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Chidambaram - 1985 Chidambaram is a temple town of Tamil Nadu. "Chit" means mind and "Ambaram" means space, thus the name Chidambaram. The legend is that Lord Shiva came here to perform his dance. This region was already under the custody of Kali and naturally a quarrel ensued. It was mutually agreed that the winner in a dance competition should possess the region. The game commenced; with the Thandava of Shiva and Lasya of Kali. Shiva resorted to a stratagem. He lifted one leg high up in the air, which Kali could not do, because of modesty. Shiva won and became the Lord of Chidambaram.
Chidambaram is based on a short story by noted Malayalam writer C V Shriraman. The film is a deeply symbolic exploration of the man-woman attraction leading to betrayal and eventually to the purgatory of guilt. The story develops mainly around three characters, Muniyandi (Sreenivasan), his wife Shivakami (Smita Patil) and the office superintendent of a farm, Shankaran (Gopi). Muniyandi, a labourer in the farm, believes and respects Shankaran. Muniyandi brings Shivakami to the farm after marrying her. She soon befriends Shankaran. But one day Muniyandi catches Shankaran red-handed with his wife Shivakami. Broken hearted, Muniyandi commits suicide. The extreme feeling of guilt forces Shankaran to leaves the place. He tries alcohol, spirituality and all other possible methods to escape from this mental torment, but fails. Finally he reaches the temple town of Chidambaram. There he finds Shivakami as a shoe keeper in the temple. Chidambaram won the National Film award for best film and the State Film awards for the best film and director in 1985.
Direction & Screenplay: G Aravindan
Also read :
Other films by Aravindan:
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