Ninamanninnya Kalapadakal (1963)

A relentless melodrama about neighbours and childhood sweethearts tragically separated when their fathers die. He joins the army and she has to rely on another man’s financial help. Wounded at the front and comforted by a friendly nurse, he returns to find his girl married to the drunken village butcher. He returns to the war, sees his best friend die and marries the man’s sister but has to go back to the front before consummation can take place. The film adapted a story by Parappuram, who specialised in military stories (cf. Anveshichu Kandatiyilla, 1967) and was the first effort at making a war movie in the language, although much of the action was shot on sets.