''Ayal Katha Ezhuthukayanu'' () is a 1998 Indian

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was des ...

-language

comedy-drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

film directed by Kamal and written by

Sreenivasan Sreenivasan (born 6 April 1956) is an Indian actor, screenwriter, director, dubbing artist and producer who predominantly works in Malayalam cinema. Sreenivasan has starred in over 225 films. Sreenivasan wrote the screenplays of films such as ' ...

based on a story by Siddique. The plot follows the travails of an eccentric and wasted

pulp fiction ''Pulp Fiction'' is a 1994 American crime film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, who conceived it with Roger Avary.See, e.g., King (2002), pp. 185–7; ; Starring John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, Tim Roth, Ving Rhame ...

writer, Sagar Kottapuram (

Mohanlal Mohanlal Viswanathan (born 21 May 1960), known mononymously as Mohanlal, is an Indian actor, film producer, playback singer, film distributor, and director who predominantly works in Malayalam cinema besides also having sporadically appeare ...

), and his friend Ramakrishnan (Sreenivasan), who are dragged into a lawsuit by a vengeful

Tahsildar In India and Pakistan, a Tehsildar or Mamlatdar is a tax officer accompanied by revenue inspectors. They are in charge of obtaining taxes from a tehsil with regard to land revenue. A tehsildar is also known as an executive magistrate of the relev ...

, S. Priyadarshini (

Nandini Nandini is a female given name. It is derived from the Sanskrit verbal root ''nand'', which means "to rejoice, delight". Literally, ''nandinī'' means a woman who brings joy. The name also specifically refers to a daughter, as a daughter brings ...

). The film features songs composed by

Raveendran Madhavan Raveendran ( ml, മാധവൻ രവീന്ദ്രൻ ), (born Kulathupuzha, Kollam, 9 November 1943 – died Chennai, Tamil Nadu, 3 March 2005), fondly known as ''Raveendran Master'', was a popular South Indian music composer an ...

and background score by C. Rajamani.

Plot

Ramakrishnan, a newly appointed

in the city, comes to take charge but is blocked by the incumbent Tahsildar, S. Priyadarshini. Priyadarshini is a strict and rude officer and is much hated by the staff and associates in the Taluk Office. So they readily offer to help Ramakrishnan and arrange a house next to Priyadarshini's house for him to stay in the interim. Meanwhile, Sagar Kottapuram, a friend of Ramakrishnan and a novelist, comes to stay with him. But he mistakenly enters Priyadarshini's house, completely drunk, and sleeps in her bed. When Priyadarshini comes home, she mistakes him to be a thief and calls the police, who arrest him. But the local Sub Inspector of Police, being a fan of Sagar's novels, lets him off his charges. That night, Sagar gets into a fight with Priyadarshini and vows to get her off her

post within 24 hours. The next day Ramakrishnan himself assumes charge as Tahsildar according to Sagar's instruction. When Priyadarshini comes and sees this, she locks him inside the office room. Sagar finds out about this when he calls Ramakrishnan. He informs the press about the Tahsildar being locked inside the room by the former Tahsildar. The press rushes to the scene; the district collector also arrives and suspends Priyadarshini. Ramakrishnan and Sagar celebrate their victory. The next day Priyadarshini comes to their house and apologizes. She also invites them for breakfast. During breakfast, Priyadarshini becomes hysterical and tries to kill herself using the table knife. Sagar and Ramakrishnan try to hold her back, but her maid Thresiamma mistaking them to be molesting Priyadarshini, screams and runs out of the house. They get arrested for rape attempt. Mammachen, the owner of the magazine "Manchadi" gets them out on bail.Sagar wants to take revenge but is calmed down by Mammachen and Ramakrishnan. He decides to write a novel called "Oru Gazetted Yekshi" portraying the life of a corrupt and seditious Municipal Commissioner with an appearance matching Priyadarshini's to take vengeance against her. After many indirect abuses through the novel, the rape case is heard at the court where Priyadarshini's advocate, K.G. Nambiar reveals that Priyadarshini and Sagar were previously engaged but not married, and that Sagar tried to rape her in revenge for this. But neither knew the truth until then. Sagar then writes his own story in the novel. Years back he had been working in United Arab Emirates and his marriage was arranged with a girl named Priya by his sister, Padmini. But he never gets to see her photograph. When he comes home for the wedding, he hears that she eloped with her lover the day before the wedding. This leaves Sagar heartbroken and he never returns for work and becomes an alcoholic. Jithu, Priya's cousin, comes to see him, and he reveals that they studied together in a boarding school in

Ootacamund Ooty (), officially known as Udhagamandalam (also known as Ootacamund (); abbreviated as Udhagai), is a city and a municipality in the Nilgiris district of the South Indian States and territories of India, state of Tamil Nadu. It is located ...

. "Once during their start of vacation, at the farewell party, Priya had accidentally drunk liquor and become unconscious on their way home. They deboard the bus and while at a hotel, he had got her showered and removed her wet clothes while covering her with a blanket. Priya, after waking up, mistakenly thought that Jithu had violated her and had become mentally disturbed. He also reveals that after she eloped before the wedding, she had come to him and tried to kill him but got transferred to a mental asylum." Sagar tries to see Priyadarshini but finds out that she's been admitted to a mental asylum. Feeling guilty that he's responsible for her present situation, Sagar asks the doctor and her relatives’ permission to help her heal. They fake a wedding arrangement hoping that would bring her back to normal. On the day after the wedding, when Priya wakes up, she still feels that her life is only haunted by her previous incident with Jithu. She finally accepts that the thoughts of her being violated were made by her mind and acknowledges her love for Sagar.

