Summary: The second Malayalam feature, based on the novel that effectively launched the prose tradition in Travancore. It was the first of a series by Raman Pillai (followed by Dharmaraja, 1913; Premamritam, 1915; Ramaraja Bahadur, 1920) dealing with Travancore's royalty in a style that Ayyappa Panicker claims (1987) drew directly on Walter Scott's Waverly novels. It features Jaidev as Martanda Varma (1706-58), the legendary founder of the Travancore State (now Kerala), telling the story of the love between Anantha Padmanabham (Menon) and Parukutty (Padmini), the political conspiracy of Padmanabha Thampi (Naik) and the heads of the eight Nair Houses against Martanda Varma. It opens with newsreel coverage of the aarattu procession of the Travancore maharaja China Thirunal, including elephants, cavalry and the Nair Brigade before embarking on the story of the king's ancestor. Scenes from the young Martanda Varma's youth are intercut with well-known episodes from the novel. The Malayalam intertitles, taken from the novel, are also translated into high-flown English. The opening title proclaims: 'Most Puissant Sovereign, born to carve a State Anew, and rid it clean of Marshalled Hate, released by 'Fractious Chiefs with Heartless Swords to seize thy realm'. The film may have included references to the contemporary Congress-led nationalism in e.g. titles like 'Enough of this age-long tyranny. Ye! Freedom-loving sons of the soil! Gird up your loins and fight for your birthright. Rise up from your slumber. Awake, arise and stop not, till the goal is reached.'
There was a copyright dispute with the publishers of the original novel, so that the film was never released and the producer went bankrupt. This also prevented the novel from being filmed later. The available version, minus
one reel, was salvaged by the NFAI, and the surviving print is only 7015 ft. Marthanda Varma is considered to be the only surviving silent film from South India.
Suresh Chabria writes: ‘Based on the novel by the celebrated Malayalam writer C.V. Raman Pillai, the film recounts the life of Marthanda Varma (1706-1758), the legendary founder of Travancore state. While an important sub-plot deals with a love story set in the royal court, the focus is on the conspiracies against the crown prince and how he defeats his enemies to become the unquestioned ruler.
Marthanda Varma begins with rare newsreel footage of the grand aarathu procession of the Travancore Maharaja Sri Chitra Tirunal with caparisoned elephants, cavalry and the famous Nair brigade. The Maharaja himself–a direct descendent of Marthanda Varma–is carried in a decorated palanquin to receive the greetings of his people. With only some portions missing, Marthanda Varma is the lone survivor of the relatively small but significant south Indian film industry. However, the film was never released because the producer R. Sunder Raj had not acquired the rights to film the novel— an oversight which, according to one account, was to cause his subsequent bankruptcy. And had it been submitted for censorship, some of the titles with their indirect reference to the national movement would probably have led to difficulties as well. For instance, ‘Enough of this age-long tyranny. Ye! Freedom- loving sons of the soil! Gird up your loins and fight for your birthright. Rise up from your slumber. Awake, arise and stop not, till the goal is reached.
To add to the film’s somewhat unhappy history, the picture quality of the print preserved by the NFAI is very poor due to emulsion damage in the only surviving nitrate copy found in the godowns of a publishing house in Trivandrum.
This is a great pity because the title card designs are excellent and among the better preserved sequences is a beautiful romantic scene set in a tiered garden with an artificial waterfall. Only the newsreel prologue, the scenes introducing Marthanda Varma’s character and this sequence were’. From Suresh Chabria ed. Light of Asia: Indian Silent Cinema 1912-1934, New Delhi: Niyogi Books/Pune: National Film Archive of India, 2013, pg 57-58.
For Jenson Joseph's text 'Signifying Nativity' go here:
https://indiancine.ma/texts/ashish:Signifying_Nativity:_%E2%80%98Documentary_reels%E2%80%99_in_early_South_Indian_films 
