chemmeen (1965)
Starring	Sheela, Sathyan, Madhu, Kottarakkara Sreedharan Nair
Written by	Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai (also novel)
Dialogue	S.L. Puram Sadanandan
Cinematography	Marcus Bartley, U Rajagopal
Editing	Hrishikesh Mukherjee, KD George
Lyrics	Valyalar Rama Varma
Produced by	Babu Ismail
Directed by	Ramu Kariat

Synopsis

Chembankunju’s (Kottarakkara Sreedharan Nair) only aim in life is to own a boat and a net. He finally succeeds in buying both with the help of Pareekutty (Madhu), a young Muslim trader, on condition that the fish hauled by the boat will be sold to him. Chembankunju’s pretty daughter Karuthamma (Sheela) and Pareekutty love each other. Karuthamma’s mother, Chakki, knows about it and reminds her daughter about the life they lead within the boundaries of strict social tradition. Karuthamma sacrifices her love for Pareekutty and marries Palani (Satyen), an orphan discovered by Chembankunju in the course of one of his fishing expeditions. Following the marriage, Karuthamma accompanies her husband to his village, despite her mother’s sudden illness and her father’s requests to stay. In his fury, Chembankunju disowns her. On acquiring a boat and a net and subsequently adding one more, Chembankunju becomes more greedy and heartless. With his dishonesty, he drives Pareekutty to bankruptcy. After the death of his wife, Chembankunju marries Pappikunju, the widow of the man from he had bought his first boat. Panchami, Chembankunju’s younger daughter, leaves home to join Karuthama, on arrival of her step mother. Meanwhile, Karuthamma has endeavoured to be a good wife and mother. But scandal about her old love for Pareekutty spreads in the village. Palani’s friends ostracize him and refuse to take him fishing with them. By a stroke of fate, Karuthamma and Pareekutty meet one night and their old love is awakened… Palani, at sea alone and baiting a shark, is caught in a huge whirlpool and is swallowed by the sea. Next morning, Karuthamma and Parekutty, are also found dead hand in hand, washed ashore. At a distance, there lies a baited dead shark.

The film

Chemmeen is based on a highly acclaimed novel by Gyanpith Award Winner Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai. Since its initial publication in Malayalam in 1956, the novel has run into several editions in quick succession, setting an all India record for all time and is perhaps the most well known literary work in Kerala. It has also been translated in various Indian Languages and also in English, Russian, German, Italian, French, Czech, Spanish and Polish among others. Hence when the film was being made, expectations were sky high. The film, needless to say, firmly delivers and has subsequently acquired cult status in the history of Malayalam Cinema besides being the film that put Malayalam Cinema on the National Map as it was the first South Indian film to win the coveted President’s Gold Medal for Best film. Malayalam Cinema has never looked back since.

Chemeen’s tale is multilayered. On one level while it is a tragic love story of forbidden love. On the other hand it proves that true love recognizes no religious, cultural or geographical boundaries. If the film reaffirms the required commitment to relationships, it also shows how deep, passionate love can both save and destroy man. It tells you how people can change with greed and jealousy and it illustrates the deeply rooted nature of superstition in the Hindu psyche while looking at the life of a typical Kerala fishing community of Allapuzha. While its grandeur flows from the wild and powerful ocean that rules the fishing community, its poetic beauty lies in its depiction of those small moments that can make or mar our lives.

At the core of the film are the three central performances of Sheela, Sathyan and Madhu. The film offers all three of them their career-defining roles with Sheela being known as ‘Chemmeen Sheela’ even today! Needless to say, the trio responds with their career-best performances. Incidentally, Madhu introduced to films through Kariat’s Moodupadam (1963), was one of the ensemble cast in KA Abbas’s Saat Hindustani (1969), Amitabh Bachchan’s debut film. The three are strongly supported by Kottarakkara Sreedharan Nair bringing alive the wily and greedy Chembankunju.

Another major strength of the film is its superb musical score by Salil Choudhury. It is said that Choudhury composed the tunes first and then the lyrics were added in. The most well-known number of the film is the haunting - Manasa Maine Varu rendered brilliantly with great pathos by the great Manna Dey. His Hindi and Bengali songs notwithstanding, this is one of Mannada’s best ever songs and he was praised by one and all for his outstanding Malayalam Diction. Of course it helped that he was married to a Malayalee woman, Sulochana! Other songs, all extremely popular, include Pennale Pennale sung by KJ Yesudas and P.Leela, Puthan Valakkare by KJ Yesudas, P Leela, KP Udaybhanu and Shantha P Nair (‘inspired’ by Choudhury’s own Baag Mein Kali Khili from Chand aur Suraj (1965)) and Kadalinakkara by KJ Yesudas. In fact, the songs were dubbed into Hindi as well under the collective title Chemmeen Lehren. Chemeen is Salilda’s first film in Malayalam and would lead him to composing music in several more Malayalam films especially in tandem with lyricist Valyalar.

