The Hindi film Gumrah (1963), B. R. Chopra's take on marital infidelity, was a huge hit. The unusual success of this film prompted ALS Productions to remake the same story in Malayalam as Vivahitha (1970) and history repeated itself.
Marital infidelity was the themes of other Hindi films like Dil Ek Mandir (1963), a remake of the Tamil film Nenjil Oru Alayam (1962). Tamil films like Manithan(1953), Ulagam Sirikkirathu (1959) also told the story of an Indian married woman who rejects her former lover when he happens to come into her family life.
Vivahitha was a true copy of Gumrah. Surprisingly even the names of important characters in the Hindi film, Ashok, Rajendra, Meena, Kamala, Leela, were retained in the Malayalam version. The script and dialogues by Thoppil Bhasi closely followed the original.
Produced by A. L. Sreenivasan, the film was directed by M. Krishnan Nair.
Planter Sreedharan's (T. S. Muthiah) elder daughter Kamala (Kaviyoor Ponnamma) is married to Barrister Ashok (Sathyan) who is practising in Madras. Kamala comes to Kerala with her children Darly (Baby Mythili) and Babu (Baby Rajani) on a short holiday. Kamala's sister Meena (Padmini) is in love with Rajendran (Prem Nazir), a rich young man who is also good singer and artist.
Kamala is in favour of their love, but before she could talk about this to her father she falls from the stairs and dies. Fearing ill treatment of his grand children from a stepmother, Sreedharan forces Meena to marry Ashok.
Meena leaves for Madras. She is now a dedicated wife who a loving mother to her sister's children. Meena comes home to attend the 60th birthday of her father. Rajendran is also invited for the celebrations.
Meena and Rajendran meet again. He invites Meena to his studio and these meetings continue. Ashok comes to Kerala and gets introduced to Rajendran. He invites the artist to Madras to exhibit his paintings. Meena and Ashok return to Madras.
Rajendran also reaches there. Meena begins to meet Rajendran on the sly in his hotel room. One day, when Meena was on her way home after meeting Rajendran, she meets Leela (Ushakumari) who claims to be Rajendran's wife. Leela blackmails Meena and demands money for keeping her affair and frequent meetings with Rajendran a secret. Meena even had to give away her diamond ring when she had no money to offer. When Meena comes with money to take back the ring, Leela runs away. Meena follows her and finds that Leela has been employed by Ashok to test her character. Meena attempts suicide but is saved by her loving husband.
Padmini and Sathyan excelled in their roles.
There were seven songs, written by Vayalar Rama Varma and tuned by G. Devarajan, in the film.Sumangali nee ormikkumo…, Devaloka rathavumaay thennaley…, Maya jalaka vaathil thurakkum….(K. J. Yesudas), Vasanthathin makalallo mullavalli…(Yesudas-P. Madhuri) etc. became very popular. The other hits include Pacha malayil … (P. Susheela), and Arayannamey inayarayannamey…(Yesudas).
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