A classic turns 60 this month. Neelakkuyil , which revolutionised Malayalam cinema and gave a fresh, original sound to its music, was released in October 1954.
It was directed jointly by Ramu Kariat and P. Bhaskaran and they, backed up by a solid script by Uroob, gave a new direction to Malayalam cinema that had very little Malayalam about it and less realism; the influence of Hindi and Tamil films was too pronounced.
When Kariat and producer T.K. Pareekutty asked Uroob, who was working at the All India Radio (AIR) station of Kozhikode, if he had a story suitable for cinema, he narrated the tale of a Dalit woman and her affair with an upper caste man.
It was at that meeting that Neelakkuyil took wings. None of them may have thought that it would soar to heights Malayalam cinema had never seen till then.
K. Raghavan, Uroob’s colleague at AIR (Kozhikode), was assigned the task to tune songs written by Bhaskaran himself. The result was pure magic. Songs such as Kayalarikath…, Ellarum chollanu…, Maanennum vilikkilla…, and Kuyiline thedi… liberated Malayalam film music from the tyranny of Hindi songs and gave a melodious identity of its own.
A. Vincent was chosen as the cinematographer. Sathyan, Prema, Miss Kumari, and Bhaskaran played the key roles. For the role of Sathyan’s son, an eight-year-old Vipin was selected - that boy went on to become cinematographer Vipin Mohan.
“I am perhaps the only man associated with Neelakkuyil who could still talk about it and I consider it an honour that I could be part of a classic,” Vipin told The Hindu on Friday.
“Though I was very young at the time, I still remember shooting several scenes, such as the rain sequences. I also recall my scenes with Bhaskaran Master, who I think did the role originally meant for P.J. Antony, Sathyan and Prema.”
He also recalls the celebration of the box office success of Neelakkuyil . “There was this van which drove around Thrissur, adorned with the cut-outs and playing the film’s songs, and I was in it, as one of the stars,” he says. “We were celebrating the 50th day of Neelakkuyil .”
The little boy could not have imagined that Malayalam cinema would be celebrating Neelakkuyil 60 years later.
