Satyan (Manuel Satyanesan Nadar), one of the finest actors of Indian, especially Malayalam cinema, was from Nagercoil. He was in the Army during World War II, and also in the police department in old Travancore, where he met people connected with theatre and cinema. He took his bow in Atmasakhi (1952) but stardom came with the classic Neelakuyil (1954). He introduced realistic acting, completely integrating himself with whatever role he played. He acted in over 150 Malayalam films and two Tamil films. Neelakuyil (1954), Thacholi Othenan (1964), Chemmeen (1965), Yakshi (1968), Kadalpalam (1969), Mooladhanam (1969), Vazhve Mayam (1970), and Karakanakadal (1971), for which he won a state award posthumously, are some of his famous hits. He was highly influenced by iconic Malayalam filmmakers such as K.S. Sethumadhavan, Aloysius Vincent, Ramu Kariat, P. Bhaskaran and P. Venu. Alukkoru Veedu was written by well-known playwright and screenwriter ‘Sakthi’ Krishnaswami, produced by Subhash Movies, and directed by well-known Malayalam director M. Krishnan. The music was composed by Viswanathan-Ramamurthi, and the lyrics were by Pattukottai Kalyanasundaram and K.D. Santhanam. The film had Satyan as hero, supported by T.S. Muthaiah and D. Balasubramaniam. Dancing star L. Vijayalakshmi played the female lead. Tambaram N. Lalitha, T.R. Ramachandran and S.D. Subbulakshmi had roles too.
There are two brothers in a village; the greedy younger brother cheats the elder one of the family property and lives in style, with several houses. The dispossessed brother sells vegetables for a living but is run over by a deputy collector’s son Rajan, and dies on the spot. Rajan takes the body to the vendor’s hut where he meets his daughter and falls in love with her. He plots to recover his sweetheart’s lost property. Meanwhile, the younger brother’s daughter falls for a drama artiste, but the greedy father wants her to marry Rajan. How Rajan wins back his sweetheart’s houses and marries her forms the rest of the film…
‘Anbu manam kalantha pinney acchham thevayaa,’ a duet by PBS and P. Susheela, was a hit. The other playback singers were Jamuna Rani, Renuka, A.L. Raghavan, and K. Rani. The dances were choreographed by E. Madhavan, while A. Krishnan handled the camera. The film was produced at Vijaya-Vauhini Studios. In spite of excellent performances by Satyan and others, the film was only a reasonable success at the box office.
Remembered for: Satyan’s realistic acting and the pleasing music.
