Kanmadam


Kanmadam is a 1998 Indian Malayalam-language drama film, written and directed by A. K. Lohithadas. It stars Mohanlal, Manju Warrier, and Lal; K. P. A. C. Lalitha and Siddique appears in guest roles. The songs were composed by Raveendran, while S. P. Venkatesh composed the background score, Ramachandra Babu was the cinematographer and A. Sreekar Prasad was the editor. The film was produced and distributed by Pranavams International.
Kanmadam was released on 14 April 1998 on Vishu. The film received critical acclaim and was a commercial success at the box office. It completed 100 days run in theatres.

Plot

A thug, Vishwanathan, travels to a village in Kerala where a deceased man named Damodaran lived. Damodaran's grandmother was waiting for her grandson's return, unaware of his death.
Vishwanathan helps Damodaran's family by paying their debts and thus saves their home auction for not clearing the debt.
He falls in love with a high-tempered young woman named Bhanu before his best friend Johnny came for him. But Vishwanathan had to reveal the truth to Bhanu that he and Johnny accidentally killed Damodaran.
A series of events that follows causes misunderstanding between Vishwanathan and Johnny, and they become enemies. Later Johnny realizes his mistakes and they reconcile. Damodaran's family agrees to marry Suma to Johnny and Bhanu to Vishwanathan.

Cast

Pre-production

played Johnny. Lal, was in his early career and had difficulty playing his character and decided to abandon the role. Lohithadas persuaded him to continue. His performance received appreciation. For the role of Muthassi, they considered several actresses, but settled on Savithri Amma, who was not an actress. Cinematographer Ramachandra Babu recalls that she had "not seen a movie filming until then, but performed excellently. She enjoyed delivering natural dialogues. It can be seen in the film that she performed like an experienced artist in the scene were she cries remembering her grandson".

Filming

The film was shot in 55 days. Filming began in February 1998 two months before the scheduled release date. Palakkad in Kerala was the main location, while some scenes were shot in Madras in Tamil Nadu and Bombay in Maharashtra. The temperature was high during filming, which affected their work. Some of the crew suffered sun burn. Palakkad recorded the highest temperature in Kerala.
The screenplay was incomplete when filming began. Lohithadas wrote the scenes to be shot each day the same morning. Hence, filming often began late. Blessy served as an associate director to Lohithadas in the film. A major part of the film was shot in Kava, near Malampuzha Dam in Palakkad. Their location was a rocky area, it was difficult to set tracks for the camera trolley. They borrowed apple boxes from Merryland Studio in Thiruvananthapuram, originally used by Berta for the film Vanaprastham. Bhanu's house in the film is situated on the top of a giant rock, her workplace a forge set was created beside it. A quarry in Palakkad was another filming location.
Due to the season, most regions were dry. It was difficult to find a beautiful place for filming the song sequences. Due to time constraints they selected a greener area inside the dried out Malampuzha reservoir. After wrapping the shoot, they went to Madras for post-production. The outdoor scenes including Mohanlal, Siddique, and Lal were shot in Bombay. They returned to Madras to shoot the remaining indoor scenes in the studio, with a few outdoor scenes. A set was created in Madras for the scene where the Bombay police assault Viswanathan inside the lock-up. Film scoring, editing and dubbing were ongoing at the same time at AVM studio. The remaining song sequences were shot in the garden inside the studio. They shifted to Thrissur, Kerala for filming the scene where Viswanathan goes to see his stepfather. They were denied permission at the planned site and switched to another location by evening where they filmed until sunrise.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack consists of five songs composed by Raveendran and written by Gireesh Puthenchery. The film score was done by S. P. Venkatesh. Babu remembers that "many of the crew were not happy with the song "Manjakkiliyude" when it was first heard at the location from a recorded track sung by Raveendran. Because it did not suit the voice of Raveendranm, but Yesudas with his voice made the song eternal".
SongSingers
"Doore Karalilurukumoru"K. J. Yesudas
"Kaathoram Kannaaram"Sudeep Kumar, K. S. Chithra
"Manjakkiliyude"K. J. Yesudas
"Manjakkiliyude"Radhika Thilak
"Moovanthi Thazhvarayil"K. J. Yesudas
"Thiruvaathira"M. G. Sreekumar, Radhika Thilak
"Thiruvaathira"Sudeep Kumar, Radhika Thilak

Reception

The film received critical acclaim and was also a commercial success at the box office. It completed 100 days in two releasing theatres—Sangeetha and Sreekumar, and had a three week run in Bangalore.