Nizhalkuthu
| Nizhalkuthu | |
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DVD cover
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| Directed by | Adoor Gopalakrishnan |
| Produced by | Adoor Gopalakrishnan Joël Farges |
| Written by | Adoor Gopalakrishnan |
| Starring |
Oduvil Unnikrishnan Sukumari |
| Music by | Ilayaraaja |
| Cinematography |
Mankada Ravi Varma Sunny Joseph |
| Edited by | Ajith |
| Distributed by | Adoor Gopalakrishnan Productions Artcam International Les Films du Paradoxe |
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Release date
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Running time
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90 minutes |
| Country | India |
| Language | Malayalam |
Nizhalkuthu (English: Shadow Kill, French: Le Serviteur de Kali, Malayalam: നിഴല്ക്കുത്ത്) is a 2002 Indian film directed, written and co-produced by Adoor Gopalakrishnan. The film explores the recesses of the human consciousness. The film stars Oduvil Unnikrishnan, Narain, Murali, Sukumari, Reeja, Nedumudi Venu, Vijayaraghavan, Jagathi Sreekumar and Tara Kalyan. It premiered on 7 September 2002 at the Venice Film Festival in Italy.
The title of the film Nizhalkuthu (Shadow Kill) refers to a popular play Nizhalkuthu Attakatha, adapted from the Mahabharata, about the inherent unjustness of certain punishments. In the play, the Kauravas force a witch hunter to kill the Pandavas by stabbing their shadows. However, the witch hunter's wife finds this out and is enraged. To punish her husband by making him feel what Kunti, the mother of Pandavas must feel, she kills their child in the same way.
The film reflects that death penalty is probably in the same vein. We may---like the witch hunter's wife---be handing out punishments that are equally ridiculous under the false perception that we are doing justice, if not being directly criminal like the witch hunter.
Adoor's usual cinematographer Mankada Ravi Varma filmed half of the project. But he was later replaced by Sunny Joseph, since the former fell ill and was later found to be suffering from Alzheimer's disease.
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Wikipedia