Manthravadi

There was a time in Malayalam films history when a good solid music will carry the entire movie to a place in history and Manthravadhi is like one of them. The story is very simple - The evil magician Mahendran (Kottarakkara Sreedharan Nair), a follower of the 'Kapalakundala' cult takes an oath to sacrifice 101 chaste and beautiful girls to please the Goddess Kaali. He abducts girls from the nearby kingdoms. He chooses princess Mallika (Miss Kumari), daughter of King Veera Varma (Jose Prakash) as the final prey. The king promises to entrust her to the magician once she attains marriageable age in return for saving the royal family from the dacoits. The prince of a neighbouring kingdom, Priya Kumaran (Prem Nazir) is Mallika's childhood friend. Priyakumaran loses his father and the kingdom, and the queen, Sushila Devi (Aranmula Ponnamma) flees to the jungles where she lives along with her son and Vinayan (Muthiah), son of the loyal servant of the royal family. Priyakumaran and Mallika meet in the forest and fall in love. Veera Varma decides to get them married, but the magician stalls it. Priyakumaran and Vinayan pass through several hardships and at last save Mallika. Priyakumaran weds Mallika. The story has been nicely presented with plenty of enchanting songs provided by the maestro Brother Lakshman with melodious tunes of Jikky and Kamukara Purushothaman. Though the movie was made in 1950 - and even the DVD quality is not that great, you will enjoy this masterpiece when you watch it. I have watched it at least six times during last two three years and will watch it may more times in future.