Artwork for Marattam
Poster for Marattam

Marattam

1988 1 hour 30 minutes
70/100

OverviewListen icon

Panicker's one-act play deals with the relation of identification between an actor and his or her role. The action takes place on the eve of the last act of the Kathakali piece Keechakavadham (The Killing of Keechaka). The events surrounding the performance uncannily echo events in the play. One character even claims to have killed the lead actor of the play because he detested the character the man portrayed. However, the three different accounts that are presented of the same plot are never resolved or reconciled with each other. Each version is accompanied by a different style of folk music: the tune and rhythm of southern Kerala’s thampuran pattu, the pulluvan pattu and the ayappan pattu. The performers were drawn from the theatre and from Kathakali. In southern India, with its plethora of politicians using their film images to acquire inordinate wealth and power, Aravindan’s TV film bears on an eminently sensitive political as well as aesthetic issue.

Released

1st January 1988

38 years ago

Runtime

1 hour 30 minutes

Finishes at 12:54am

Ratings and awards

  • IMDB Logo

    7/10

  • FilmFlow Logo

    70%

Directed by

Govindan Aravindan

Image of Govindan Aravindan

Written by

Kavalam Narayana Panicker

No image available for Kavalam Narayana Panicker

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