The Songs of Kanyakumari (1974)

The third and final part by CM on the movie Kanyakumari.

OLD MALAYALAM CINEMA

KS Sethumadhavan’s Kanyakumari (1974) had 2 songs in Malayalam written by Vayalar, set to music by MB Sreenivasan. There is an English song credited for its lyrics and music to MB Srinivasan but I strongly contest that and feel a collaborator on the lyrics have been left out. There are two instrumental pieces, catering to two disparate forms of dance as it were, a Shiv Parvati Lasya piece, and a music montage of Jayan’s memories of his Bohemian life, of a life-time of drugs, sex and rock-n-roll.

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Kanyakumari (1974) | Weird dialects, a strange lucky mascot and melody time-travels

The second in a three part series by CM.

OLD MALAYALAM CINEMA

After watching Kanyakumari (1974) by the KS Sethumadhavan – MT Vasudevan Nair duo, there are places your eyebrows go, at times in puzzlement, at times in amusement and at times with sheer curiosity. These are what I felt had to be put down in a separate, yet related note. Who knows, you would find more, once you have watched the movie, or recall it from the times you watched it four decades back.

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Classic Picks | KS Sethumadhavan | Kanyakumari (1974)

For the second post in our ‘Kanyakumari Captured on Film’ series, let me borrow from Cine Matters at the Old Malayalam Cinema 🙂
Thank you CM for doing this:)

OLD MALAYALAM CINEMA

This is fondly dedicated to a “Kanyakumari Evangelist “ 🙂

Kanyakumari (1974), directed by KS Sethumadhavan based on MT Vasudevan Nair’s screenplay also had a unique pairing onscreen that was never repeated ever – Kamal Haasan with Rita Bhaduri   ( NOT to be confused with the younger sister of Jaya Bhaduri), that too in a Malayalam film production! It was her second movie in her career having graduated from the Pune Film Institute in 1973. Zarina Wahab, her batch-mate, however decided to stick with Malayalam films along with her work in Hindi, and even started off paired opposite, guess whom – Kamal Haasan in Malayalam, in Madanolsavam (1978).

This was also Kamal Haasan’s first film in Malayalam in a leading (?) role, after his debut in Kannum Karalum (1961), which again was by KS Sethumadhavan. Kanyakumari (1974) portrays a brief increment in time, centred around…

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Kanyakumari Captured on Film

Kanyakumari district has an abundance of beauty – both of the natural and manmade kind – a fact that hasn’t gone unnoticed by filmmakers always on the lookout for scenic locales.

So Kurukshetra is starting off on a series of Malayalam and Tamil movies that have been shot in Kanyakumari (hereafter Kanyakumari refers to the district as a whole and not just the town at land’s end where the three seas meet, unless otherwise specified). Over the weeks we shall rediscover these movies, which I feel, can be broadly classified into three categories:

A Unique Melody Indeed!

OLD MALAYALAM CINEMA

I have been told to lay off the adjectives for this one. But when the subject is Vidyamma, it is a tough task for me. So forgive me if a couple do manage to creep in.

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