''Pakshe'' ( ml, പക്ഷേ, italic=yes; ''But'') is a 1994 Malayalam romantic drama film written by Cheriyan Kalpakavadi and directed by Mohan. It stars

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 app ...

and

Shobhana Shobana Chandrakumar Pillai (born 21 March 1970) is an Indian actress and Bharatanatyam dancer. She acts predominantly in Malayalam films along with Telugu and Tamil films with few Hindi, Kannada and English films. She has won two National Fil ...

. The film was critically acclaimed.

Plot

"Pakshe" revolves around the tragic and sacrificial life of Balachandra Menon (

), an

IAS IAS may refer to: Science * Institute for Advanced Study, in Princeton, New Jersey, United States * Image Analysis & Stereology, the official journal of the International Society for Stereology & Image Analysis. * Iowa Archeological Society, Uni ...

officer. Balan was brought up in a poor family whose properties were sold by his father (

Karamana Janardanan Nair Karamana Janardanan Nair (25 July 1936 – 24 April 2000) was a Malayalam film actor, who was active during the 1980s and 1990s. He was especially known for his character roles. He won wide acclaim especially for the role of the protagonis ...

) to fund his legal cases. Unniyettan (

Venu Nagavally Venu Nagavally (16 April 1949 – 10 September 2010) was an Indian actor, screenwriter and director best known for his work in Malayalam film industry. He has directed 12 films. Son of writer, commentator, and broadcaster Nagavally R. S. Kurup, ...

) is Balan's teacher who motivates him to become an

officer. Balan is in love with Nandini (

Shobana Shobana Chandrakumar Pillai (born 21 March 1970) is an Indian actress and Bharatanatyam dancer. She acts predominantly in Malayalam films along with Telugu and Tamil films with few Hindi, Kannada and English films. She has won two National Fil ...

), an aspiring writer and belongs to a rich family. Their relationship is accepted by both the families and a marriage date is fixed. Balan successfully completes the IAS exams Unfortunately, Balan's father commits suicide, after losing the long drawn out case for which he had sold all his family properties and borrowed heavily and incurring huge debts, which Balan has to repay. Balan who had passed the UPSC written exam also successfully completes the interview. In the meanwhile, the private money lenders harass him, asking him to repay the loans incurred by his father, and abuse him publicly, which leads to altercation between them and following these incidents, Nandini's family withdraws from the marriage arrangement and Nandini is not permitted to leave her house to meet with Balan. When the money lenders are about to take legal action for recovery of their dues, Vikaraman (Thilakan), a contractor is willing to offer Balan the money to settle the dues under the condition that he marries his daughter Raji (Shanti Krishna). When Balan speaks to Nandini about this, she insists that he marries the girl and rescue his family. With a heavy heart, they decide to split calling it a "sacrifice" for their family. Balan, after marrying Rajeswari, aka Raji, repays all his debts. Raji is an arrogant woman and ill treats Balan and they endure a bad marital relationship. Vikaraman, his father-in-law, abuses Balan's position as the Revenue Secretary to unscrupulously help his friends, and at one stage, when Balan refuses to cooperate, he is abused and criticized by his wife and father in law. Vikraman had forced him to become corrupted. Heartbroken, Balan, who was so far living in his Vikraman's house, decides to go and live alone, but Raji refuses to accompany him and insults his family for no reason . Feeling insulted and angry he slaps Raji and shouts at Vikraman too. In a fit of rage, he leaves home. He spends the rest of that day at the residence of his superior officer, Shivadasa Menon who consoles him. The next morning he goes to the Kerala Government Secretariat and takes a week's leave from work and stays at a beach resort for a few days of relaxation and peace of mind, where he finds an amusing middle aged man, named Eenashu (Innocent), who has a happy outlook to life and says he keeps himself young and sprightly through liquor and women. A friendship develops between them, which makes Balan forget his miseries for a while. Later, one day, Shivadasa Menon calls him and tells him that Vikraman has begun his movements for Joint Divorce Petition. The next day, Shivadasan goes to the resort where Balan was staying to make him sign the petition since, Vikraman had forced him to do so. One evening at the resort, he is shocked and surprised to know that Nandini is staying at the neighbouring cottage. He also learns that she is now an internationally acclaimed writer, and that she is still single, not having married anyone. After the initial hesitant moments, they gradually share their life stories, and gradually the old balettan-nandinikutty bond of yesteryear is revived. Due to Eanashu's influence on him, he has also slowly erased Raji from his mind. Slowly the old romance is revived between them, and both decide to live together thereafter, but fatefully, on the day they are about to leave the resort, Rajeswari, his wife and their children turn up. In his absence, she has realised her mistakes and asks for him to forgive her and accept her and the children back into his life. Nandini, coming to know of his, with a heavy heart, realises what is happening and Balan accepts Rajeswari and the children. Balan and Nandini suffer the pain of separation for the second time in their life. The film ends with Balan set to go back to his new life with Rajeswari and Nandini beginning a new life with memories of her life with Balan. The excellent onscreen chemistry between Mohanlal and Shobana, who along with Shanti Krishna, has given an exemplary performance. The director has handled the characters in a heart-touching way. Johnson, who gave music to the film, has given some good numbers.