Besides ‘importing’ Choudhury and Dey, the film also has the expertise of Hrishikesh Mukherjee in the Editing Department. Hrishida does speak about how he had to ‘salvage’ what was shot by altering the structure of the film compared to what Kariat had in mind but since it helped the film overall, no one is complaining today! Mention must be made of cinematographer Marcus Bartley’s and U Rajagopal’s evocative cinematography of the sea front with good use of the technicolour format. (Chemmeen was the first ever colour film in Malayalam.)

Perhaps the high regard for the film particularly in Kerala is best summed up by Malayalee superstar of today, Mohanlal. To quote him…

“It is an exceptional film. I don't think there will be another like it in Malayalam. All those who worked in Chemmeen were so great. I don’t think such a combination has happened again or will happen again.”

Beside the National Award, Chemmeen also won a Certificate of Merit at the Chicago Film Festival and the film was also screened at the 2005 Brisbane International Film Festival as part of a retrospective on 50 years of Malayalam Cinema

The genius in Bollywood it was he the Immortal music Director Salil Chowdhury.

"IT WAS HE" Good at playing almost any instrument, conversant with Indian and western classical music and himself a great poet. Also gave music in various indian languages "IT WAS HE".

1. O Sajna (Parakh): The best song ever created for Bollywood quite unequivocally.

2. Bichchua (Madhumati): what great melody, what wizardry, awesome.

3. Rajnigandha Phool Tumhare (Rajnigandha): love it.

4. Zara Woh Muskara Diye (Half Ticket): The execution is immaculate.

5. Kahin Door Jab Din Dhal Jaaye (Anand): A beautiful song.

6. Itna Na Mujse Tu Pyar Badha (Chhaya): Apparently inspired by one of Beethoven’s pieces.

7. Jago Mohan Pyare (Jaagate Raho): A beautiful raga based song by Lataji’s classy voice.

8. Koi Hota Jisko Apna (Mere Apne): A typical sad song.

9. Tere Liye (Anand): How well Mukeshji’s thin voice is used to make it sound full.

10. Saat Bhai Champa: I take the liberty of including a Bengali song.I hope not to offend.This song has great sweetness.

I really hope that his name will be written in the Histroy of Bollywood among the top ten successful composers.

I like some films because they appeal to the intellect; some because they beguile the senses. The mystical Madhumati belongs to the latter category.

This Bimal Roy classic of song, dance and images is thick with atmosphere and evokes a mood that sweeps me along without my finding it essential to process it all in the brain first.

CREDITS
Producer	Director	Music Director	Stars
Bimal Roy	Bimal Roy	Salil Chowdhary	Dilip Kumar,  Vyjayanthimala

Madhumati is tinged with whimsy. In its primeval tale of reincarnation, there is retribution and eternal love. Roy, a poet of light and shadow, draws you in with sheer lyricism. Cinema here is more than just the telling of a story.

This ghost story employs genre staples like stormy nights. The film begins with Devendra (Dilip Kumar) stopping at a haveli [mansion] on a windswept night because a landslide has stopped him in his bid to fetch his wife from the railway station.

Devendra finds the huge mansion eerily familiar, there is a dimly-remembered painting, too. Soon, we are in the midst of a flashback about Devendra's earlier life as Anand, the manager of the surrounding estate.

Anand is an artist and, on an excursion to the surrounding hills and valleys, encounters a tribal girl Madhumati (Vyjayanthimala) dancing and skipping in the lush, beautiful countryside. Anand falls for Madhumati's elemental appeal.

Roy tantalisisngly captures the titular character's will o' the wisp quality. In the famous Aaja re pardesi number, an intrigued Anand gets only glimpses of the blithe spirit singing. The entire song shows Madhumati in long shots with a close-up only at the end.

Or see Madhumati's dance number Zulmi sang aankh ladi. Towards the end of the song, she is singing in the background while chorus girls momemtarily eclipse her. After the first girl passes by, Madhumati is shown still singing behind; but when the second girl passes, Madhumati has disappeared.

