The Malayalm film MELA (1980) written and
directed by Sri K.G. George, though one
of his less celebrated films, but still was a much talked about film when it
was released in Kerala. It came close on
the heels of two of his award
winning and critically acclaimed films.
One was the State Award winning debut
film SWAPNADANAM(1975) with Rani Chandra and Dr.Mohandas in the lead. The other
ULKKADAL based, on a story in the same name by Sri George Onakkur, had Venu
Nagavally and Shobha in the lead .
What made the film
SWAPNADANAM a milestone of Malayalam
cinema was the novelty of the theme
brilliantly handled by director
K.G.George and the outstanding portrayal by Rani Chandra and the new comer Mohandas. The film ULKKADAL also saw great acting by Shobha and
Venunagavally. Music by the maestro, M.B.Srinivasan, was another distinguishing
feature of the film with the haunting duet penned by Sri O.N.V.Kurup and
rendered by Jayachandran and Selma George,Viz.,’Sharabindu malardeepa naalam’ proving to be a great hit. Several successful
films followed establishing Sri K.G.George as one of the most successful film
makers in Malayalam. KOLANGAL (1980),
YAVANIKA(1982), notable again for the performance of Thilakan
and Gopi, LEKHAYUDE MARANAM ORU FLASHBACK(1983) , ADAMINTE
VARIYELLU(1983) and IRAKAL(1986) were all landmarks in the history of Malayalam
cinema.
Coming
back to film MELA, it was unique in several respects apart from the fact that
it was the debut film of actor Mammootty, who went on to become a super star
and continues to be so even now. The film MELA
was, probably, the first film in Malayalam after NAYAR PIDICHA PULIVAL,
to deal with circus and the life of circus artists and Mammootty played the
role of a motor cycle stunt jumper . The comedy
interludes in a circus used to be managed by a couple of dwarfs and in
MELA the hero himself was a dwarf played
by Raghu. The romantic lead opposite him was played by actress Anjali Naidu.
The film had big entertainment value with circus items thrown in between and on
the whole it was well received. Memories of seeing the film at
Thiruvananthapuram still linger. What I still remember and what impressed me
most was the music of M.B.Sreenivasan, especially the song ‘Manasssoru maanthrika kuthirayay payunnu’ ,
penned by Mullanezhi and soulfully
rendered by Jesudas. In fact M.B.Srinivasan was Sri K.G. George’s favourite
music director doing music for all his
successful films except SWAPNADANAM.There was also another beautiful song
‘Neelakkuda choodi vanam’ by Selma George. The song ‘Manassoru maanthrika’ and
‘Sharabindu malaedeeepa naalam’of ULKKADAL are arguably the best songs of MBS
in Malayalam films. It is sad that Selma George was not heard much in Malayalam
films in later years. The hero of MELA, Raghu could not also achieve what
another similarly endowed artiste, Pakru, could achieve in films like ATBHUTHA
DWEEP years later.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iom_MdO0is
The
song ‘Manassoru’ used to haunt me and my efforts to get a gramophone record of
the song could finally succeed recently to my utter delight prompting me to
scribble a few lines as above.
