Karuthamuthu

''Karuthamuthu'' () was a 2014 Indian television Malayalam language series, which premiered on 20 October 2014 on Asianet channel. It is the second longest running television soap opera in Malayalam television completing successful telecasting for five years with 1,450 episodes and four seasons.

Karuthamuthu started off with story of a black-skinned lady, her life tribulations and story with Kishor Satya and Premi Viswanath in the leading cast. Kishor Satya,
Renu Soundar and Akshara Kishor played the lead role of season 2 which portrays on the story of ''Balamol'' (the daughter of Dr. Balachandran and Karthika). Darshana Das and Rini Raj plays the lead role in Season 3 which dealt the trials and tribulations of ''Balamol'' and ''Podimol'' (the daughter of Jayachandran and Kanya). Pradeep Chandran as Abhiram IPS. Finally, Season 4 portrayed the story of ''Muthu'' (Abhiram-Bala's daughter) played by Baby Kezhiya retaining the same cast of previous season.

The show had highest TRP rating in the beginning and towards the last season rating decrease which force the channel to stop the serial. It is the first Malayalam show to be remade in five languages ( Telugu, Kannada, Hindi, Bengali, Marathi and Tamil). The show has been retelecast in Asianet Plus in the noon slot of 1.00PM IST since 15 June 2020, but was later cancelled due to low ratings.

Plot

Season 1

Karthika, a dark-skinned girl, is treated badly by her fair-skinned sister. She marries Balachandran but has to fight societal and family pressures in order to lead a happy married life.

Season 2

Nathan finds Karthu and her daughter, Balachandrika roaming around in streets of Tamil Nadu and takes them back but Karthu is physically ill and admits her in a hospital without letting others know about her. The series takes a twist with Bala's arrival to Kaipamangalam. Everyone refuses her except Balan. Later, Balachandran and family learn that Balamol is his own daughter at the same time Karthu's presence on the other hand Mareena and Balan's marriage was fixed, cruel Mareena learns that Balan is making a fool of her and plans to kill him. Mareena and Shekharan get to know that Karthu and her daughter is alive. They plan to kill them without anyone knowing about it. After an accident, Karthu loses her memory and is taken care by Dr. Arun. In an attempt to kill Balan unfortunately Jayan is killed by Mareena and Kanya becomes mentally unstable and later she gives birth to a baby girl. Balan suffers from cancer and leaves to Germany. Finally after series of events Kanya kills Mareena and is imprisoned. Podimol cared for by Karthu who remembers her past and is back at Kaipamangalam. Balan, Karthu and Bala reunite. Kunjusekharan becomes worried about Podimol as a fake astrologer predicts that Bala and Podimol cannot survive together at a place. Upon Kanya's release, Shekharan misleads her and takes her and Podimol away to live with him and his mother.

Season 3

Balachandrika becomes the sub collector of the city and story goes around her life. Now the story turn to show the relationship between Balamol and Podimol. Balamol being a collector catches Podimol's wrongdoings and forms an instant dislike towards her, despite Bala's soft heart. Bala and Abhiram are in love with each other from quite a long time, but Podimol is attracted towards Abhiram, too. Bala secretly marries Abhiram, without Podimol's knowledge. Later Bala's family reveals that Podimol is Bala's cousin and Bala regrets the marriage, and starts taking care of her, even though Podimol doesn't know that Bala is married to Abhiram. Aromal, Sadu's son tries to convey the message to Gayathri that Bala is already married to her love. Gayathri rejects this idea saying that her blood, her sister won't let her fail. On the other hand, Bala and Abhiram spend time secretly with each other in the fear of Gayathri learning about their marriage. Meanwhile, Bala conceives and Gayathri learns of it later. Suicidal, she's saved by Bala. After treatment under Dr. Arun, she starts afresh and gets married to Ganesh, a gentleman with a strict mother. The family gets to know of Balan's death in Germany and is heartbroken. Bala does all the rituals of her father who left for his heavenly abode. She faints and gets admitted in the hospital where she experiences severe pains. Her condition becomes critical when she is pushed from the stretcher by Stephen, a hitman hired by Shekharan. However, she survives the attack. Bala and Abhiram are blessed with a baby girl. The family rejoices. Meanwhile, Gayathri faces ill treatment from her mother-in-law who constantly berates her. However, her husband is supportive.

Bala gets into an accident caused by Stephen due to which she loses her kid. The kid however turns out to be alive and is taken in by a church and is named Muthu.

Season 4

It portrayed the story of Muthu, the daughter of Abhiram and Bala.

