Film Studies
Films Prescribed for Analysis
Manichithrathazhu
Genre: Psychological Horror Drama
Direction: Fazil
Writer: Madhu Muttom
Produced: Swargachitra Appachan
Music: M G Radhakrishnan
Background Score: Johnson
Cinematography: Venu, Anandakuttan, Sunny Joseph
Editor: T R Shekhar
Studio and Distribution: Swargachitra
Release date(s): 25 December 1993
Major Cast: Mohanlal, Shobhana, Suresh Gopi, Nedumudi Venu, Thilakan, KPAC Lalitha,
Vinaya Prasad, Innocent, etc.
Awards:
National Film Award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment
Shobhana won the National Film Award for Best Actress
Plot
Ganga and Nakulan, a newly married couple, arrives their uncle Thampi's house from
Kolkata. Thampi learns that Nakulan has decided to stay at the family mansion named
Madampalli, which is said to be haunted. Despite the strong opposition from Thambi, the
couple moves there with the help of the family including Thampi's wife and children,
Thampi's sister Bhasura, her husband Unnithan, and their daughter Alli. At first, Thampi
wanted Nakulan to marry his daughter Sreedevi. But Nakulan's mother, Sharadha, rejected
the proposal as Sreedevi's horoscope was an ominous one. Later then Nakulan fell in love
with Ganga and gets married. Whilst Sreedevi's marriage ended up in a divorce.
Ganga’s curiosity wanted her to open the room in the south (Thekkini) but she is warned by
housemates to not to do that. Bhasura reveals the reason why everyone says so. About 150
years ago, Sankaran Thambi, the then head of the family traveled to Thanjavur in Tamil
Nadu, where he met and bought a dancer named Nagavalli, who was already in love with a
dancer named Ramanathan. Ramanathan came in search of her and stayed in a cottage next to
the palace and met her secretly. When the Karanavar discovered this, he killed Nagavalli on a
night in Thekkini. Nagavalli's soul tried to take her revenge by taking the form of a blood
form witch and kill him, but he chanted some mantras and neutralized the ghost. The
Karanavar with the help of various priests and sorcerers tamed the ghost by locking it up in
Thekkini situated at the southwest corner of the house on a Durgashtami. The Karanavar
committed suicide shortly afterwards by consuming poison, and his soul too got trapped in
Thekkini. Since then, her soul was roaming around Madampalli on the night.
In the present day, Alli and Mahadevan (a college professor) are in love, and their marriage is
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fixed. Listening to Nagavalli's story, Ganga thinks that it was fabricated to scare thieves from
stealing treasures in the room. So, Ganga gets the room key's duplicate from Alli and opens
the room. She is scolded by Sreedevi, for the locksmith and the man who gave the key to
Alli, have both been bedridden. Subsequently, strange things begin to happen in the
household; apparitions of a woman frighten the people in the house, things inexplicably
break, and Ganga's sari catches fire during the day. The needle of suspicion falls on Sreedevi,
who is generally found to be gloomy. Nakulan immediately calls up his psychiatrist friend
Dr. Sunny from the United States to solve the case. As soon as Sunny arrives, an unknown
person tries to kill Alli by locking her up in a storeroom. Sunny also foils an attempt to kill
Nakulan by poisoning. He hears a mysterious voice singing in Tamil every night from
Nagavalli's room. Impersonating the Karanavar by wearing his sandals and using his staff, he
converses with the mysterious voice, who reveals herself as Nagavalli and vows revenge on
the coming Durgashtami. Ganga mysteriously disappears during a Kathakali Night. Sunny
notices her absence and searches for her, and with Nakulan's help finds Ganga, who is
apparently being harassed by Mahadevan.
After the confusions settle, Sunny reveals to Mahadevan and Nakulan that all the problems in
the house are orchestrated by Ganga, who suffers from split personality disorder. Sunny tells
them that Ganga who frequently transforms into Nagavalli's personality tried to kill Alli and
Nakulan (who impersonates the Karanavar) and frame Mahadevan for sexual harassment by
Nagavalli's alter ego. Mahadevan impersonates her lover Ramanathan since the former stays
at the same house Ramanathan did. By framing Mahadevan, Ganga's alter ego planned to
stop his marriage to Alli and get him back. Now the only way to stop Nagavalli's influence on
Ganga is to make her believe that she killed her enemy Karanavar on Durgashtami.
