Playwright N.P. Chellappan Nair, popular for his social comedies wrote Atom Bomb , a satire, to be staged as part of the annual day celebrations of Sree Chithira Thirunal Library, Thiruvananthapuram, in 1946. This play was watched by His Highness Sree Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma along with members of the Travancore royal family. It was published the same year and staged successfully throughout the State. The play pointed fingers at the excessive urge among Indians to follow the European style of living.
The Telugu play Vyamoham , written by ‘Vedam’Venkataraya Shastri (Junior) also had similar theme. In 1954, B.R. Panthulu adapted this play for his Tamil film Kalyanam Panniyum Brahmachari , which was a huge box office hit. Probably the success of this film might have prompted P. Subrahmaniam to produce the screen version of Atom Bomb . The film was released on April 18, 1964 but failed to make an impression.
Directed by P.Subrahmaniam, the film had script and dialogues by Chellappan Nair.
Prem Nawaz, Thikkurissi Sukumaran Nair, S.P. Pillai, Ragini, Santhi etc. played significant roles. Kaviyoor Ponnamma, cast in a comic role along with Adoor Bhasi, did full justice to her role. This was also the first of popular Tamil producer and actor K. Balaji as hero.
Raghavan Pillai (Balaji) was married to his cousin Sushama (Ragini) when they were children as was prevalent in those days. Raghavan Pillai goes to England for higher studies. He returns to his village a changed man. Influenced by European culture and the western style of living, he changes his name to Ghavan. He starts his practice as lawyer and is known as Barrister Ghavan. He now begins to disapprove of Sushama who is a typical Indian wife, firmly rooted to the traditional Indian style of living. Raghavan Pillai’s concept of his wife is western, of one who smokes, a party-hopper, and drives a car.
Raghavan Pillai’s uncle Kurungodan Pappu Panicker (Thikkurissi Sukumaran Nair) and his wife Janaki (Aranmula Ponnamma) try to convince him about the importance of moral values and a happy family life with Sushama. In the pretext of expanding his career Raghavan Pillai moves to the city along with his butler Pachu (Adoor Bhasi). Sushama’s friend Kamala (Shanthi) and her lover Advocate Sudhakaran (Prem Nawaz) come forward to support Sushama. They change her name to Shama, her lifestyle, the way she used to dress, transforming her into a modern, westernised woman, and introduce her to Raghavan Pillai.
Shama also stays in the city, in a building opposite Raghavan Pillai’s bungalow. Raghavan Pillai falls for Shama without knowing that she is his wife Sushama and marries her. Soon, he sees Shama moving closely with a young man, even going for late night parties with him. He now realises the meaning of moral values, of a family and returns to the village to join Sushama. He is surprised, but happy to know that it was Shama was actually Sushama in disguise. He also understands that the whole Shama episode was a well-planned drama in order to make him understand ethical values, Indian traditions and the worth of a family life.
Balaji, Adoor Bhasi, Kaviyoor Ponnamma, S.P. Pillai as police constable ‘Shringaram’ Kuttakkaranavar, Thikkurissi Sukumaran Nair and ‘Vanakkutti’ Raman Pillai were impressive in their respective roles.
Some of the songs written by Thirunainarkurichi Madhavan Nair and set to tune by Brother Lakshmanan were imitations of other language film songs. Love venamo … (S.Janaki) was direct copy of the Shanker Jaikishan hit Aye Gulbadan … from the Hindi film Professor (1962), while Romeo Romeo … (P.B. Sreenivas-P.Leela) was an imitation of Naushad’s Taraari taraari …from the Hindi film Dastaan (1950). The other songs in this film included were Azhakil mikachathethu ….(Sreenivas-Janaki), Oh my darling …(Kamukara Purushothaman- Janaki) and the comic number Pandey paranju njaan ….(K.J. Yesudas- L.R.Easwari).
Will be remembered : As the first Malayalam film of Balaji as hero.
