January 08, 2008


DATE:13-01-2008 /

TIME:9.30 am
VENUE: SAVITHA THEATRE,ERNAKULM


(IN ASSOCIATION WITH NATIONAL FILM ARCHIVE OF INDIA, PUNE)SWAROOPAM
/
Begetter

Malayalam/1992/Col/97min

Direction, StoryScreenplay & ArtDirection : K.R. Mohanan

Production : P.T.K. Mohammed

Cinematography : Madhu Ambat

Editing : Venu

Sound : T. Krishnanunni

Music : L. Vaidyanathan

Cast : Sreenivasan,
Thilakan, Sreeraman,Abu Circar,
Sandhya RajendranA hard-working farmer, Sekharan, lives with his wife and their two young children in central Kerala. They live frugally but cheerfully, taking the cares and worries of their life in their stride.One day a stranger enters their lives – an old man who introduces himself as a distant relative. He traces for Sekharan his family history, and the humble farmer is filled with elation at the discovery of his proud lineage. This new-found knowledge of his forefathers becomes an obsession with Sekharan.The old man tells him of one of his ancestors, Muthappan by name, who is guardian spirit of the family and the fountainhead of it glory. He advises Sekharan to consecrate a family shrine to Muthappan and to seek his protection. He takes the farmer on a trip to meet some of his relatives, and encountering the prosperity and well-being of these distant family members makes Shekharan ashamed of his own status. The old man points out that it is Muthappan who has bestowed the blessings of wealth on this family.On his return Sekharan is changed man, withdrawn and aliemated from his wife and children. He builds a shrine to Muthappan and spends most of his time sitting before it in a trance. His wife has to manage the affairs of the household single-handedly.The neightbours watch with curiosity and amusement. An elderly neighbour warns him about the course he has taken; the shrine can bring doom upon him if he neglects it, he says. His father-in-law appears to warn him of the consequences of neglecting his family. One night Sekharan surprises his wife by making an amorous advance to her. He then tells her that his approach is inspired not by lust but by a directive from Muthappan to beget a son. She turns away from him in disgust.Meanwhile, he is acquiring a reputation as a man with supernatural powers, and his help is being sought by people to perform black magic rituals. The view is that his first ritual will be very potent. Sekharan shuts himself up for days within the shrine. In the early hours of one morning, when wandering minstrels arrive at the house to invoke the goddess of plenty, his wife looks inside the shrine and finds him dead. She sets about her life with a new determination.

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