Anand and Madhumati's love story is shadowed by Madhumati's premonition of doom when the omens spell catastrophe at a tribal ceremony. Anand's boss and the owner of the timber estate Ugranarayan (Pran) hatches a plot to rape Madhumati. To escape from Ugranarayan's clutches, Madhumati plunges to her death from the roof of his haveli.

The beautiful Madhumati is shown as a seemingly ineluctable part of the nature around her. When the rich, rapacious villain seeks to violate Madhumati, it is perhaps an extension of his exploitation of the natural habitat around him and his disruption of the life of the tribals.

Later, a distraught Anand is amazed when he comes across Madhavi, the mirror image of Madhumati. Anand convinces the lookalike, Madhavi to pose as Madhumati and trap Ugranarayan into confessing his crime.

When Madhavi fails to keep the appointment, Madhumati comes back from the dead, instead! In a scene that would make the Sphinx blink with emotion, Madhumati, now a polymorphous presence, finally extracts revenge on her tormentor. Anand, too, chooses to fall from the same place where the hapless Madhumati had killed herself. The lovers are finally united in death.

...And seemingly in life too.

True love has the power to obliterate spatial and temporal boundaries. After the flashback, Devendra is reunited at the railway station with his wife Radha --- Madhumati reincarnated.

Madhumati is the grandmother of such famous reincarnation films as Milan, Mehbooba, Karz, Karan Arjun, Kudrat and Janam Janam.

Roy proves adept at the chill skill, creating some unforgettable cinematic images like Madhumati running fleet-footed through the woods.

Cinematographer Dilip Gupta also creates and lingers on small but evocative images like the dappled, arcane patterns formed on the ground by the sunlight filtering through the trees. Capturing something as tenuous as a mood is tricky business but the black-and-white photography helps. Bright, brazen colours would have washed the film off some of its mystique.

The music and the tonal correctness of the performances hold us in thrall. Because of the reincarnation angle, Dilip Kumar played two roles as Devendra and Anand, while Vyjayanthimala gets to enact three roles as Madhumati, Madhavi and Radha.

Dilip Kumar's convincing turn at befuddlement, earnestness and fascination anchors our belief in the film's events.

Vyjayanthimala did not have a lot to do in terms of conventional high drama but she had to evoke the mood of the film as Madhumati, the mysterious maid of the mist. She does that well with that enigmatic quality, that incandescent glow, those dances (especially Daiyya re daiyya), and the grace with which she moved.

Sidelights:

* After socially-relevant films like Do Bigha Zameen, even the Kishore Kumar starrer Naukri, Bimal Roy was criticised for what was seen as a surrender to overt commercial considerations in Madhumati (a belief in superstitions, a Johnny Walker track). But gratifyingly, Madhumati proved to be Roy's biggest hit ever.

* Roy reshot the theme song Aaja re pardesi because he was not happy with the results.

* Top drawer talents were involved: Hrishikesh Mukherjee's editing, Rajinder Singh Bedi's dialogues and noted

Bengali director Ritwick Ghatak's story.

* Dilip Kumar had two releases in 1958 --- Madhumati and Yahudi. Both were directed by Bimal Roy.

* In 1958, Vyjayanthimala was nominated twice for the Filmfare Awards for two hits released within a month of each

other --- Madhumati and Sadhna. She won for Sadhna.

The Music:

Famous songs from Madhumati:
Song	Singers
Aaja re pardesi	Lata Mangeshkar
Zulmi sang aankh ladi	Lata Mangeshkar
Ghadi ghadi mera dil	Lata Mangeshkar
Daiyya re daiyya re	Lata Mangeshkar, Manna Dey
Dil tadap tadap ke	Lata Mangeshkar, Mukesh
Suhana safar aur yeh mausam	Mukesh
Toote huey khwabon ne	Mohammed Rafi
Jungle mein mor nacha	Mohammed Rafi
Hum haal-e-dil sunayenge	Mubarak Begum

* Madhumati is Salil Chowdhary's tour de force. The songs are perennial hits. Suhana safar aur yeh mausam haseen is still played at dandiya functions.

* Even Johnny Walker's song Jungle mein mor nacha was popular while Mubarak Begum's Hum haal-e-dil sunayenge is a burnished gem. Of course, the crown belongs to Lata's crystalline rendition of Aaja re pardesi. More than a decade later, Hrishikesh Mukherjee made Jaya Bhaduri, sing this song in the climax of Guddi.