Cast

as Balachandra Menon

, Revenue Secretary of

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...

as Nandini Menon ('Nandinikutty') *

Shanthi Krishna Shanthi Krishna is an Indian actress known for her leading roles in Malayalam and Tamil films. As a star in the 1980s and 1990s, she won the Kerala State Film Award for Best Actress for her performance as Sharadammini in ''Chakoram'' (1994), t ...

as Rajeswari *

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 Eenashu *

Thilakan Palappurathu Kesavan Surendranatha Thilakan (15 July 1935 – 24 September 2012) was an Indian film and stage actor who appeared in over 200 Malayalam films. Thilakan was known for his elaborate method acting, realistic and spontaneous appearan ...

as Vikraman Contractor, the main antagonist *

M. G. Soman M. G. Soman (28 September 1941 – 12 December 1997) was an Indian actor and former Indian Air Force officer who appeared in Malayalam films. He was one among the leading star actors doing hero roles in Malayalam Cinema during the late 1970s an ...

as Shivadasa Menon

, Chief Secretary of

Jagathy Sreekumar Sreekumar P. K. (born 5 January 1951), better known by his stage name Jagathy Sreekumar or simply Jagathy, is an Indian actor, director and playback singer, who has appeared in over 1500 Malayalam films in a career spanning almost four decades ...

as assistant of Vikraman *

as Balan's father * Sukumari as Balan's mother *

Mamukkoya Mamukkoya (born 5 July 1946) is an Indian actor known for his work in Malayalam cinema, and has also appeared in French film ''Flammens of Paradise''. He has mostly appeared in comedic roles. His unique usage of the Mappila dialect and style mar ...

as Nanappan *

Ganesh Kumar Keezhoote Balakrishna Pillai Ganesh Kumar (born 25 May 1966) is an Indian actor, television host, and politician. Ganesh Kumar is a proposed cabinet minister for the last 2.5 years in the ongoing 2nd LDF govt in Kerala and he is also the curre ...

as Ravi, Nandini's brother *

as Unniyettan *

Kozhikode Narayanan Nair Kozhikode Narayanan Nair is an Indian actor in Malayalam cinema, who has acted in more than 300 films. He entered the "Malayalam" movie industry (Mollywood) through a drama troupe. His first film was ''Aabhijathyam'' (1970), and he is also rem ...

as Nandini's father *

Spadikam George George Antony, popularly credited as Spadikam George is an Indian actor and former Kerala state Police officer who primarily works in Malayalam films. He came to the limelight with the 1995 film '' Spadikam'', after which his name was preceded ...

as Chacko, Minister for Revenue, a corrupt politician

Soundtrack

The film had successful soundtrack composed by

Johnson Johnson is a surname of Anglo-Norman origin meaning "Son of John". It is the second most common in the United States and 154th most common in the world. As a common family name in Scotland, Johnson is occasionally a variation of ''Johnston'', a ...

, with lyrics by

K. Jayakumar K. Jayakumar (born 6 October 1952) is an Indian civil servant, poet, and author. He is an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer from Kerala who retired as the Chief Secretary of the Government of Kerala. He has also worked as lyricist, ...

References

External links

Pakshe - m3db
* {{IMDb title, id=0292167 1994 films 1990s Malayalam-language films Films scored by Johnson Films directed by Mohan