Thenmavin Kombath

Thenmavin Kombath
Soundtrack album by Berny-Ignatius
Released	1994 (India)
Genre	Film soundtrack
Berny-Ignatius chronology

Thenmavin Kombath
	Poster
Directed by	Priyadarshan
Produced by	N. Gopalakrishnan
Written by	Priyadarshan
Starring	Mohanlal; Shobana; Nedumudi Venu; Kaviyoor Ponnamma; KPAC Lalitha; Sukumari; Sreenivasan; Sankaradi; Sharat Saxena
Music by	Original Background Score:; S. P. Venkatesh; Songs:; Berny-Ignatius
Cinematography	K. V. Anand
Edited by	N. Gopalakrishnan
Production; company	Prasidhi Creations
Distributed by	Surya Cini Arts; Sudev Release
Release date	13 May 1994; ; ; ; ;
Running time	193 minutes
Country	India
Language	Malayalam

Thenmavin Kombath (English: At the branch of Sweet Mango Tree) is a 1994 Indian Malayalam- language musical adventure romantic comedy drama film written and directed by Priyadarshan, produced and edited by N. Gopalakrishnan, and starring Mohanlal, Shobana, Nedumudi Venu, Kaviyoor Ponnamma, KPAC Lalitha, Sukumari, Sreenivasan, Sankaradi, and Sharat Saxena. The cinematography was by K. V. Anand, and the score was composed by S. P. Venkatesh, while Berny-Ignatius composed the songs with lyrics written by Gireesh Puthenchery.

K. V. Anand and Sabu Cyril won National Film Awards for Best Cinematography and Best Production Design respectively. Music directors Berny-Ignatius received the Kerala State Film Award for Best Music. The film emerged as a blockbuster at the Kerala box office and was the highest-grossing Malayalam film of the year. The film is considered among audiences and critics to be among the best comedy films in the history of Malayalam cinema. The film received 2 National Film Awards and 5 Kerala State Film Awards in various categories.

The Tamil film Muthu (1995) directed by K.S.Ravikumar and starring Rajinikanth is a remake of Thenmavin Kombathu. The success and acclaim of the film also lead to remakes such as the Hindi film Saat Rang Ke Sapne (1998) and the Kannada film Sahukara (2004).

Plot

The story revolves around Manikyan (Mohanlal), Sreekrishnan(Nedumudi Venu) and Karthumbi (Shobana) and the love triangle between them. Manikyan works for Sreekrishnan and Sreekrishnan sees him like a brother. Once when they both are returning from a Mela after shopping, Sreekrishnan sees Karthumbi and gets attracted. But then a fight erupts there and they all have to flee. Sreekrishnan flees alone while Manikyan has to take Karthumbi with him. At night, he flees in the opposite direction and so loses his way. Karthumbi knows the way back but she pretends as if she does not know it and enjoys the fun. Manikyan has to struggle to get out of that place. During that time they fall in love.

Once they are back in Manikyan's village, Sreekrishnan proposes her and plans to get married to her. Manikyan can not resist because Sreekrishnan is like an elder brother to him. But Karthumbi opposes. When Sreekrishnan gets to know about this, he gets angry and Manikyan becomes his enemy and he tries to take revenge. Finally Sreekrishnan understands his mistakes and he marries the woman who has been loving him for so long while Manikyan unites with Karthumbi.

Cast

Manikyan – Mohanlal
Karthumbi – Shobhana ( Voice dubbed by Bhagyalakshmi)
Sreekrishnan Thampuran – Nedumudi Venu
Yeshodhamma – Kaviyoor Ponnamma
Karthu – KPAC Lalitha
Ginjimooda Gandhari – Sukumari
Appakala – Sreenivasan
Kannayyan – Sankaradi
Chakkutty – Kuthiravattom Pappu
Chinnu – Geetha Vijayan
Thimmayan - Nandhu
Kuyilu - Sonia
Aadivasi - Khadeeja
Mallikkettu - Sharat Saxena

Soundtrack

Berny-Ignatius composed the film's songs and Girish Puthenchery wrote the lyrics. R.D. Burman was initially signed in as the music composer for the film, as revealed by Burman himself in an interview to journalists in Cochin, during his visit to the city, just a few weeks before his death. But he died before he could complete the compositions of the film, and was later replaced.

Berny-Ignatius was accused for plagiarism for at least two of the songs in the film. The song "Ente Manasinoru Naanam" is said to be an adaptation of the popular Hindi classic "Piya Milanko Jaana" sung by the legendary singer Pankaj Mullick. Another song in the film is accused to be an imitation of a Bengali song. Berny-Ignatius was awarded the prestigious Kerala State Film Award for Best Music Director despite the allegations, which created a controversy. Veteran music director G. Devarajan returned three of the four state awards he had won claiming that the government was honouring pirates in film music.^[6]

Track #	Song	Singer(s)	Duration
1	"Nila Pongal"	Malgudi Subha	3:31
2	"Karutha Penne"	M.G. Sreekumar, K.S. Chitra	4:47
3	"Maanam Thelinge"	M.G. Sreekumar, K.S. Chitra	4:04
4	"Kallipoonkuyile"	M.G. Sreekumar	4:17
5	"Ente Manasinoru"	M.G. Sreekumar, Sujatha Mohan	4:11

Theatrical response

The film ran for more than 250 days in theatres and was the highest-grossing Malayalam film of the year. The film is remembered as one of the best comedy films in the history of Malayalam cinema.^[7]

Remakes

This film was remade in Tamil as Muthu (1995) with Rajinikanth and Meena which was also dubbed into Telugu with the same title.^[5] The film was remade in Hindi (1998) by Priyadarshan as Saat Rang Ke Sapne (1998). It was also remade in Kannada as Sahukara with V. Ravichandran.