This is one of the best films i have ever seen in Malayalam. A mix of pure directorial brilliance and exceptional acting, supported by soothing music and frames. The credit goes to the entire crew behind this movie! This one film proves why Padmarajan is still regarded as one of the best directors in the film industry..No other director has ever dared to direct such a bold subject! When comes to acting, everyone has justified their selection to respective roles. Mannarthudi Jayakrishnan is a milestone character in Mohanlal's career, I should say he lived as Jayakrishnan. Sumalatha's Clara was one of the strongest character ever in Malayalam movies, infact her best character ever! Radha was nicely portrayed by Parvathy and Rishi was yet another great character for Ashokan, who is really lucky to have worked with almost all eminent directors of our industry! Another noted performance is that of Babu Namboothiri who plays the role of Thangal, a pimp by profession. Jagathy's Ravunni Nair adds spice of comedy to this movie! Every others acted in this film did great justice to their roles. The film is also famous for its great music, cinematography, locations and all. Both songs(Onnam ragam paadi&Megham poothu) were super hits. Padmarajan was always perfect at selecting his film locations, for this film he choose our very own Thrissur. The song scenes shot around Vadakkunathan Temple were simply superb. The film had some outstanding scenes like Jayakrishnan writing to Clara, their first meeting, Jayakrishnan proposing Clara, their next meeting at railway station, the climax scene(actually in this movie,every scene has got its own beauty). Rain plays an important role in this movie, it's a part of Jayakrishnan&Clara's journey. The climax scene leaves a nostalgic feeling in our mind. With a very touching music, Padmarajan ends the movie in a nostalgic style as Jayakrishnan accepts Radha as Clara gets married to someone else. They part with immense pain in their hearts..Clara loved Jayakrishnan only, but had to leave him for everyone's good future!
Thoovanathumbikal (Translation: Butterflies in the Spraying Rain) is a 1987 Indian film written and directed by the late P. Padmarajan, which is based on his own short story Udakappola. The protagonist is Jayakrishnan, who displays two entirely different faces, that of a rustic person and a sophisticated one. The film won rare accolades for the brilliant script. Perumbavoor G. Raveendranath composed some excellent musical scores (Onnaam Raagam Paadi,Megham Poothu Thudangi) for the film. Mohanlal is seen delivering one of his best performances as Jayakrishnan. The highlight of the film is the bold subject that is not dealt with usually in Malayalam films.
Plot: Jayakrishnan (Mohanlal), a well-to-do bachelor lives a dual life, one among his friends in the town and the other at his native village, where he lives with his mother and sister. While he is a free bird celebrating life with his crowd of friends in town, he is a proper family-man at home. The film is about his dual life and his encounter with the sex-worker-to-be Clara (Sumalatha), which takes him on a different journey and his love of Radha (Parvathy).
Jayakrishnan is a typical Thrissur Keralaite guy belonging to a noble family. He has his own vision of life, especially when it comes to marriage. He is hardworker and works in his own farm. At the same time he find time to enjoy a very modern life with his friends in town, about which very few people in his village knows.
One day he meets a girl called Radha, who is a distant relative of his and he falls in love with her. What attracts him to Radha is her toughness in her words (which normally portrays a persons character) which very few girls will possess. Now he feels it very hard not to tell Radha that he loves her and want to marry her. But Radha refuses it, thinking that he is a flirt.
Meanwhile, Jayakrishnan meets another girl, Clara. She hails from coastal fishermen community and was having poor life with her stepmother harassing her badly and was trying to get out her clutches. As an easy way for this, Clara agrees to become a sex worker and meets Jayakrishnan. Under the depression on getting rejected by Radha, Jayakrishnan gets acquainted with Clara and under one circumstance, make love with her. Later realizing that Clara was a virgin, Jayakrishnan becomes very much disturbed. Because one of his promises to his life is not to spoil a girls virginity unless, she is his wife or in-case he happens to do so, then that girls should become his wife. Thinking that breaking his one promise in life, he may spoil his entire life, Jayakrishan proposes to Clara. Admired by his sincerity to life she felt it difficult to reject his proposal and so Clara just disappears from Jayakrishnan because, she did not want to spoil his life by becoming his wife as she has already become a sex-worker in mind.
During this time, Radha, hearing more about Jayakrishnan from her brother (Madhavan), who is pretty close to Jayakrishnan, starts falling in love with him and becomes ready to accept his proposal. Her brother tell her that it was the first time that Jayakrishnan is proposing to a girl. She meets Jayakrishan and express her feelings and tell him that she feels sorry about what had happened in their first meeting. But now Jayakrishnan feels that he is not the right person for Radha and when she asks the reason, he will disclose everything that happened for him with Clara. Now she feels even more closer to him because of his sincerity. Radha, now express to Jayakrishnan, how she feels about him and tell him that she is not worried about his past and since he is not going to meet Clara anymore, she does not care about her. But Clara comes to the town again to meet Jayakrishnan. Jayakrishnan couldn't help him from not meeting her. During his time with her, he tell her about Radha, and Clara feels so happy about that. But later on Clara feels that she is the hindrance for Jayakrishnan not committing to Radha and vows that she will not meet him anymore. And before she leaves, request him not to disappoint Radha.
Now Jayakrishan and Radha get closer to each other and decides to marry. Everything goes on fine for a period until one day Jayakrishnan gets a telegram stating that Clara is coming to see him once more and this would be the last time they would meet each other and it would be at the town railway station. Clara is on her way for a long journey. Being shocked by this, Jayakrishnan and Radha couldn't decide what to do next. Radha requests Jayakrishnan not to meet Clara, but Jayakrishnan could not resist his mind from seeing her.
Towards the end of the movie, Jayakrishnan reaches the station to meet Clara. Radha too reaches the station without Jayakrishan's knowledge. At the station both gets shocked by seeing that Clara had already got married and is having a baby. She tells Jayakrishnan that she had decided to marry in-order to save both their futures. Now she will have a family life and Jayakrishnan will get Radha, with whom he had actually fallen in love. At the end the movie Clara leaves Jayakrishnan's life forever and Radha marries Jayakrishnan (though not shown explicitly in the end).
