Birth Centenaries - Directorate of Film Festivals

India
COMPETITION
Night Rain / Rathri Mazha
2006, 35 mm, Colour, Malayalam
Director
Lenin Rajendran
Screenplay
Lenin Rajendran
Cinematography
Madhu Neelakantan
Music
Ramesh Narayan
Cast
Vineeth, Meera Jasmine, Manoj K Jayan, Biju Menon, Lalu
Alex, Cochin Haneefa
12
IFFI-2007
Two youngsters, Harikrishnan and Meera, come to know each other through a
matrimonial advertisement on a web site. Through intermittent chat sessions they
get drawn to each other. Though they have not met, love blossoms. But what they
love is what each imagines the other person to be. When they eventually meet,
however, the dreams are shattered. But their minds have been so bonded together,
they decide to marry and make the best of it. It is now society that looks askance
at the relationship.
Starting out as director P A Backer's assistant, Lenin Rajendran made his directorial
debut with Venal (1982). Lenin has been consistent with the quality of his
films, by not surrendering to market forces even while using the form and stars
of popular cinema. An active member of the Communist party, his Meenamasithile
Sooryan (1985) was about the anti-feudal upheaval of the 1940s in Kerala from a
Communist viewpoint. Swathi Thirunal (1987), a period film was a biographical
work of a 19th century king of Travancore, better known as a musical composer,
Daivathinte Vikrithikal (1992) was the cinematic adoption of M Mukandan's novel
of the same name, Mazha (2001) was adopted from Madhavikutty's story, and
Annyar (2003) deals with the hot topic of communal polarisation in Kerala. His
other films are Chillu (1982), Prem Nazirine Kanmanilla (1983), Meenamasathile
Sooryan (1985), Puravrutham (1988), and Vachanam (1992).