SARVAKALASHALA

'Sarvakalashala' (1987) : It is the best campus movie in malaylam though people who like campus movies like 'Classmates', 'Niram', etc may not like this movie. But in my opinion 'Sarvakalashala' is a movie that works more at an emotional level and the characters remain with you forever. Venu nagavally was the director, screenplay and dialogue writer of this movie. Mohanlal is the protagonist who is known as lalettan in the college. He has lot of money but does not have any relatives, so he keeps on taking degrees in the college so that he can stay forever in college. Though he has a big house he prefers staying in a cottage. Nedumudi venu is a drunkard who stays along with Lal. There are other character like Adoor bhasi as college principal, innocent as physical director of college, Jagathi Sreekumar who is a Malayalam literature professor and hostel warden. Sukumaran and Seema are lectureres who are in their midddle age and who wants to get married but are afraid because they think what the sudents of college might think.

The film starts with the welcome of new students to the college. As the credit of the movie rolls the director introduces the two main protagonist of the movie :The college and Mohanlal. The camera shows the wide shots of the college and in the background a old man's voice (represents the college) asks whether the new students have taken admission for whch Mohanlal's voice answers "yes muthacha (Grandfather)" and then the old man voice asks if there are any film poster stuck on the college compund wall and Lal's voice answers "No muthacha", then it asks "are the holidays for hindu, muslim and christians festival been made"and lal's voice replies "that has been taken care by the Government and has been equally distributed".The story revolves around Mohanlal's life, his lonesome life, the girl whom he had loved and wanted to marry comes back to the college as a teacher and she is now a widow. Mohanlal's childhood friend and friends sister comes to the college.

The interaction of lal's character with other's is what it makes interesting. some of the memorable scenes (as per me ) are :

1) It is vaccation time and the nobody is there in the college, Lal walks through the corridors alone and looks at the empty classroom and the corridors. He then comes and sits beside the police constable at duty.

2) Mohanlal goes to his girlfriend Gayathri's house along with lecturer jagathy to ask her father if he can marry Gayathri. The father does not agree and the close-up view of Mohanlal's face is enough to convey the feelings.

3) Nedumudi venu was brilliant as the drunkard and his recitation of jeevathalam is brilliant.

Check out this recitation at this link