and marries Palani (Satyen), an orphan discovered by Chembankunju
in the course of one of his fishing expeditions. Following
the marriage, Karuthamma accompanies her husband to his
village, despite her mother’s sudden illness and her
father’s requests to stay. In his fury, Chembankunju
disowns her. On acquiring a boat and a net and subsequently
adding one more, Chembankunju becomes more greedy and heartless.
With his dishonesty, he drives Pareekutty to bankruptcy.
After the death of his wife, Chembankunju marries Pappikunju,
the widow of the man from he had bought his first boat.
Panchami, Chembankunju’s younger daughter, leaves
home to join Karuthama, on arrival of her step mother. Meanwhile,
Karuthamma has endeavoured to be a good wife and mother.
But scandal about her old love for Pareekutty spreads in
the village. Palani’s friends ostracize him and refuse
to take him fishing with them. By a stroke of fate, Karuthamma
and Pareekutty meet one night and their old love is awakened…
Palani, at sea alone and baiting a shark, is caught in a
huge whirlpool and is swallowed by the sea. Next morning,
Karuthamma and Parekutty, are also found dead hand in hand,
washed ashore. At a distance, there lies a baited dead shark.
The film
Chemmeen
is based on a highly acclaimed novel by
Gyanpith Award Winner Thakazhi Sivasankara
Pillai. Since its initial publication in
Malayalam in 1956, the novel has run into
several editions in quick succession, setting
an all India record for all time and is
perhaps the most well known literary work
in Kerala. It has also been translated in
various Indian Languages and also in English,
Russian, German, Italian, French, Czech,
Spanish and Polish among others. Hence when
the film was being made, expectations were
sky high. The film, needless to say, firmly
delivers and has subsequently acquired cult
status in the history of Malayalam Cinema
besides being the film that put Malayalam
Cinema on the National Map as it was the
first South Indian film to win the coveted
President’s Gold Medal for Best film.
Malayalam Cinema has never looked back since.
Chemeen’s
tale is multilayered. On one level while
it is a tragic love story of forbidden love.
On the other hand it proves that true love
recognizes no religious, cultural or geographical
boundaries. If the film reaffirms the required
commitment to relationships, it also shows
how deep, passionate love can both save
and destroy man. It tells you how people
can change with greed and jealousy and it
illustrates the deeply rooted nature of
superstition in the Hindu psyche while looking
at the life of a typical Kerala fishing
community of Allapuzha. While its grandeur
flows from the wild and powerful ocean that
rules the fishing community, its poetic
beauty lies in its depiction of those small
moments that can make or mar our lives.
 At
the core of the film are the three central
performances of Sheela, Sathyan and Madhu.
The film offers all three of them their
career-defining roles with Sheela being
known as ‘Chemmeen Sheela’ even
today! Needless to say, the trio responds
with their career-best performances. Incidentally,
Madhu introduced to films through Kariat’s
Moodupadam (1963), was one of the
ensemble cast in KA Abbas’s Saat
Hindustani (1969), Amitabh
Bachchan’s debut film. The three
are strongly supported by Kottarakkara Sreedharan
Nair bringing alive the wily and greedy
Chembankunju.
Another
major strength of the film is its superb
musical score by Salil Choudhury. It is
said that Choudhury composed the tunes first
and then the lyrics were added in. The most
well-known number of the film is the haunting
- Manasa Maine Varu rendered brilliantly
with great pathos by the great Manna Dey.
His Hindi and Bengali songs notwithstanding,
this is one of Mannada’s best ever
songs and he was praised by one and all
for his outstanding Malayalam Diction. Of
course it helped that he was married to
a Malayalee woman, Sulochana! Other songs,
all extremely popular, include Pennale
Pennale sung by KJ Yesudas and P.Leela,
Puthan Valakkare by KJ Yesudas,
P Leela, KP Udaybhanu and Shantha P Nair
(‘inspired’ by Choudhury’s
own Baag Mein Kali Khili from Chand
aur Suraj (1965)) and Kadalinakkara
by KJ Yesudas. In fact, the songs were dubbed
into Hindi as well under the collective
title Chemmeen Lehren. Chemeen
is Salilda’s first film in Malayalam
and would lead him to composing music in
several more Malayalam films especially
in tandem with lyricist Valyalar.
Besides ‘importing’ Choudhury
and Dey, the film also has the expertise
of Hrishikesh
Mukherjee in the Editing Department.
Hrishida does speak about how he had to
‘salvage’ what was shot by altering
the structure of the film compared to what
Kariat had in mind but since it helped the
film overall, no one is complaining today!
Mention must be made of cinematographer
Marcus Bartley’s and U Rajagopal’s
evocative cinematography of the sea front
with good use of the technicolour format.
Perhaps
the high regard for the film particularly
in Kerala is best summed up by Malayalee
superstar of today, Mohanlal. To quote him…
“It is an exceptional film. I
don't think there will be another like it
in Malayalam. All those who worked in Chemmeen
were so great. I don’t think such
a combination has happened again or will
happen again.”
Beside the National Award, Chemmeen
also won a Certificate of Merit at the Chicago
Film Festival and the film was also screened
at the 2005 Brisbane International Film
Festival as part of a retrospective on 50
years of Malayalam Cinema.
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