''Uppu'' ( ml, ഉപ്പ്, en, Salt, french: Le Sel) is a 1987

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

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 ...

film, directed by

V. K. Pavithran Vattamparambil Krishnan Pavithran, known mononymously as Pavithran (1950–2006) was an Indian cinema director. He primarily concentrated on Malayalam films. Career After completing his graduation Pavithran made two unsuccessful attempts to ...

and written by K. M. A. Rahim. The film is about the atavistic

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

practice of male

polygamy Crimes Polygamy (from Late Greek (') "state of marriage to many spouses") is the practice of marrying multiple spouses. When a man is married to more than one wife at the same time, sociologists call this polygyny. When a woman is married ...

. The film is entirely on the side of the wronged wives, mounting a strong criticism of this aspect of the Muslim religion. It stars P. T. Kunju Muhammed, Jayalalitha, Vijayan Kottarathil and Madhavan. The film won the

National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Malayalam The National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Malayalam is one of the National Film Awards presented annually by the Directorate of Film Festivals, the organisation set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India. It is one of seve ...

Plot

The story begins when old patriarch, Moosa Meleri arrives in a quiet Kerala village with his daughter Amina and adopted son-in-law Abu. He has lost all his money in litigation. Despite their hardships, they are happy until their rich landlord covets Amina. Heartbroken, Amina is forced to divorce Abu and become the landlord's second wife. Twenty years later, Amina is alone while her father still indulges in litigation, her son leads a dissolute life and her daughter elopes with the chauffeur.

Cast

* P. T. Kunju Muhammed as Abu *

Jayalalita Jayalalita is an Indian character actor, who acted in about 650 films in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi. Early life Jayalalita was born in Gudivada, a town in Krishna district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. She complete ...

as Amina * Bharathi as Khadeeja * Vijayan Kottarathil as Meleri Moosa * Madhavan as Moidutty Mudalali * Sadiq as Saleem * Mullanezhi as Nanu Nair * Valsala Menon as Mariyambi *

V. K. Sreeraman Vettiyattil Krishnan Sreeraman (born 6 February 1953) is an Indian actor, writer, TV anchor and social worker. Personal life and education He was born into a middle-class family at Cheruvathani village near Kunnamkulam, situated in Thrissur di ...

as Abdul Rahman Musaliyar *

C. V. Sreeraman Cheruthuruthy Velappan Sreeraman (7 February 1931 – 11 October 2007) was an Indian writer who wrote short stories in Malayalam. He was the Vice Chairman of Kerala Sahitya Akademi. C. V. Sreeraman's stories stand foremost core to the theme, as e ...

as Khazi (religious leader) * Preetha A as Abu's daughter

Controversies

The film was controversial as it dealt with a sensitive content. Pavithran's comments on the film are revealing: "Salt is a trifle better—the truth always is. The religious laws are almost unknowingly misused by people, leading to the exploitation of those who succumb or resign themselves to religious and social pressures. Our intention was not to victimise or ridicule the Muslim community. Why, in the second half of the film, we also expose a

Nair The Nair , also known as Nayar, are a group of Indian Hindu castes, described by anthropologist Kathleen Gough as "not a unitary group but a named category of castes". The Nair include several castes and many subdivisions, not all of whom histor ...

family who run a prostitution den—but are particular about their prayers." Producer and writer K. M. A. Rahim stated, "The villain in the film is the distorted perception of Muslim personal law. When I wrote the script, I kept it in mimd that I must do my best to translate the reality I know on to the screen. That is why the film does not sound didactic. We did not intend to teach—the reality itself is thought provoking."

References

External links

''Uppu''
at the

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...

Movie Database * 1980s Malayalam-language films Films about polygamy Polygamy in fiction Best Malayalam Feature Film National Film Award winners {{1980s-Malayalam-film-stub