A mirror held towards the Kerala society, images of which make viewers laugh at themselves and force them to introspect is what Marimayam, a comedy serial being aired by Manorama TV channel does. The crew describe the work as a big laughter on small issues. Marimayam is the trend setter in Malayalam TV channels.
This serial, an exception to the run-of-the mill stuff being beamed by other satellite channels, occupies the prime position in an average Malayalee’s life and has become the numero ono programme in Malayalam. It has completed more than 500 episodes and continues to remain the best TV programme in Malayalam television.
The script is based on social issues faced by the State’s population. The story line focusses on people who frequent village offices, taluk offices, electricity board offices, police stations, government-run hospitals and local body offices and how the people manning these establishments behave in a callous and indifferent manner to the customers. “Make life difficult to others and that is our brief,” say characters portraying village officers , revenue board officials and the likes.
Though the cast is sans of any big or popular names from Malayalam film industry, artists in Marimayam have become household names. Sathyaseelan, Koya, Moidu. Mandodari, Manmathan, Seethalan, Valsala madam, Syamala , Unni and Sugathan portray the average Malayali and their small big worlds.
“There is no pre-written scripts and dialogues. We ourselves develop the story line through discissions among us. The only directive is that the dialogues should be neat, clean and free of anything that is obscene,” said Pattambi Manikantan who portrays Sathyaseelan.
Most Malayalam serials and all comedy shows stand out for the stream of vituperative dialogues and words with double meanings, Marimayam’s production team has not resorted to that route in any of its 500 episodes. “It could be the reason why the programme has become popular,” said Thiruvalla based Bindu Sajiv, an avid Marimayam watcher though she is not yet to get addicted to aerials.
The dilemma and helplessness faced by prison authorities who are forced to dance to the whims and fancies of prisoners serving imprisonment for goonda activities have been vividly portrayed in an episode. The political masters who rule the Department of Home force prison officials to function as the servants of the goondas. The message is conveyed without hurting any political parties.