Anandabhadram

Anandabhadram (transl.”eternally safe”) is a 2005 Indian Malayalam-language romantic dark fantasy horror film based on the novel of the same name by Sunil Parameshwaran. The film was the director debut of Santosh Sivan. The story concerns ghosts, spirits, and black magic. The film stars Prithviraj Sukumaran, Kavya Madhavan, Manoj K. Jayan, Kalabhavan Mani and Biju Menon.

The film was inspired by the paintings of Raja Ravi Varma, Theyyam, and Kathakali dance movements, and Kalaripayattu martial art forms. It rode on a renewed interest in both Ravi Varma and Kalaripayattu in and outside of India. Anandabhadram was released on November 4 coinciding with Diwali. The film won five awards in the 2005 Kerala State Film Awards and two in the 2005 Asianet Film Awards. It also was a commercial success. During production, Santosh replaced Sabu Cyril with Sunil Babu as the art director, M. G. Radhakrishnan replaced Vidyasagar as the music director, Gireesh Puthenchery replaced Sreekumaran Thampy as the lyricist and Kavya Madhavan replaced Meera Jasmine as the actress. The audiography of the film was done by M. R. Rajakrishnan . It was also dubbed in Tamil, Telugu (as Sivapuram), Hindi (as Phir Wohi Darr) and English, and was an inspiration for Tanthra (2006), another Malayalam film.