Paadam Onnu Oru Vilaapam

Language: Malayalam
Hero: None
Director: T.V. Chandran
Music: Johnson

The film focuses on a very feministic theme in a very sensitive manner. The film tells the story of Shahina, a young Muslim girl in her mid-teens, who is very brilliant in studies. But Shahina, whose father is no more and who is being raised by her mother and uncle, has to discontinue her studies when she is forced to marry Razak, a young man from Mysore. (There is a reference to the Mysore marriage system prevalent among the poor families in the Muslim community of northern Kerala, as per which parents resort to giving their daughters in marriage to some unknown fellow coming from the neighbouring state of Mysore seeking such alliances).
It is through matchmaker Hassan Moyeen that Razak's alliance comes up. Hassan Moyeen convinces Shahina's mother that finding a boy for Shahina after she has completed her schooling would be difficult as an educated girl would mean more dowry and therefore it would be better to marry her off soon.

Razak, who is already married and has a daughter, is in for a second marriage only because he needs some money to get a visa to go to Gulf. This he could manage from the dowry he gets by marrying Shahina. The elders put down Shahina's violent protests and her mother, though empathetic towards her, is convinced that it is better to marry her off. And thus, the innocent little girl is married to Razak and sent away with him.

Razak tries to have physical relation with his newly wed wife, who doesn't know what sex means. Shahina, on the other hand, gets intimate with Razak's daughter Mumtaz and the two of them move together, playing and all. In the meantime, Razak manages to give Shahina some sedatives and fulfils his desire. Shahina wakes up shocked and shattered. Her violent outbursts give Razak a chance to take refuge in the time-honored custom of divorce and dispose her. All that happens following this forms the plot of Paadam Onnu Oru Vilaapam.

This was the story of the film. But there is a story behind the film. It is about how Meera got the chance to act in this film. When T. V. Chandran decided to make this film he had thought Nandita Das as the heroine. During a function, T. V. Chandran met Padmasree Mammotty, who when heard this just scolded Chandran. He asked how could one suppose Nandita as a teenage heroine. He also told Chandran that he must have put some one like Meera Jasmine for that character. But Chandran said that Meera is busy in Tamil and she asks good remuneration too. Since he supposed a low budget film he could not afford Meera. Hearing this comment, Mammotty dialed Lohithadas to propose the project. Lohi said that Meera is not so craze 'bout money and she will act for a less remuneration if the film is good enough. Thus Lohi called up meera and the rest is what we saw. Meera kept her promise and acted the film for just 75,000 at the same time when she asked half a crore for her Tamil films.

The performance she exhibited in this film shows how flexible she is. She just adapted to the character. She always has the habit of doing each character differently. At the same time a person watching the film might just think that she has got some experience with the character’s situations. It’s just because she acts so naturally. She just transmigrates into the character. Or other wise just think how a Christian girl form Tiruvalla will have any sort of experience with the situation of a Muslim girl at Malappuram! It’s a wonder how she could manage to speak the Malappuram slang so fluently. The naturalness in this film makes it compare with the Priyadarshan's film “Kilichundan Mambazham”. Most of the actors and actresses in “Kilchundan” looked like suffocating while speaking the Malappuram language (Sorry, we will not specify their names here, because you know them). Only a few people like Srinivasan could manage the language. It’s this point which makes us aware of Meera’s talents.

This film is ought to bring a lot of honours and awards to Meera Jasmine.