* Word wizard Shailendra, as usual, captured the heart of the film with some simple, heartfelt lyrics in the theme song:
Main deeye ki aisi baati
Jal na saki
Jo bujh bhi na paati
Aa mil mere jeevan saathi

Salil Chowdhury was born on 19th November 1925 (date of birth is disputed) and died on September 5, 1995, just before his 70th birthday.To me Salil was a true genius. His untimely and sudden death on September 5, 1995 was a great shock to many and a great loss to India.

He was one of the greatest musical talents India ever had. A man of many talents. He was not only an outstanding composer, an accomplished and gifted arranger, poet and writer but above all an intellectual. A master multi-instrumentalist, he played excellent flute, Esraj, violin and piano , with a deep and well-studied understanding of several other instruments as is evident from their creative use in his music.

He spent many years of his childhood in the Assam  tea gardens where his father was a doctor. He grew up listening to his father's large collection of western classical music and the folk songs of Assam and Bengal. This influenced him considerably and shaped his musical thinking. Young Salil could sing very well and played excellent flute from tjhe age of eight. In fact his expertise in flute brought him in contact with the outside musical world. He was very fond of his father. Salil remembered how his father once hit one of the British managers and broke his three front teeth after he called his father  'dirty nigger'. Salil's father organised and staged plays with the tea-garden coolies and other lowly paid workers . Salil remembers his father's strong anti-British feelings and his concern and love for the oppressed tea garden workers. After graduating from Bangabaashi College in Calcutta, during his university years his political ideas were fast maturing along with his musical ideas. Living through the second world war, the Bengal famine and the hopeless political situation of the '40s, he became acutely aware of his social responsibilities.

This is when he joined IPTA (Indian Peoples Theater Association) and became a member of the communust party. During this period he wrote numerous songs and with IPTA took his songs to the masses. They travelled through the villages and the cities and his songs became the voice of the masses.These songs were very powerful indeed. Songs of protest which made people aware of the rampant social injustice which surrounded them. These songs became very powerful and stimulating. In  fact, Salil always retained his strong feelings for the social injustice and very often wrote songs which reflected this feelings. He called these songs the 'Songs of consciousness and awakening'. These mass songs became a part of the independence movement and they are still performed all over Bengal after all these years. In a way they have now become an integral part of the Bengali heritage.

Salil's Bengali songs changed the whole course of Bengali modern music. Bengalees were thrilled and amazed to hear his songs with completely new melodies, new lyrics and totally new musical arrangements. A new wave came sweeping accross Bengal in the '50s and continued for at least three decades. While his musical message reached almost all parts of the country as the multifaceted composer set even Telegu numbers to music, the rest of India was denied access to his poetic abilities.

We can see two main phases of Salil. The first phase starts in the pre-independence era of the '40s and goes up to '54-'55 and the second phase is after that. Basically, the first phase was the non-professional in it's intent. His professional phase started around the mid-fifties. One has to study  both these phases to understand and appreciate Salil Chowdhury's music. We see Salil as a brilliant lyricist, a song writer and a poet in his first phase and a very matured and exceptionaly talented composer in his second phase. The composer Salil reached the greatest heights in his second phase which basically started when he arrived in Bombay to compose for the film 'Do Bigha Zameen'. This was the Hindi version of the successful Bengali Film 'Rikshawalla' . The story of 'Rikshawala' was written by him and the music was composed by him. It was a tremendous success and so was 'Do Bigha Zameen'.

Since then he had composed for over 75 Hindi Films, around 23 Malayalam Films and several Tamil, Telegu, Kannada, Gujrati, Marathi, Assameese and Oriya Films. He had also composed for several Tele-Films and Tele-Serials.

Salil was arguably the most versatile musician in the world of Indian cinema. To the music connoisseurs he was better known as the non-conformist music composer whose unceasing search for perfection towered above everything else in his life.His meticulous attention to details, a scrupulous ear for musical content, an insatiable desire for improvisation - it all remained with him till his last days. His phenomenal flair for instruments prompted even an expert like Jaikishen to refer to him as a 'The Genius'. Raj Kapoor once said 'He can play almost any instrument he lays his hands on, from the tabla to the sarod, from the piano to the piccolo'. He was in fact a composer's composer, because unlike his market-driven counterparts, he never really set prose to music. To him the melody was sacrosant and had to precede the words. The situation could then be adapted.

