Manthrakodi (soap opera)
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[edit] Basic
Manthrakodi is a serial or soap opera that is featured on Asianet. A Malayalam TV channel. It starts at 8:30 and ends at 9:00 (30 min. with commercials), but the time was changed from 9:00 to 9:30 to make room for a new serial, before episode 145. It is shown Monday through Friday, the weekends have different programming this is how all serials work. The average episode is 15 or 18 minutes long. On Asianet there are two types of serials, major and regular. Until June of 2006 it was considered a regular serial, but it was later added to Asianet's top 8 list of major serials. The show ended with 210 episodes.
[edit] Storyline
Manthrakodi portrays the different emotions of Aravind C. Menon (Kishore Sathya) and his "murappennu” (girl who is customarily a man’s bride), Revathy (Resmi Soman), and his wife, Meera (Saranya).
[edit] Cast and Crew
CAST
Kishore Sathya (ARAVINTH)
T.P. Madhavan
M.S. Tripunithura
Srinari
Dr. Shaju
M.R Gopakumar
Sphadikam Georg
Resmi Soman (Ravathi)
Kaviyoor Ponnamma
Sukumari
Zeema
Saranya (Meera)
Dhanya Menon
Remyasree
CREW
Script, Dialogue, Story: Santhosh Echikkanam
Cinematography: Jespal T.S.
Banner: Chembakaseril Productions
Production: Bose
Direction: A.M. Nazir
[edit] Plot (Spoiler Warning)
Ravathi C. Menon is a young lady in her early 20's. In the first few episodes she is engaged to her cousin, Aravinth, (an old Hindu tradition) but at the wedding he reveals to already be married to a woman named Meera Nararan.
Later, Ravathi is desperate for money. So she decides to do a sperm donation, to have a baby for a woman who can't have babies. (It turns out that Meera had a miscarriage and the doctor says she can't have babies anymore.) So Ravathi signs up to receive the sperm of Aravinth and give the baby to Meera when it is born. She never realizes that the baby is Aravinth's but she gets 5 lakhs (500,000 rupees) to giver her sister a life saving surgery.
Eventually, while Ravathi still carries Meera's baby, Meera successfully becomes pregnant again...then she turns on an evil role and is cruel to Ravathi. Also, Aravinth figures out Ravathi (his ex-fiance) is carrying his baby. They eventually tell her to leave and that the baby is no longer needed. Ravathi is depressed by this because she will have to raise it without a father. So she gets engaged to a friend who got her a job. Aravinth kidnaps the fiance, Jayathevin, tells everyone he divorced his first wife, and goes to the wedding and marries Ravathi. Ravathi is completely happy and so they stay together.
During this time of the serial the main character switches from Ravathi to Aravinth. He has to switch from wife's house to wife's house trying to please them both. Eventually Ravathi shoots an old family enemy in the leg and gets sent to jail, while in jail Meera and her are both sent to the hospital to deliver their babies. Meera's baby dies and Ravathi's survives. Before they can come to Meera's dad pays the doctors to say the opposite happened and give them Ravathi's baby.
Ravathi gets bail and is depressed at the loss, while Meera is happy. The doctor says she will confess, later from stress, and Meera's dad hires people to murder her. They are unsuccessful.
Then the old family enemy comes from the hospital with one leg removed. He goes to Ravathi's house while the doctor is saying the truth and wants to kill Ravathi. Instead he shoots the doctor in the head, who survives but is in a coma.
Aravinth figures out that the babies were switched and he is very upset. He shows less love to Meera and more to Ravathi. Meera attempts suicide but Aravinth saves her and then equalizes the love.
Then Meera gets yellow fever and must separate the baby from Meera for a few weeks. He takes it to Ravathi (saying it is the child of a friend) to take care of for a few weeks. She then grows a mental addiction to the baby.
Also a co-worker of Ravathi falls in love with her and asks her to marry him. He figures out she is married right in the nick of time, but she offers for her to marry her sister, he accepts. (arranged marriage)
There astronomy signs do not match but they decide to plan it anyway. The wedding day comes, but on that day...the old enemy (Tholasi) comes and kills Ravathi's father. (The director did this so the actor of the father could move to another serial) Ravathi is notified and doesn't tell anyone throughout the whole wedding...after it is over she tells her Aravinth and a family friend. She eventually tells the whole family and her grandmother goes into a coma. Then Ravathi's Aunt, Aravinth's mom...who was thought to be dead...comes back and says the story. The story is that Ravathi's dad separated Aravinth's mom from him when he was a baby because she had an affair. So the mother separates and swears to return at the death of the father, that is why she returned. When she returns she brings Aravinth's younger half sister and together, the mother and daughter, plot to take over the house. Eventually they kick Ravathi out, and the mother brings Meera to their house. Both of the wives know that Aravinth has two, so they both decide to leave. The mother brings Meera back, but Aravinth remains worried about Ravathi. He tells his mother that the baby Meera has as her own is really Ravathi's and she says she will take care of it. Ravathi comes back to live with them and the mother cooks food for all of them, she puts poison in Ravathi's food. The daughter passes the food out and accidentally gives the poisoned food to Meera who begins to have a seizure after eating it. So they take her to ICU. The mom tells everyone that Ravathi poisoned it and they report it to the police. Ravathi is arrested, and Aravinth looses interest in her. Then while Suja, the sister, is taking of the baby while no one is home, a lady (new character, and name unknown), says she is the rightful mother and kidnaps the baby. Later it is revealed that she has a husband with a chronic disease and he will soon die. The reason for the kidnapping still wasn't revealed. Aravinth's mom later overhears Aravinth's friend nock sense into him and convince him that Ravathi didn't do it, and so she goes home and takes the poison. Eventually, the mom is found guilty, but Meera dies. Tholasi fixes all of Ravathi's problems and gives her her baby, for her hand in marriage. When Tholasi is about to tie the thali, he dies, because the camera shows that behind him, Aberna had stabbed him. Ravathi tells Aberna to take the child and live life, and she'll go to jail. In the final episode (seven years later), Ravathi leaves jail and goes home to a new life with and aged Aravinth, and her baby, now 8.
[edit] Problems
Sometimes the tense point where it ends one day is deleted the next day. This proves they added this just so people would watch. For example one the episdoe where Aravinth and Ravathi are married, when he ties the "thali" (wedding necklace) we hear Meera screaming "Nikkuda!" (Stop, impled at a boy). The next day the complete voice is taken off and things simply continue as they were. Also many characters disappear and their voices (since this serial is dubbed) are re-used, or changed. Ravathi's voice is a different voice until a certain point where it is changed to Resmi Soman (ravathi)'s actual voice. Meera's mother's voice is later used for Aravinth's mom. Meera's voice is later used for Jaisree's voice.
[edit] Ratings
Overall, the show came with very low ratings. Especially the last week.
[edit] End of the Serial
Many people think that the soon to be released serial, Minaram (release on July 10, 2006), would take place of Manthrakodi. Meaning the show will be finaled on July 7, 2006. (episode 190) However this was proved to be incorrect when a new character was introduced on July 6th and when they announced that Minaram would be at 8:30, replacing Ivede Ellarukam Sugam (Everyone Here Is Fine). When this was announced many people decided that it would most likely end at episode 199 (a Friday), since most serials usually don't exceed 250/300. However it still continued from this point, but finally ended on August 4 at episode 210.
