30 years of ‘Godfather’: Anjooran and Aanappara Achamma still remain in hearts of Malayalis

One of the huge blockbusters in Malayalam film industry ‘Godfather' has passed 30 years. The story based on the familial feud between the characters ‘Anjooran’ and ‘Aanappara Achamma’ still brings the house down when it is played in the televisions even now.

The film directed by Siddhique-Lal combo was first screened in the theatres in November 1991. In a theatre at Thiruvananthapuram, the film screened continuously for 405 days and ‘Godfather’ became the most financially successful hit of that year.

It also holds the recognition of being the movie that screened for a longest period in the theatres of Kerala. Thereby, ‘Godfather’ bagged the award for most popular film in the Kerala film awards.

The movie stood out with its impressive array of actors including renowned theatre artiste NN Pillai, Mukesh, Kanaka, Philomina, Thilakan, Jagadish, Innocent, KPAC Lalitha, Sankaradi, Bheeman Raghu and so on.

The evolution of the name ‘Anjooran’ who is the patriarch in the movie also has an interesting story behind it. Siddique has a habit of reading ‘Shabdatharavali’ (Malayalam dictionary), when he gets bored while writing the script.

When he was surfing through the pages of the ‘Shabdatharavali’, the word ‘Anjoottikkar’ struck him. It referred to the first 500 families converted to christianity by St Thomas who reached Kerala. This term lingered in Siddique’s mind.

As he resumed writing the story, the name ‘Anjooran’ sprang up. The name that came up abruptly amidst writing became one of the most cherished characters in Malayalam films.