Butterflies (1993 film)

Butterflies is a 1993 Indian Malayalam-language comedy-drama film directed by Rajiv Anchal and written by A. K. Sajan. It was produced by Menaka and was the debut film of their production house Revathy Kalamandhir. The film stars Mohanlal, Aishwarya, Nassar, and Jagadish. Aishwarya played a dual role as twin sisters. The film was extensively shot in Bangalore. The songs were composed by Raveendran, while S. P. Venkatesh provided the background score.

Butterflies
Poster
Directed byRajiv Anchal
Produced byMenaka
Written byA. K. Sajan
StarringMohanlal
Nassar
Aishwarya
Jagadish
Music byRaveendran
S. P. Venkatesh (Score)
CinematographyJ. Williams
Edited byN. Gopalakrishnan
Production
company
Distributed bySurya Cini Arts
Sudev Release
Release date
09 July 1993
CountryIndia
LanguageMalayalam

Plot

Prince is an amateur race car driver and the son of industrialist Bharathan Menon and Sreedevi Menon. He lives a happy-go-lucky life style spending time racing cars, entertaining his nephews in his farm house and hanging out with his close friend Vettikkal Sadashivan. He is also involved in fights with the local goons in Bangalore, which lands him in trouble with local police. His brothers Jayan Menon IAS and Dr. Balan Menon, though openly criticize him, come to his aid to release him from the police station. His father disapproves his lifestyle and is trying to find a suitable alliance for him.

One day, Sadasivan introduces Prince to his relative Pavithran, who seeks help in kidnapping his girlfriend for them to elope. In a comedy of errors, Prince and Sadasivan sedate and kidnap another girl with the same name, Anju. On realizing the mistake the next morning, Prince drops the girl back at her hostel. The ladies' hostel matron does not allow Anju to continue her stay there after her disappearance. Anju goes back to Prince's farm house for abode, it becomes difficult for Prince and Sadasivan to handle. Prince's entire family comes to know about Anju living in the farm house and they desert Prince.

One morning, Sadasivan and Prince find an obituary in the newspaper with the photo of Anju. They trace the news reporter responsible for the obituary. The news reporter Das and his wife Maya reveal that Anju is the daughter of Colonel Devan Nambiar and that the dead girl was her twin sister, Manju. Two years ago in Ooty, Manju was raped by a few guys taking her father as a hostage. After that, she killed herself in front of her father.

Later, Nambiar killed her daughter's rapists and he was sentenced to death by the court. Anju plans to commit suicide at the same time her father is executed, but Prince manages to save Anju from committing suicide. Prince gets a mercy petition for Nambiar and his death sentence gets reduced to life imprisonment. Anju and Prince confess their love at the end.

Cast

Crew
  • Cinematography: J. Williams
  • Editing: N. Gopalakrishnan
  • Makeup: P. V. Sankar, Salim
  • Costumes: Mahi, Murali
  • Choreography: Suchithra
  • Stunts: Pazhaniraj
  • Advertisement: Radhakrishnan
  • Processing: Gemini Colour Lab
  • Stills: Suresh Merlin
  • Effects: Murukesh
  • Sound mixing: Balasubramani
  • PRO: Vazhoor Jose
  • Production controller: Kalliyoor Sasi
  • Outdoors: Meriland
  • Liaison: Roy P. Mathew, Sudheer
  • Assistant director: Suresh Krishnan
  • Associate director: M. A. Venu
  • Executive producer: Sandeep Senan

Production

Rajiv Anchal and Mohanlal were supposed to make a film titled Australia. Based on a script by P. Balachandran, it was the story of a car racer who meets an accident and suffers serious burns on one side of his face. Filming began at Sriperumbudur with a Formula One car race sequence featuring Mohanlal that was shot with six cameras. After a week's shoot the project was dropped, reportedly due to budget constraints. However, in a TV show in 2020, Anchal recalled that the film was cancelled due to superstitious reasons when some people persuaded Mohanlal to opt out from the film supposing that the role of a disfigured person may bring jinx, Mohanlal eventually opted out dropping the film altogether.[1] His character in Australia was inspired from Formula One race driver Niki Lauda.

The car race scenes shot for Australia was later used in the opening titles of Butterflies (in the song "Minnaminni Koodum Thedi").[2] Principal photography took place in Bangalore, where there was a 60-day long shoot. Aishwarya had worked in Priyadarshan's Gardish, the same crew was working in Butterflies and Aishwarya was also invited for the film. In fact, Aishwarya was keen on working with Mohanlal and was a fan of his work.[3]

Soundtrack

The film has six songs composed by Raveendran. All songs except 'Aha manoranjini' were written by K. Jayakumar. The songs were distributed by the label, Lahari. The film score was composed by S. P. Venkatesh.

Track list
  1. "Aaha Manoranjini": M. G. Sreekumar. Lyrics : Raveendran
  2. "Minnaminni Koodum Thedi": Unni Menon, K. S. Chithra
  3. "Kanyasudha": M. G. Sreekumar, Sujatha Mohan
  4. "Pon Thidambu": Mohanlal, Raveendran, Pradeep
  5. "Koottinilam Kili": Unni Menon, K. S. Chithra
  6. "Paal Nilavile": S. P. Balasubrahmanyam

References
  1. Rajiv Anchal 07 | Charithram Enniloode 1690 | SafariTV, retrieved 27 June 2020
  2. "The Silver Screen Jinx". The New Indian Express. 27 December 2013. Retrieved 29 December 2013.
  3. Warrier, Shobha (29 August 2000). "Aiswarya speaks about Mohanlal". Rediff.com. Retrieved 26 May 2020.
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