Classic movie of all time

Chemmeen, based on Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai’s novel, remains a high point in Malayalam cinema

Over six decades since its publication (1956) and more than five decades after the release of its screen adaptation (1965), Chemmeen (prawns), remains a high point in Malayalam literature and cinema. Its author, Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai, may have dismissed his bestseller as a ‘painkili (mushy) novel’ that he finished in eight days, but the book has been translated into 30 major Indian and foreign languages.

Director Ramu Kariat bought the movie rights from Thakazhi for Rs. 8,000 in the 1960s, a large sum for a Malayalam novel then. Occasionally melodramatic and seemingly commercial in appeal, Ramu’s Chemmeen may not be a cinematic piece of restraint, like many of Malayalam cinema’s subsequent internationally celebrated films, but it still remains a fine artistic work of human passion.

The film revolves around the life of a beautiful young village girl, Karuthamma (Sheela), the daughter of an ambitious and dishonest Hindu fisherman, Chembankunju (K. Sreedharan Nair). She falls in love with a Muslim fish trader and childhood friend, Pareekutty (Madhu).