1. Plot

2. Cast

3. Production
    Biblical allusions 

4. Accolades

5. Soundtrack

6. References

7. External links

The film is noted for its rich and detailed screenplay, expressive cinematography and flowing musical narration. The film is considered as one of the seminal works of the golden age of Malayalam cinema that lasted from the mid 1980s until the mid 1990s. Mohanlal's portrayal of Solomon has brought out one of the exceptional romantic characters in Malayalam Cinema, and is also noted for the performance of Thilakan, and the background score by Johnson.

Plot

The story is centered around a Malayali Syrian Christian-Nasrani ("Nazarene") background. Throughout the film, there are references to the Biblical book Song of Songs. In Song of Songs, the poetic book depicts romantic dialogue between a young woman and her lover. The film story follows a somewhat parallel story. A young working girl who does not have anyone to support her is in search for at least a shepherd. The biblical script goes through her dreams and her desire for a man in her life, it shows her concept of a perfect lover is King Solomon himself. In the end, she finds a goatherd and her lover is happy that he has found her. However, the script has additional meanings added to make it a different story.

In this movie, Solomon is the hero and is shown as one who comes to home at untimely hours, but still has jovial chats, enquiries and sharing of gifts with family members. He is shown to have a special affection to the elder unmarried woman, Sofia of the neighboring family. He acknowledges that she is seen doing some errand every time. He dislikes the discrimination shown to her by her stepfather (caretaker). He loves her and conveys it through biblical verses from the book of Song of Songs and she responds affectionately. He was able to convince everyone about his marriage to this girl. But her stepfather strongly opposes this relationship and brings up her birth story with Reetha. Having failed with the marriage proposal, he leaves his own home and comes back a second time. Meanwhile, the lecher stepfather rapes his stepdaughter. Solomon expresses his anger and attempts to punish the evil doer. Instead, he calls out Sophia and she reluctantly goes out with him. He absolves her blemish of shamefulness through his love that forgives and forgets the past. They together go back to his farm, lovingly, by his lorry. The movie ends on a positive note of his family members accepting the relationship.

Cast

• Mohanlal as Solomon
• Shari as Sofia
• Thilakan as Paul Pailokkaran (Sofia's Stepfather)
• Vineeth as Antony Joseph (Solomon's Cousin) (Voice dubbed by Krishnachandran)
• Kaviyoor Ponnamma as Reetha (Solomon's Mother)

Production

The title of the film and novel is based upon a passage from Biblical book of The Song of Solomon or Song of Songs, Chapter 7:12: "Let us get up early to the vineyards." The protagonist quotes this passage at one point during the film.

Biblical allusions

From the beginning itself it is evident that the film has many allusions to the Bible. If not for many other characters, the character of Solomon played by Mohanlal has the greatest amount of allusions to the Bible. The name Solomon itself is derived from the Bible where Solomon is one of the kings who ruled the United Israel. In the film, the character Solomon is a social chameleon as such. The Bible gives sufficient information that the king was very wealthy just like the character in the film. In the Bible it is stated that Solomon had many relationships with women, resulting in having 700 wives and 300 concubines, the film hints the character's possible skirt chasing proclivities. In the movie, we see the character of Solomon is in possession of vast acres of vineyards which he looks after and prospers. The book's female character is a working woman, in the film the character Sophia does all the chores in the house and is a hard worker. In the biblical book, the character is dark skinned, so is the actress. Furthermore, in legends the Queen of Sheba was a strong and independent woman who professed her interest in King Solomon and had respect and appreciation of him as well. In the film, Sophia who was bold and having openly acknowledged her interest in Solomon is equally respected by him. The strong romantic overture of the book is adapted in the film effusively. However, the book in the Bible does not accommodate any rape culture but the idea is not foreign to the bible, like the case of Tamar and her step-brother Amnon, both from King Solomon's family in 2 Samuel 13. Paul, the step-father in the film is a detestable figure as Amnon.

In the Bible we see the kingdom of Solomon's is destroyed because of the sins he committed. According to 1 Kings 11:4 Solomon's "wives turned his heart after other gods", their own national deities, to whom Solomon built temples, thus incurring divine anger and retribution in the form of the division of the kingdom after Solomon's death (1 Kings 11:9–13). In the movie, we see Solomon is taking away Sofia to the vineyards who caused him much trouble. It might be a suggestion that there is a possible unholy turn of events awaiting the character Solomon of the film to where he takes her to just like that in the case of the Biblical character of King Solomon.

Accolades

Soundtrack

The music was composed by Johnson and the lyrics were written by O. N. V. Kurup.

References

External links

• {{IMDb title|0249047}}
• Article about the film in Deepika

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