Poochakkoru Mookkuthi

Poochakkoru Mookkuthi (transl. A nose-ring for the cat) is a 1984 Indian Malayalam-language screwball comedy film written and directed by Priyadarshan. The film features an ensemble cast that includes Mohanlal, Shankar, Menaka, M. G. Soman, Nedumudi Venu, C. I. Paul, Sukumari, Jagathy Sreekumar, Kuthiravattam Pappu, Sreenivasan and Baiju Santhosh.[1]

Poochakkoru Mookkuthi
Promotional poster
Directed byPriyadarshan
Screenplay byPriyadarshan
Produced bySanal Kumar
G. Suresh Kumar
Starring
CinematographyS. Kumar
Edited byN. Gopalakrishnan
Music byM. G. Radhakrishnan
Production
company
Sooryodaya Creations
Distributed byDinny Films
Release date
  • 17 March 1984 (1984-03-17)
Running time
150 minutes
CountryIndia
LanguageMalayalam

Poochakkoru Mookkuthi marks the directorial debut of Priyadarshan, the first collaboration of Priyadarshan and Mohanlal as director and actor. Their frequent collaborator M. G. Sreekumar made his Malayalam debut as a playback singer through the film.

The film was released on 17 March 1984 by Dinny Films and is regarded as one of the landmark films in Malayalam cinema. The success of the film triggered a deluge of screwball comedy films in Malayalam in mid-1980s. The movie was remade in five languages.

The core plotline is adapted from the 1980 Telugu movie Gopala Rao Gari Ammayi and also borrows plot elements from the Charles Dickens's play The Strange Gentleman.[2][3]

Plot

Revathi comes to the city from a small town in search of a job and to have a good life and as it is with everyone, her problem starts with finding a house. Shyam wants to become a singer. His parents are against his wish to become a singer. So he runs away from home and needs a shelter. Revathi accidentally meets Shyam, who too is in search of a house through the common milk-boy, Chikku. Chikku offers them both a house to rent if they are ready to pose as husband and wife in front of the landlord.

Supran, a miserly moneylender who doesn't trust his much younger wife Kousalya is their landlord. Revathi in search of a job, meets Ravunni Menon, a rich man who owns a bungalow in the heart of the city. Ravunni Menon stays with his wife whose name too is Revathi.

Gopalakrishnan needs some investment to come up in business and life. But to get started, he ends up having to rob his stingy father of money that the latter had hidden away out of sight of tax authorities. He is in search of a rich woman he can marry. Accidentally, Revathi meets Gopalakrishnan who has come to Ravunni Menon's house to repair the electronic equipment, which he had sold to him.

Gopalakrishnan thinks that Revathi is Ravunni Menon's daughter and her beauty enchants him. Revathi learns that there is a job in Gopalakrishnan's showroom and manages to get a job with him by playing along with his mistaken belief that she is Ravunni Menon's daughter. She is aided in this subterfuge by the fact that she shares the same name as Ravunni Menon's wife and all of his business interests are named after "Revathi".

After office hours, Gopalakrishnan drops Revathi outside Ravunni Menon's house, thinking it to be her house. She always enters the bungalow through the front gate and skips out through the gate itself after hiding in the garden until Gopalakrishnan drives away. Ravunni Menon's wife, Revathi, sees her coming and going out of the bungalow and starts suspecting her husband of an affair.

Gopalakrishnan frequently visits the bungalow to visit Revathi, who is never there, and Ravunni Menon thinks his wife is having an affair with Gopalakrishnan. Further her encounter with "Thenga" Govindan Pillai makes the older Revathi believe that her husband has sons and daughters out of wedlock and, thus, is quite capable of another affair now.

Shyam in the meantime begins falling in love with Revathi and to make her jealous, he pretends that he is attracted to Kousalya, who in turn thinks this to be true and is ready to elope with him after robbing her miser husband.

In the climax, Gopalakrishnan sends a letter to Ravunni Menon that he is in love with Revathy, who considers it to for his wife. In the confusion Revathy reveals her identity. After a complicated fight, Revathy decides to spend the rest of her life with Shyam rather than with Gopalakrishnan, who wishes them luck. All ends good as Ravunni Menon and his wife Revathy decide to not separate, as they had planned earlier

Cast

Reception and legacy

The film was distributed by Dinny Films, it was a commercial success and ran for more than 100 days in the theatres. Poochakkoru Mookkuthi is regarded as one of the landmark films in Malayalam cinema. The success of the film triggered a deluge of screwball comedy films in Malayalam in mid-1980s.[4][5][6][7]

Soundtrack

All lyrics are written by Chunakkara Ramankutty; all music is composed by M. G. Radhakrishnan

No.TitleArtist(s)Length
1."Poochakkoru Mookkuthi"K. J. Yesudas 
2."Kannane Kandu Sakhi" (Shanmukhapriya)M. G. Sreekumar 
3."Oru Mridhu Mozhiyaay" (Mohanam)M. G. Sreekumar, P. Susheela 
4."Panineerumaanam"M. G. Sreekumar 

Remakes

The film partly inspired the Tamil movie Thangamani Rangamani (1989). The film was remade in Hindi as Hungama (2003), in Telugu as Intlo Srimathi Veedhilo Kumari (2004), in Kannada as Jootata (2005),[8] in Bengali as Le Halua Le (2012), in Bengali Bangladesh as Bhalobeshe Bou Anbo (2009) and in Punjabi as Lovely Te Lovely (2015).[9]

References
  1. "Priyadarshan – Mohanlal: Best films of the duo". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 10 August 2017. Retrieved 12 March 2017.
  2. "Never a dull moment: Three decades of cinema with Priyadharshan". The News Minute. 2 January 2017. Archived from the original on 13 June 2021. Retrieved 25 July 2021.
  3. "Malayalam films remade in Hindi". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 23 March 2022. Retrieved 27 August 2021.
  4. "Priyan's remake Darshan". The Economic Times. 12 May 2007. Archived from the original on 2 December 2020. Retrieved 20 July 2019.
  5. Menon, Neelima (20 April 2019). "The Evolution Of Comedy In Malayalam Cinema: The Beginning, Adoor Bhasi And The Priyadarshan Years". Film Companion. Archived from the original on 8 August 2022. Retrieved 19 July 2023.
  6. Kurup, Aradhya. "Comedy classics: Films that define the Malayali brand of humour: Part 1". Fullpicture.in. Archived from the original on 20 July 2019. Retrieved 20 July 2019.
  7. Sudhakaran, Sreeju (20 June 2019). "From Poochakkoru Mookuthi to Virus, 7 Times When Malayalam Cinema Handled Ensemble Multi-Narrative Movies in the Right Way!". Latestly. Archived from the original on 20 July 2019. Retrieved 20 July 2019.
  8. "Hungama doesn't work in Kannada". Archived from the original on 2 January 2023. Retrieved 2 January 2023.
  9. "23 Punjabi Movies That Are Remakes of Other Language Movies". 23 June 2021. Archived from the original on 16 March 2023. Retrieved 16 March 2023.
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