Cast

Seasons 1 and 2 (2014 – 2017)

* Kishor Satya as Dr. Balachandran
* Premi Viswanath / Renu Soundar as Karthika Balachandran: Balachandran's wife. Balachandrika's mother. Kanya's elder stepsister and sister-in-law. Mallika's daughter. Nathan and Jagadhamba's daughter-in-law. Abhiram's mother-in-law.
* Archana Suseelan as Mareena (Main Antagonist)
* Akshara Kishor as Balachandrika/Bala mol (200-775 episodes)
* Richard N. J. as Jayachandran
* Saranya Sasi as Kanya (1 to 115 episodes)
** Lekshmi Priya replaced Saranya Sasi as Kanya (116 to 774 episodes)
* Santhosh Kurup as Ret Prof. Nathan
* Giridhar as Sreekanth
* Srihari as Kunju Shekharan
* Sreelatha Namboothiri as Shekharan's mother
* Dr. Sharmila as Jagadhamba
* Rajani Murali as Nandini
* Shobha Mohan as Arundhathi
* Devendranath as Dr. Arun
* Thara Kalyan as Mallika
* Akhil Nair as Aromal
* Jayakumar Parameswaran Pillai as Sadanam Sadu
* Arun Mohan as Stephen
* Shiju as Shankar Das
* Lishoy as Dr. Fernandus
* Balachandran Chullikkadu as Dr. Perumal
* Bindu Murali as Lakshmi Dathan
* Sree Padma as Anjana
* Pratheeksha G Pradeep as Raveena
* T.S.Raju as Abhi's ammavan
* Sarath Swamy as Amal
* Anand Narayan as Prem
* Cherthala Lalitha as Sadu's mother / Nathan's sister
* Lalitha as Mallika
* Sree Lakshmi as Anjana
* Illikettu Namboothiri as Sathyaseelan

Seasons 3 and 4 (2017 – 2019)

* Darshana Das as Gayathri Ganeshan (Podimol)
* Rini Raj as Balachandrika Abhiram IAS
*
*Pradeep Chandran as Commissioner Abhiram IPS
*Baby Kezhiya as Muthu
* Shalu Menon as Kanya Jayan
*
*
*Kiran Iyer as Ganeshan
*Santhosh Kurup as Ret Prof. Nathan
*Giridhar as Sreekanth
*Srihari as Kunju Shekharan
* Sreelatha Namboothiri as Shekharan's mother
*Dr. Sharmila as Jagadhamba
*Soniya Baiju Kottarakkara as Kaipatoor Kanaka
*Anoop Sivasenan as Sukeshan
*Niya as Karthika Balachandran
*Soorya Praveen as Ganga Sukeshan
*Bindu Ramakrishnan as Sukeshan's mother
* Babu Annur as Sukesan's father

Awards

;8th ASIANET TELEVISION AWARDS 2015

* Best Serial - Karuthamuthu
* Best Actor - Kishor Satya
* Best Debut Male - Richard
* Best Debut Female - Premi Vishwanth
* Best Debut Female (special jury) - Lekshmipriya
* Best Actor in a Negative role (special jury) - Srihari
* Best Actress in a Negative role (special jury) - Archana Suseelan
* Best Director - Praveen Kadakkavoor
* Best Screenplay - Pradeep Panicker
* Best Character Actor - Santosh Kurup
* Best Character Actress (special jury) - Dr.Sharmila
* Best Actor in a Humorous role (special jury) - Jayakumar

;9th ASIANET TELEVISION AWARDS 2016

* Most Popular Serial - Karuthamuthu
* Life Time Achievement award - Sreelatha Namboothiri
* Best Actor - Kishor Satya
* Best Child actor - Akshara Kishor
* Best Director - Praveen Kadakkavoor
* Best Screenplay - Pradeep Panicker
* Best Character actor - Santosh Kurup
* Best Character actor (Special Jury) - Giridhar
* Best Character actress -Thara Kalyan
* Best Actress in a Negative role - Archana Suseelan
* Most Popular Actress (Special Jury) - Lekshmipriya
* Best Script - Pradeep Panicker
* Best Actor in a Humorous role - Jayakumar

;10th ASIANET TELEVISION AWARDS 2017

* Best Director - Praveen Kadakkavoor
* Best Actress in a Negative role - Archana Suseelan
* Best Audiography - Sreejith Vj

;11th ASIANET TELEVISION AWARDS 2018

* Most Popular Actress - Darshana Das
* Best Video Grapher - B. Kumar
* Best Character actor - Santosh Kurup

Adaptations

References

External links

*
{{Asianet programs

Indian television series
Indian television soap operas
Serial drama television series
2014 Indian television series debuts
Malayalam-language television shows
Indian drama television series
Asianet (TV channel) original programming