Cast

as Vidyasagar a.k.a. Sagar Kottappuram *

as Ramakrishnan *

as S. Priyadarshini / Priya Menon *

Krishna Krishna (; sa, कृष्ण ) is a major deity in Hinduism. He is worshipped as the eighth avatar of Vishnu and also as the Supreme god in his own right. He is the god of protection, compassion, tenderness, and love; and is one ...

as Jithu *

Innocent Innocence is a lack of guilt, with respect to any kind of crime, or wrongdoing. In a legal context, innocence is to the lack of legal guilt of an individual, with respect to a crime. In other contexts, it is a lack of experience. In relation ...

as Manchadi Mammachen * Siddique as Adv. K. G. Nambiar *

Nedumudi Venu Kesavan Venugopal (22 May 1948 – 11 October 2021), better known by his stage name Nedumudi Venu, was an Indian actor and screenwriter from Kerala, who predominantly worked in Malayalam cinema. He acted in more than 500 films, primarily in Ma ...

Psychiatrist A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry, the branch of medicine devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, study, and treatment of mental disorders. Psychiatrists are physicians and evaluate patients to determine whether their sy ...

Dr. Subhash *

Srividya Srividya (24 July 1953 – 19 October 2006), also known as Sreevidya, was an Indian actress best known for her work predominantly in Malayalam and Tamil films, along with few Telugu, Kannada and Hindi films. In a career spanning for 40 years, ...

as Padmini, Sagar's sister * Devan as Mohanan, Sagar's brother in law *

Jagadish P. V. Jagadish Kumar (born 12 June 1955) known mononymously as Jagadish, is an Indian actor, screenwriter, television presenter and former politician. He has starred in over 375 Malayalam films and 2 Hindi films. He is best known for his comi ...

as Sainuddin *

T. P. Madhavan T. P. Madhavan (born 7 November 1935) is an Indian actor who appeared in Malayalam films. He started acting at the age of 40. He has acted in more than 600 films. He came into the film industry playing villain roles; later he started doing com ...

as Police Sub Inspector *

Augustine Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berbers, Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia (Roman pr ...

as Manchadi

magazine A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combinatio ...

Editor Roy *

Sreejaya Nair Sreejaya Nair is an Indian actress and dancer. She worked in the Malayalam film industry throughout 1990s and retired after marriage and returned to acting in 2014. She is a professional dancer and conducts a dance school named Sreejaya's School ...

as Shobha *

Kulappulli Leela Kulappulli Leela (born 19 April 1954) is an Indian actress who predominantly appears in Malayalam cinema, Tamil cinema and television. She has mostly done comedic roles, and has appeared in over 350 films. She began her career acting through t ...

as Thresiamma * Latheef as Adv. Gopinathan * Vijayan Peringode as uncle of Sagar *

Samvrutha Sunil Samvritha Sunil (born 31 October 1986) is an Indian actress who appears in Malayalam films. She made her debut in 2004 through the film ''Rasikan'' directed by Lal Jose before which she had also appeared as a junior artist in the film '' Ayal ...

(Cameo appearance)

Production

Soundarya K. S. Sowmya (18 July 1972 – 17 April 2004), better known by her stage name Soundarya, was an Indian actress who worked predominantly in Telugu_cinema, Telugu films and has also worked in Kannada, Tamil language, Tamil, Hindi and Malayalam f ...

was first approached for the role of Priyadarshani, however, they couldn't finalize on the dates which led to her dropping out of the project. Then they approached

Manju Warrier Manju Warrier (; born 10 September 1978) is an Indian actress, producer, classical dancer and playback singer who primarily appears in Malayalam language films. She is the recipient of several awards including one National Film Award, one Kera ...

for the role. However, she turned it down due to her marriage with

Dileep Gopalakrishnan Padmanabhan Pillai, better known by his stage name Dileep, is an Indian actor, producer, and businessman who predominantly works in the Malayalam film industry. He has acted in more than 150 films and has won several awards, inc ...

Soundtrack

The film score was composed by Rajamani while the songs of this film were written by

Kaithapram Damodaran Namboothiri Padma Shri Kaithapram Damodaran Namboothiri, popularly known as Kaithapram, is a Malayalam lyricist, poet, music director, actor, singer, screenwriter, music therapist and performer of Carnatic music. He debuted with the movie Ennennum Kannet ...

and composed by maestro

. The song ''Etho Nidrathan'' by

K.J. Yesudas Kattassery Joseph Yesudas (born 10 January 1940) is an Indian playback singer and musician who sings Indian classical, devotional and film songs. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest singers in the history of Indian Music and also as a ...

become highly popular and won the Kerala State Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer.

Release

The film released on 23 December 1998 and was a commercial success. A critic from ''

Deccan Herald ''Deccan Herald'' is an Indian English language daily newspaper published from the Indian state of Karnataka. It was founded by K. N. Guruswamy, a liquor businessman from Ballari and was launched on 17 June 1948. It is published by The Printe ...

'' wrote "A weak storyline that drags through the first half is held alive by some witty dialogues and some very good acting by Kausalya." In a 2021 interview with

Safari TV Safari TV Channel is an Indian non-profit television channel broadcasting in Malayalam language. It is an exploration channel based in Marangattupilly, Kottayam, Kerala. The channel is part of Safari Multimedia Pvt.Ltd, India. Safari TV does no ...

, Siddique stated that the film had a great opening however could not continue its success and turned out to be an average grosser at the box office."

References

External links

* {{Kamal (director) 1998 films 1990s Malayalam-language films Films scored by Raveendran 1998 romantic comedy-drama films Indian romantic comedy-drama films Films shot in Dubai Films shot in Kannur Films with screenplays by Sreenivasan Films directed by Kamal (director) 1998 comedy films 1998 drama films