Chemmeen (1965): The First South Indian Film to Win India's Top Award

Short answer: Chemmeen, Ramu Kariat's adaptation of Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai's novel, won the President's Gold Medal for the best feature film of 1965, the award we now call the National Film Award for Best Feature Film. No film from South India had won it before. It did so with a story set entirely among Kerala's fishing families, a lead cast of Sheela, Sathyan, Madhu and Kottarakkara Sreedharan Nair, and a crew that brought together Kerala, Bengal and Bombay talent.

Sixty years on, the film is still the first title most people name when they talk about classic Malayalam cinema. It is also still argued about. This guide covers how it was made, what the "first" actually means, the confusion over its release year, and what to watch for if you see it today.

The novel behind the film

Thakazhi published Chemmeen (the word means prawn) in 1956. It won the Kendra Sahitya Akademi Award in 1957, the first Malayalam novel to receive that national honour, and has since been translated into more than 30 languages. It is also part of UNESCO's collection of representative works from India.

The story turns on a belief held along the Kerala coast: if a fisherman's wife is unfaithful while he is at sea, Kadalamma, the Sea Mother, takes him. Karuthamma, the daughter of an ambitious fisherman named Chembankunju, loves Pareekutty, a young trader. Her family's world will not allow it, so she marries Palani, an orphan her father found on one of his trips. The rest of the story is about what that choice costs everyone, and the sea gets the last word.

How Ramu Kariat got it made

Ramu Kariat (1927–1979) came out of the Kerala People's Arts Club, the leftist theatre group better known as KPAC. In 1954 he co-directed Neelakkuyil with P. Bhaskaran, a film often described as the first mature Malayalam film and one that won an All India Certificate of Merit. Chemmeen was his chance to go further.

Kariat bought the screen rights from Thakazhi for Rs 8,000, a large sum for a Malayalam novel at the time. Many in the industry expected the film to fall short of the book. He looked for money in several places, including the state government, before meeting Babu Ismail Sait, then in his early twenties, who agreed to back it under the banner Kanmani Films. S. L. Puram Sadanandan wrote the screenplay.

Shooting on the Nattika coast

The novel is set near Alappuzha, and Kariat wanted the exact locations. When people at Purakkad asked for rent on their boats, he moved the shoot to Nattika beach in Thrissur district, an area he knew well; Varkala beach near Thiruvananthapuram was also used. Madhu later recalled that the fishing families of Nattika lent the crew their homes and clothes, and that Sathyan narrowly escaped drowning during one sea sequence.

That local co-operation is visible on screen. Boats, nets, huts and the rhythm of the shore are not set dressing; they carry the story. If you have seen our guide to where to start with Adoor Gopalakrishnan's films, you will recognise the same idea that would define the next generation of Malayalam filmmakers: the place is a character.

A crew from three film cultures

The technical team is one reason Chemmeen travelled so well:

• Music: Salil Chowdhury, the Bengali composer best known in Hindi cinema, made his South Indian debut here, with lyrics by Vayalar Ramavarma. The singers included K. J. Yesudas, P. Leela, Manna Dey and Santha P. Nair. Manna Dey's "Manasa Maine Varu" is still one of the most recognised Malayalam film songs.
• Editing: Hrishikesh Mukherjee, then an editor and director in Bombay, cut the film with K. D. George.
• Cinematography: Marcus Bartley shot the outdoor sequences. He had to leave to finish a Dilip Kumar film, and U. Rajagopal completed the work.

This mix mattered. Critics have long pointed to the score as the film's high point, and the polish of the editing and camera work helped it play to audiences who had never watched a Malayalam film.

1965 or 1966? Sorting out the dates

You will see both years attached to Chemmeen, and both have a basis. The film was certified by the censors in late 1965, and it won the national award given for films of 1965, which is why it is usually written as Chemmeen (1965). Several detailed accounts, however, give its theatrical release as 19 August 1966. Kerala's golden jubilee celebration of the film was held in Alappuzha on 8 April 2017. In short: 1965 is the award and certification year; mid-1966 is the most commonly cited release date. Neither is wrong as long as you know which one you mean.

