Namukku Parkkan Munthiri (1986)

1986 137’ col Malayalam d/sc/dial P. Padmarajan pc Ragom Movies p Mani Malliath st K.K. Sudhakaran lyr O.N.V. Kurup m Johnson lp Mohanlal, Shari, Thilakan, Vineeth, Kaviyoor Ponnamma, Omana Two Malayali Christian families settled near Mysore in Karnataka provide the setting for this tragic romance in verse, evoking the biblical ‘Song of Solomon’. Solomon (Mohanlal) falls in love with Sofia (Shari), the illegitimate daughter of a nurse now married to an alcoholic railway mechanic (Thilakan). The lovers declaim verse riddled with biblical references as they drive around in a tanker lorry. Sofia’s stepfather, priding himself for having married a single parent, is determined to get Sofia to marry his junior colleague and drinking partner. However, when Sofia’s mother agrees to a marriage proposal from Solomon’s family, the stepfather rapes Sofia and, at the end of the film, he is seen dragging her, still wearing her white bridal dress, towards his vineyards.