Kolangal (1981)

Set against the backdrop of a matriarchal village in Kerala, where rumour and gossip spread like wildfire, this evocative tale plots the twists and turns in the life of Kunjamma (Menaka), a beautiful young woman. She is the only daughter of an overbearing mother (Nair) with a biscuit stall in the market, sells milk to the villagers. When she befriends a fashionable urban youth (who works as a production assistant for a film company) (Nagavalli), gossip ruins her reputation and her mother threatens suicide if Kunjamma does not agree to marry the only man still willing to accept her as a wife: an old but well-off lecherous drunk (Thilakan). Under such rigid and oppressive circumstances how will Kunjamma's future unfold?