As the popular advertisement
says, nothing covers Kerala
better than the rain. The same
is applicable to literature and
film. It rains heavily and
elegantly in both with cascading
impact, drawing even the dry
hearts to the niceties of life.
Monsoon is the source of
Malayalam literature. It rains
abundantly on our stories,
poems, music, folklore and
movies. Because Monsoon is a
part of Malayali life. So an art form dealing
life cannot ignore it. Though monsoon
has many meanings such as trade wind,
silk etc., in Kerala, monsoon simply means
rainy season and that includes all.
From the classical story
Vellappokkathil (In the Flood) by
Thakazhi in which the fierceness and
horror of rain is personified as death
which steals the life of Vedamanikyam,
to the much quoted Khasakkinte
Ithihasam (The legend of Khasak) in
which Ravi, the protagonist, lays on
earth, waiting death to be
embraced, fully wet with rain
drops, Malayalam literature
gracefully illustrates the vivacity
of monsoon.
In Rathrimazha (Rain in the
Night), a masterpiece of
Sugathakumari, our nature poet,
night-rain gets unison with the poetess
herself who experiences different
situations of life. Zakhariah’s story, Mazha
(The Rain) is considered as the lone heavy
rain in the genre of short story of
Malayalam literary arena whereas M.N.
Vijayan looks into the rain as a market
system, which reflects the discrimination
of God’s justice.
Rain remains always as an integral part
of Malayalam cinema. Even in that day
when technology was not much
advanced, Hariharan’s Vellam (Water)
draws a clear picture of a terrified face of
village submerged in a great flood, with
mind-boggling perfection. The distress
and violence caused by drought and
water scarcity is artistically illustrated in
the movie Vaisali by Bharathan using the
possibilities of myths abundantly.
The ecstasy of love in the background
of rain is beautifully pictured in Mazha
(The Rain) by Lenin Rajendran. The
movie Perumazhakkalam (The heavy
rainy season), as the title means, tries rain
as an actor filled with its presence through
out the movie like a shadow.
In short, the oeuvre of Malayalam
filmdom is rich with raindrops.

by

B. Harikumar