Thampi calls in a renowned tantric expert, Brahmadathan Namboothiripad to solve the
family's menace. To everyone's surprise, Sunny and Brahmadathan are long-time friends and
they discuss the matter deeply as Sunny makes a rather unconventional plan to cure Ganga.
Before carrying out his plan, Sunny asks Nakulan to provoke Ganga to see for himself
whether she turns into the Nagavalli spilt persona or not. When Nakulan does so, she
transforms into her Nagavalli persona, which shocks him. A worried Nakulan shouts at
Ganga, turning her back to normal.
On Durgashtami night, Sunny and Brahmadathan allow Nagavalli to behead Nakulan posing
as the Karanavar. Brahmadathan suddenly blows smoke and ash on Ganga's face when she is
given a sword to kill Nakulan. Simultaneously Sunny turns a part of the platform over to let
Nakulan escape, and a lifeless dummy of the Karanavar gets sliced instead. Convinced that
her enemy is dead, Nagavalli leaves Ganga's body, permanently curing her. The family bids
farewell to Ganga, Nakulan, and Sunny. Sunny expresses his desire to marry Sreedevi before
leaving, for which she responds with a smile.
Titanic
Genre: Romantic Tragedy
Direction: James Cameron
Writer: James Cameron
Produced: James Cameron and Jon Landau
Music: James Horner
Cinematography: Russell Carpenter
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Editors: Conrad Buff, James Cameron and Richard A. Harris
Distribution: Paramount Pictures
Release date(s): 19 December 1997
Major Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane, Kathy Bates, etc.
Plot
In 1996, aboard the research vessel Akademik Mstislav Keldysh, Brock Lovett and his team
search the wreck of RMS Titanic. They recover a safe they hope contains a necklace with a
large diamond known as the Heart of the Ocean. Instead, they find only a drawing of a young
nude woman wearing the necklace. The sketch is dated April 14, 1912, the same day the
Titanic struck the iceberg that caused it to sink. After viewing a television news story about
the discovery, centenarian Rose Dawson Calvert contacts Lovett, identifying herself as the
woman in the drawing. Hoping she can help locate the necklace, Lovett brings Rose aboard
Keldysh, where she recounts her experiences as a Titanic passenger.
In 1912 Southampton, 17-year-old Rose DeWitt Bukater, her wealthy fiancé Caledon “Cal”
Hockley and Rose's widowed mother Ruth board the Titanic. Ruth emphasizes that Rose's
marrying Cal will resolve the family's financial problems and maintain their upper-class
status. Meanwhile, Jack Dawson, a poor young artist, wins a third-class Titanic ticket in a
poker game. After setting sail, Rose, distraught over her loveless engagement, climbs over
the stern railing, intending to commit suicide. Jack coaxes her back onto the deck and they
develop a friendship. Jack soon admits that he has feelings for Rose. When Cal and Ruth
object, Rose rejects Jack's attentions, but returns to him after realizing she has fallen in love.
Rose brings Jack to her state room and requests he draw her nude, wearing only the Heart of
the Ocean. They later evade Cal's servant, Lovejoy, and have sex in a Renault Towncar inside
the cargo hold. On the forward deck, they witness the ship's collision with an iceberg and
overhear its officers discussing its seriousness. Cal discovers Jack's sketch and an insulting
note from Rose in his safe, along with the necklace. When Jack and Rose return to warn the
others about the collision, Cal has Lovejoy slip the necklace into Jack's pocket to frame him
for theft. Jack is confined in the master-at-arms' office. Cal puts the necklace into his own
overcoat pocket.