What "first" actually means

At the 13th National Film Awards, which honoured films released in 1965, Chemmeen received the President's Gold Medal for the All India Best Feature Film. That makes it the first South Indian film, and the first Malayalam film, to win the country's top film award. It is a different achievement from the regional President's Silver Medals that Malayalam films such as Neelakkuyil had already won.

Abroad, the film received a Certificate of Merit at the Chicago International Film Festival. Many Indian accounts also mention a gold medal for Marcus Bartley's cinematography at Cannes. That claim is widely repeated, but we could not find it in the festival's published award records, so treat it with care. For how Indian films have fared at overseas festivals and the Oscars more broadly, see our pieces on Indian movies at international awards and India's history with the Oscars.

The film was also dubbed into Hindi as Chemmeen Lahren and into English as The Anger of the Sea, an early example of a Malayalam film being re-packaged for viewers outside Kerala. A sequel, Thirakalkkappuram, followed in 1998.

The criticism it still faces

Not everyone celebrates Chemmeen. When the Kerala government held its golden jubilee event in 2017, the Akhila Kerala Dheevara Sabha, an association of the fishing community, boycotted it. Its general secretary, former MLA V. Dinakaran, argued that the film started a long habit in Malayalam cinema and television of portraying fisherfolk as uncultured, and that it built a fiction around their beliefs.

It is a fair point to keep in mind while watching. The chastity legend at the centre of the plot is a myth Thakazhi chose to dramatise, and the film presents it with complete seriousness. Watching Chemmeen well means admiring its craft while noticing whose lives it turned into legend, and who was not in the room when that happened.

Why it still matters

Chemmeen showed that a film made in Malayalam, about a specific coastal community, could win the highest national prize and find audiences far beyond Kerala. Critics credit it with helping South Indian cinema gain attention in the north and with influencing the films that followed. It placed 23rd in CNN-IBN's 2013 online poll for the greatest Indian film, and NDTV included it among four Malayalam titles in its "70 Years, 70 Great Films" list in 2016. Kamal Haasan put it in his list of 70 favourite films, calling it "the pride of south India".

The path from here to today's Malayalam films winning attention abroad is not a straight line, but it starts here. Our story of Balan, the first Malayalam talkie, covers the beginning; how Mollywood became global picks up the recent chapter.

What to watch for if you see it today

• The sea as a character. Notice how often the frame is split between land and water, and how the shore scenes change mood with the tide and the weather.
• Chembankunju's arc. Kottarakkara Sreedharan Nair's ambitious fisherman, who wants only a boat and a net and then cannot stop wanting more, is the film's most modern character.
• The songs as story. Salil Chowdhury's songs move the plot forward rather than pausing it. Listen to how the music returns in the final stretch.
• The ending. It is abrupt by modern standards. Let it sit for a minute before deciding how you feel about it.

The film runs a little over two hours. Look for a good-quality, subtitled copy from a legitimate streaming or rental service; availability changes, and low-quality uploads do the cinematography no favours.

Quick answers

Who directed Chemmeen?

Ramu Kariat, from a screenplay by S. L. Puram Sadanandan based on Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai's 1956 novel.

Was Chemmeen the first Malayalam film to win a National Award?

It was the first Malayalam, and first South Indian, film to win the top national award for Best Feature Film. Earlier Malayalam films, including Neelakkuyil, had won regional silver medals or certificates of merit.

Who composed the music for Chemmeen?

Salil Chowdhury, with lyrics by Vayalar Ramavarma. It was his first South Indian film.

Where was Chemmeen shot?

Mainly at Nattika beach in Thrissur district, with some scenes at Varkala beach, rather than the Alappuzha coast where the novel is set.

Sources: Chemmeen (film), Chemmeen (novel), Ramu Kariat, 13th National Film Awards.