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==Awards==
==Awards==
*2002: [[Kerala State Film Award for Best Actor]] - [[Oduvil Unnikrishnan]]
; [[Kerala State Film Awards]]
* [[Kerala State Film Award for Best Actor|Best Actor]] - [[Oduvil Unnikrishnan]]
* [[Kerala State Film Award for Second Best Actor|Second Best Actor]] - [[Jagathy Sreekumar]]
* [[Kerala State Film Award for Best Costume Designer|Best Costume Designer]] - S. B. Satheesh
* [[Kerala State Film Award for Best Editor|Best Editor]] - Ajithkumar
* [[Kerala State Film Award for Best Sound Recordist|Best Sound Recordist]] - N. Harikumar
;[[National Film Awards]]
* [[National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Malayalam]] - [[Adoor Gopalakrishnan]]
;Others
* [[Bombay International Film Festival]] - FIPRESCI Prize


==References==
==References==

Revision as of 07:42, 9 April 2011

Nizhalkuthu
Ilayaraja
Distributed byAdoor Gopalakrishnan Productions
Artcam International
Les Films du Paradoxe
Release date
  • September 7, 2002 (2002-09-07)
Running time
90 minutes
CountryTemplate:Film India
LanguageMalayalam

Nizhalkuthu (English: Shadow Kill,

Jagathi Sreekumar and Tara Kalyan. It premiered on 7 September 2002 at the Venice Film Festival in Italy
.

Overview

The title of the film Nizhalkuthu (Shadow Kill) refers to a popular play Nizhalkuthu Attakatha, adapted from the

witch hunter to kill the Pandavas by stabbing their shadows. However, the witch hunter's wife finds this out and is enraged. To punish her husband by making him feel what, Kunti
, the mother of Pandavas must feel, she kills their child in the same way.

The film reflects that death penalty is probably in the same vein. We may---like the witch hunter's wife---be handing out punishments that are equally ridiculous under the false perception that we are doing justice, if not being directly criminal like the witch hunter.

File:Nizhalkuthu2 c.jpg
the hangman and his son

Adoor's usuall cinematographer Mankada Ravi Varma filmed half of the project. But he was later replaced by Sunny Joseph, since the former fell ill and was later found to be suffering from Alzheimer's disease.[1][2]

Plot

The plot is set in the 1940s in a village of

British India
. Kaliyappan, the last hangman of Travancore dynasty is dragging his remaining life by consuming alcohol and worshipping the Mother Goddess. The reason for this self-destruction is the remorse born out of the feeling that the last man he hanged was an innocent.

While pulling on his life by boozing, worshiping the Goddess and treating people with the ash obtained by burning the hanging rope, one day the King's messenger once again arrive with the Kings order of appointing him for executing a convict termed as 'a killer, proved beyond doubt'. He leaves to the jail with his Gandhian, freedom fighter son to assist him in his job.

As a tradition, the hangman has to spend the eve of the execution awake. When alcohol fails to keep Kaliyappan awake, the jailer starts telling a 'spicy tale' to keep him awake, the tale of a 13 year old girl raped and killed by her own brother-in-law and an innocent musician boy convicted for this charge.

When Kaliyappan comes to know the condemned person he is about to hang is that very same musician boy, he breaks down. The job of executing the convict is passed on to his assistant, his son. The Gandhian, freedom fighter son completes the job. His motivations are not spelt out, but the choice of title hints that the son perhaps punishes the father by reminding him that any of his prior executions may have been a farce just like this one.

Just like the witch hunter's wife in Mahabharata, the son's sense of punishment completely ignores the innocent victim who would be executed. We are reminded that what we think of something as just may not always be so.

Cast

Awards

Kerala State Film Awards
National Film Awards
Others

References

  1. ^ "Painting with light". The Hindu. Sep 07, 2007. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  2. ^ "Indian cinematographer Varma dies: He worked on Adoor Gopalakrishnan's films". Variety. Nov. 24, 2010. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)

External links

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