Elippathayam
| Elippathayam | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Malayalam: എലിപ്പത്തായം | |
| Directed by | Adoor Gopalakrishnan |
| Produced by | K. Ravindran Nair |
| Written by | Adoor Gopalakrishnan |
| Starring |
Karamana Janardanan Nair Sharada Jalaja Rajam K. Nair |
| Music by | M. B. Sreenivasan |
| Cinematography | Mankada Ravi Varma |
| Edited by | M. Mani |
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Release date
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Running time
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121 minutes |
| Country | India |
| Language | Malayalam |
Elippathayam (Translation: The Rat Trap) is a 1981 Malayalam film written and directed by Adoor Gopalakrishnan. It is critically considered by many to be one of the most outstanding pieces in Adoor Gopalakrishnan's filmography. It stars Karamana Janardanan Nair, Sharada, Jalaja, and Rajam K. Nair
This film documents the feudal life in Kerala at its twilight. The protagonist is trapped within himself and is unable to comprehend the changes taking place around him. The film won the British Film Institute award for Most Original and Imaginative film shown at the National Film Theatre in 1982. The film was shown at a number of film festivals around the world, including the 1982 Cannes Film Festival.
A middle-aged man, Unni, and his three sisters struggle as the feudal way of life becomes unviable in Kerala. Eventually, succumbing to the adverse conditions surrounding him, Unni becomes helpless like a rat in a trap. The 'rat trap' is a metaphor for a state of oblivion to changes in the external world, such as the disintegration of the feudal system, in which some are caught and which leads to destruction.
Gopalakrishnan says in his interview that the movie was inspired by the feudal characteristics of his own family. Silence is a huge trope in the move, with large swathes of silence in dialogue.
The film is set in the now derelict manor house of an aristocratic family, that has obviously seen better days. Unni, the patriarch, in spite of the looming changes in the family's fortune and the times retains the old attitude and is portrayed as proud, and incapable of adjusting to the impending downfall of his family and himself, and remains oblivious to it. He is shown to spend most of his day in idleness and sleeping. His only activities are reading the paper and oiling himself. He cannot take care of himself without his sisters, and cannot face the taunts and the threats of his extended family and the villagers. He needs to be propped up by his sisters who cook for him, clean for him, and do chores for him. He is incapable of negotiating the changing outer world. The chief theme of the film, according to Gopalakrishnan, is Unni's obliviousness to external realities.
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Wikipedia