With the ship sinking, the crew prioritize women and children for evacuation. Rose finds and
frees Jack, and they make it back to the deck, where Cal and Jack urge Rose to board a
lifeboat. Intending to save himself, Cal lies that he will get Jack safely off the ship and wraps
his overcoat around Rose. As her lifeboat is lowered, Rose, unable to abandon Jack, jumps
back onto the ship. Cal grabs Lovejoy's pistol and chases Jack and Rose, but they escape. Cal
realizes the necklace is still in the coat he gave Rose. He poses as a lost child's father to board
a lifeboat.
Jack and Rose return to the deck. The ship's stern is rising as the flooded bow sinks; the two
desperately cling to the stern rail. The upended ship breaks in half and the bow section sinks.
The stern slams back onto the ocean, upends again and sinks. In the freezing water, Jack
helps Rose onto a wood transom panel among the debris, buoyant enough only for one
person, and makes her promise to survive. Jack dies of cold shock, but Rose is among six
people saved by the one returning lifeboat. RMS Carpathia rescues the survivors. Rose avoids
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Cal and her mother by hiding among the steerage passengers and giving her name as Rose
Dawson. Still wearing Cal's overcoat, she discovers the necklace tucked inside the pocket.
In the present, Rose says she heard that Cal committed suicide after losing his fortune in the
Wall Street Crash of 1929. Lovett abandons his search after hearing Rose's story. Alone on
the stern of Keldysh, Rose takes the Heart of the Ocean, which has been in her possession all
along, and drops it into the sea over the wreck site. While she is seemingly asleep in her bed,
her photos on the dresser depict a life of freedom and adventure inspired by Jack. A young
Rose reunites with Jack at the Titanic's Grand Staircase, applauded by those who died that
night.
Mother India
Genre: Epic Drama
Direction: Mehboob Khan
Writers: Wajahat Mirza and S. Ali Raza
Produced: Mehboob Khan
Music: Naushad
Cinematography: Faredoon A. Irani
Editors: Shamsudin Kadri
Distribution: Mehboob Productions
Release date(s): 25 October 1957
Major Cast: Nargis, Sunil Dutt, Rajendra Kumar, Raaj Kumar, etc.
Plot
In 1957, construction of an irrigation canal to the village is completed. Radha, considered to
be the “mother” of the village, is asked to inaugurate the canal. She remembers her past when
she was newly married.
The wedding between Radha and Shamu is paid for by Radha's mother-in-law, who borrows
the money from the moneylender Sukhilala. The conditions of the loan are disputed, but the
village elders decide in favour of the moneylender, after which Shamu and Radha are forced
to pay three-quarters of their crop as interest on the loan of ₹500. While Shamu works to
bring more of their rocky land into use, his arms are crushed by a boulder. Ashamed of his
helplessness (being without arms), and humiliated by Sukhilala for living on the earnings of
his wife, Shamu decides that he is of no use to his family and permanently leaves Radha and
their three sons, walking to his own probable death by starvation. Soon after, Radha's
youngest son and her mother-in-law die. A severe storm and the resulting flood destroy
houses in the village and ruins the harvest. Sukhilala offers to save Radha and her sons if she
trades her body to him for food. Radha vehemently refuses his offer but has to also lose her
infant to the atrocities of the storm. Although the villagers begin initially to evacuate the
village, they decide to stay and rebuild it, persuaded by Radha.
Several years later, Radha's two surviving children, Birju and Ramu are young men. Birju,
embittered since childhood by the demands of Sukhilala, takes out his frustrations by
pestering the village girls, especially Sukhilala’s daughter, Rupa. Ramu, by contrast, has a
calmer temperament and is married soon after. Birju's anger finally becomes dangerous and,
after being provoked, he attacks Sukhilala and his daughter and steals Radha's kangan
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(marriage bracelets) that were pawned with Sukhilala. He is chased out of the village and
becomes a bandit. Radha promises Sukhilala that she will not let Birju cause harm to
Sukhilala’s family. On Rupa's wedding day, Birju returns with his gang of bandits to exact
his revenge. He kills Sukhilala and kidnaps Rupa. When he tries to flee the village on his
horse, Radha, his mother, shoots him. He dies in her arms. In 1957, Radha opens the gate of
the canal and its reddish water flows into the fields.
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