Kalimannu

Kalimannu
Theatrical poster
Directed by	Blessy
Produced by	Thomas Thiruvalla
Written by	Blessy
Starring	Swetha Menon Biju Menon Suhasini Maniratnam Prashant Nair
Music by	M. Jayachandran O. N. V. Kurup (lyrics)
Cinematography	Satheesh Kurup
Edited by	Raja Mohammed
Production company	Cherummuttadathu Films
Distributed by	Kochin Talkies
Release date	22 August 2013 (2013-08-22)
Country	India
Language	Malayalam

Kalimannu is a Malayalam drama film written and directed by Blessy and starring Swetha Menon in the lead role and Biju Menon, Suhasini in Major Supporting roles. Inspired by the Puranic story of Abhimanyu and his mother Subhadra, the film portrays the relationship of the protagonist with her baby, before and after it is born. Swetha Menon's real-life delivery was shot live on camera for the film.The film is dubbed in Telugu as Malle Teega and released in more number of theatres.

Meera is a club dancer in the dark streets of Mumbai, who like all performers of Mumbai, aspires to be on the screen someday. She gets used by film producers who promise her roles in their films, but fail to do so later. Frustrated, she even thinks of ending her life. But the unexpected arrival of Shyam, a taxi driver, changes the course of her life. He marries her and makes for a lovely husband. Her career also starts looking up as she progresses to being a popular item dancer and then gets cast as the heroine in a film. But, on the day of the preview of her debut film, Shyam is involved in a fatal road accident and declared brain dead. Meera who is left all alone again, thinks of donating Shyam’s organs to people in need. She wants to have his child through artificial insemination. She fights for her parenting rights as the technique would have created much uproar in the media.

The story of Kalimannu came into Blessy's mind during a trip to Dubai after completing Pranayam (2011). During his travel, a radiant thought flew in his mind, that of a baby in the womb talking to its mother. And the frame initiated the spark for a film that unfolds the relationship between a mother and her baby in the womb.

Non-definite scripting pattern was used for the film. Principal photography started even before the completion of scripting and casting. In order to cover various stages of pregnancy, the film was shot in different schedules, beginning in the first week of August. The film was shot for many months, throughout Swetha's pregnancy. Swetha's delivery was filmed in late September from a hospital in Mumbai where she was admitted. The crew stayed in the hospital for nearly a week and a footage lasting for twenty minutes was shot from the delivery room. Swetha's husband, Blessy and two cinematographers for the film were present in the labour room after prior permission, with three cameras placed in the delivery room to capture the moment. It was for the first time that an Indian film used the footages of a natural childbirth.