Padom Onnu Oru Vilapam

Cast: Meera Jasmine, Suja Karthika, M R Gopakumar, Mammokoya
Language: Malayalam
Director: T V Chandran
Producer: Aaryaadan Shaukath
Camera: K G Jayan
Story: Aaryaadan Shaukath
Screenplay: T V Chandran
Dialogue: Aaryaadan Shaukath
Music: Johnson
Year: 2003

T V Chandran is back with Padom Onnu Oru Vilapam, his first film set in a Muslim milieu. He has always stood for serious and meaningful cinema. In Malayalam cinema, Chandran represents a rare breed of filmmakers who have managed to stick on to making meaningful cinema at a time when many others are bowing down to pressures of different sorts.

And as such, he has been able to make his presence felt through his films that have managed to go across borders and communicate to a wider audience.

His films like Alicinte Anveshanam, Ponthan Maada, Mankamma, Ormakalundaayirikkanam, Danny, Susanna, etc prove his versatility, stand and commitment as a serious filmmaker. And that is exactly why Chandran's films are eagerly awaited by lovers of serious and meaningful cinema. After the much-acclaimed Danny, Chandran's latest venture, Paadam Onnu Oru Vilaapam (Lesson One: A Wail), has showcased Meera Jasmine's acting calibre.

The film focuses on a very feministic theme in a very sensitive manner. The film tells the story of Shahina, a young Muslim girl in her mid-teens, who is very brilliant in studies. But Shahina, whose father is no more and who is being raised by her mother and uncle, has to discontinue her studies when she is forced to marry Razak, a young man from Mysore. (There is a reference to the Mysore marriage system prevalent among the poor families in the Muslim community of northern Kerala, as per which parents resort to giving their daughters in marriage to some unknown fellow coming from the neighbouring state of Mysore seeking such alliances). It is through matchmaker Hassan Moyeen that Razak's alliance comes up. Hassan Moyeen convinces Shahina's mother that finding a boy for Shahina after she has completed her schooling would be difficult as an educated girl would mean more dowry and therefore it would be better to marry her off soon.

Razak, who is already married and has a daughter, is in for a second marriage only because he needs some money to get a visa to go to Gulf. This he could manage from the dowry he gets by marrying Shahina. The elders put down Shahina's violent protests and her mother, though empathetic towards her, is convinced that it is better to marry her off. And thus, the innocent little girl is married to Razak and sent away with him.

Razak tries to have physical relation with his newly wed wife, who doesn't know what sex means. Shahina, on the other hand, gets intimate with Razak's daughter Mumtaz and the two of them move together, playing and all. In the meantime, Razak manages to give Shahina some sedatives and fulfils his desire. Shahina wakes up shocked and shattered. Her violent outbursts give Razak a chance to take refuge in the time-honored custom of divorce and dispose her. All that happens following this forms the plot of Paadam Onnu Oru Vilaapam.

The cast also has M R Gopakumar, Mammokoya, P Sreekumar, Suja Karthika and Santhadevi. The buzz is that the film will get Meera a lot of accolades and probably an award too!

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