''Thalayana Manthram'' () is a 1990 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 ...

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

Sathyan Anthikkad Sathyan Anthikad is an Indian film director, screenwriter, and lyricist who predominantly works in Malayalam cinema. In a career spanning five decades he has directed more than 50 films, been the lyricist for 12 films and been the scriptwriter f ...

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 ' ...

. The film stars Sreenivasan,

Urvashi Urvashi ( sa, उर्वशी, Urvaśī}) is the most prominent apsara (celestial nymph) in Hindu mythology, considered to be the most beautiful of all the apsaras, and an expert dancer. She is mentioned in both ''Vedic'' and ''Puranic'' s ...

Jayaram Jayaram Subramaniam, (born 10 December 1965) known mononymously as Jayaram, is an Indian actor who predominantly appears in Malayalam,Tamil films, along with a few Telugu films. He is also a chenda percussionist, mimicry artist, and occasiona ...

, and Parvathy.

's performance as Kanchana received widespread acclaim and is considered one of the best in her career.

Plot

Sukumaran (

), his brother Mohanan (

) and their mother belong to a middle-class family and live happily. Sukumaran is a supervisor in a construction company named JK Constructions and Mohanan is a shopkeeper. Mohanan has recently married Shailaja (

Parvathy Jayaram Ashwathy Kurup (born 7 April 1970), better known by her stage name Parvathy and married name Parvathy Jayaram (Aswathi Jayaram) , is a former Indian actress, costume designer and classical dancer, who appeared in Malayalam films. Parvathy was ...

) who is a bank employee and is from a rich family unlike Sukumaran's wife Kanchana. Shylaja's fortunate life with money and job makes Kanchana envious of her and Kanchana slowly starts causing problems in the family by finding unnecessary issues which affects the smooth running of a peaceful family life. Finally Sukumaran leaves their family house and starts living in a rented house with Kanchana by Kanchana's request. The rented house is located in a posh colony wherein the residents are very rich. Soon Kanchana finds that living in luxury is not conducive with the economic situation of Sukumaran who is just a supervisor in a company. To match their social status Kanchana lies to her new neighbours that her husband is an engineer in a construction company. Soon Sukumaran pushes for demands like buying expensive home appliances, arranging a dance master for their daughter and sending her to an English medium school, buying an old car (in which Sukumaran would meet with an accident thereby increasing their medical expenses and car repair charges) etc. The huge economical demands slowly crush Sukumaran and it finally affects him in the manner of creditors demanding their money back. In order to meet their financial requirements Sukumaran finally decides to cheat his employer by forgery. The authorities soon come to know about the truth and one day, when Sukumaran is already under heavy economical pressures, the police arrive and arrest him. The next day, because of the ill reputation caused by the family the house owner drives Sukumaran's family out of their rented house. At this point Mohanan comes to their rescue knowing about the situations where his brother has been led by the ill advice of his wife Kanchana. Mohanan arranges money by selling his wife's gold ornaments and repays the creditors. Sukumaran is finally released from jail. In the end the family is re-united when Kanchana understands her mistakes.

Cast

as Sukumaran *

as Kanchana, Sukumaran's wife *

as Mohanan * Parvathy as Shylaja, Mohanan's wife *

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 T.G. Daniel *

K. P. A. C. Lalitha Maheshwari Amma, better known by her stage name K. P. A. C. Lalitha, was an Indian film and stage actress who worked primarily in Malyalam. She started her acting career with K. P. A. C., a theatre collective in Kayamkulam, Kerala. In a caree ...

as mother of Sukumaran and Mohan *

Mammukoya 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 Kunjananthan Mesthiri *

Sukumari Sukumari Amma (6 October 1940 – 26 March 2013) was an Indian actress best known for her works in Malayalam and Tamil films. In a career spanning more than five decades, She has appeared in more than 2500 films predominantly in Malayalam, Tam ...

as Sulochana Thankappan *

Philomina Philomina (1926 – 2 January 2006) was an Indian actress, who worked in the Malayalam film industry. She acted in more than 750 films in her career. She played mostly character and comedy roles, besides that of mother and grandmother. She star ...

as Paruammayi *

Meena Meena () is a sub-group of Bhils. They speak Meena language. They started adopting the Brahmin worship system. Its name is also transliterated as ''Meenanda'' or ''Mina''. Historians claim that they belong to the Matsya tribe. They got the sta ...

as Jiji Daniel *

Sankaradi Chandrashekaran Menon, better known by his screen name Sankaradi (14 July 1924 – 8 October 2001), was an Indian actor. He was a veteran Malayalam comedian and character artist, who had over 700 Malayalam films to his credit. He dominated the ...

as Thankappan *

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 Manager *

Oduvil Unnikrishnan Oduvil Unnikrishnan (13 February 1943 – 27 May 2006) was an Indian actor who worked in Malayalam cinema. He has portrayed supporting roles in both dramatic and comedic roles.The HindMalayalam film actor Oduvil Unnikrishnan dead He is a four- ...

as Pothuval Mash *

Paravoor Bharathan Vadakkekarayil Koran Bharathan (16 January 1929- 19 August 2015), better known as Paravoor Bharatan was an Indian actor who acted in Malayalam films. He started his career in movies during the 1950s. Bharathan is known as a versatile actor and h ...

as Damodharan Pillai *

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 Bhasurachandran (Cameo) *

Kollam Thulasi Kollam Kanjaveli Kuttilazhikathu Thulasidharan Nair is an actor in Malayalam cinema, who is better known as Kollam Thulasi relating to the name of his birthplace Kollam to his first name as customary in some parts of Kerala. His first appearance ...

as Dhamodharan Kartha (Cameo) *Sindhu Manu Varma as Jojo Daniel

Soundtrack

Awards

Kerala State Film Award for Best Actress The Kerala State Film Award for Best Actress is an honour presented annually at the Kerala State Film Awards of India since 1969 to an actress for the best performance within the Malayalam film industry. Until 1997, the awards were managed direc ...

- Urvashi

Box office

The film was a commercial success.

References

External links

* {{Sathyan Anthikad 1990s Malayalam-language films Films with screenplays by Sreenivasan Indian drama films Films shot in Thiruvananthapuram Films directed by Sathyan Anthikad Films scored by Johnson Indian comedy films 1990 comedy films 1990 films