Salil's music was a unique blending of the east and the west. He had once said 'I want to create a style which shall transcend borders - a genre which is emphatic and polished, but never predictable'. He dabbled in a lot of things and it was his ambition to achieve greatness in everything he did. But at times, his confusion was fairly evident - 'I do not know what to opt for. Poetry, story writing, orchestration or composing for films'. I just try to be creative with what fits the moment and my temperament' he once told a journalist.

Besides many unforgettable melodies such as O sajna, barkha bahar ayi and Majhi re, Chowdhury composed a large number of protest songs after joining Indian People Theatre Association (IPTA) — the cultural wing of the Communist Party of India — some of which were banned during the Independence movement. Although these songs are well remembered by the IPTA comrades, they were never recorded.

Now, 16 years after Chowdhury’s death, his friend and admirer Gautam Choudhury, a 72-year-old IT consultant from Netherlands, has released Songs of Consciousness, an album comprising 12 of those protest songs. The album, says Gautam, has come out after 10 years of research.

“Politically, these songs were quite sensitive. Just like Salilda’s political plays, these songs were performed in villages, at protest meetings and demonstrations. No recordings were made in those days since most of these songs were banned and the record companies under the British Government were not allowed to record these songs,” adds Gautam, who recorded these songs on his portable tape recorder as he interviewed people and requested them to sing those songs for him.

Over the years, he managed to collect over 25 such songs. “I had to be extra careful in authenticating the melody and lyrics — which meant several visits to different people,” says Gautam, who recently gave away the tracks to the newly created ‘Salil Archive’ at the Jorasanko residence of Rabindranath Tagore in West Bengal for anybody who wishes to study or refer to them.

But there were a host of problems that Gautam faced before he could record the album, apart from investing his own money. “These songs were in raw form — people sang without musical accompaniments or in some cases, only with a harmonium. I had to be careful in writing the lyrics and making sure that the melody was consistent,” adds Gautam, who then went looking for an arranger who understood Chowdhury’s style of music and also the right singers. “It all took months, but finally we completed it,” says Gautam about the album that has tracks sung by Sayantani Majumder and some other students from Rabindra Bharati.

The powerful songs that were composed by the self-taught musician in the ’40s, their strong lyrics are in stark contrast to the commercial and more orchestrated tracks composed by him in and after ’50s.

“The songs Salilda composed in his

youth were completely motivated by his political and social commitment. Once he entered the commercial world in early ’50s, his music became varied due to rich orchestration,” says Gautam.

Banned Songs Play Again

Suanshu Khurana,Suanshu Khurana

Besides many unforgettable melodies such as O sajna, barkha bahar ayi and Majhi re, Chowdhury composed a large number of protest songs after joining Indian People Theatre Association (IPTA) — the cultural wing of the Communist Party of India — some of which were banned during the Independence movement. Although these songs are well remembered by the IPTA comrades, they were never recorded.

Now, 16 years after Chowdhury’s death, his friend and admirer Gautam Choudhury, a 72-year-old IT consultant from Netherlands, has released Songs of Consciousness, an album comprising 12 of those protest songs. The album, says Gautam, has come out after 10 years of research.

“Politically, these songs were quite sensitive. Just like Salilda’s political plays, these songs were performed in villages, at protest meetings and demonstrations. No recordings were made in those days since most of these songs were banned and the record companies under the British Government were not allowed to record these songs,” adds Gautam, who recorded these songs on his portable tape recorder as he interviewed people and requested them to sing those songs for him.

Over the years, he managed to collect over 25 such songs. “I had to be extra careful in authenticating the melody and lyrics — which meant several visits to different people,” says Gautam, who recently gave away the tracks to the newly created ‘Salil Archive’ at the Jorasanko residence of Rabindranath Tagore in West Bengal for anybody who wishes to study or refer to them.

But there were a host of problems that Gautam faced before he could record the album, apart from investing his own money. “These songs were in raw form — people sang without musical accompaniments or in some cases, only with a harmonium. I had to be careful in writing the lyrics and making sure that the melody was consistent,” adds Gautam, who then went looking for an arranger who understood Chowdhury’s style of music and also the right singers. “It all took months, but finally we completed it,” says Gautam about the album that has tracks sung by Sayantani Majumder and some other students from Rabindra Bharati.

The powerful songs that were composed by the self-taught musician in the ’40s, their strong lyrics are in stark contrast to the commercial and more orchestrated tracks composed by him in and after ’50s.

“The songs Salilda composed in his

youth were completely motivated by his political and social commitment. Once he entered the commercial world in early ’50s, his music became varied due to rich orchestration,” says Gautam.