chemmeen directed by ramu kariat starring sathyan sheela and madhu continues to be an alltime classic of indian cinema the pride of malayalis the film brought several accolades for malayalam cinema and is considered one of the top 100 films in india however the governments move to celebrate its golden jubilee hasnt gone down well with the dheevara sabha who alleges that the film insults the entire fishing community of kerala and also shows their women in a bad light the sabha has warned the state cultural department against organising the anniversary of the film at any coastal area in keralahowever those associated with chemmeen and also prominent voices from the film industry find the allegations baseless we listen in consider art as arti still remember how the fishermen community protested the day we planned the shoot of chemmeen in the coastal areas of alappuzha later we shifted the shoot to thrissur what saddens me is the fact that even after 50 years the community still has the same regressive thoughts years of education and upliftment have gone waste we should learn to consider art as art madhu who played pareekkuttyi hope chemmeen is given due respectthe fishermen community should be proud of the movie it is a film that brought out the troubles and misery the community goes through the way they were exploited and also sidelined chemmeen opened the doors of opportunities for them it is a saga of love loss and life which is talked about even after 50 years i hope that the film is given due respect sheela who played karuthammaall malayali women used to wear mundu and blouse those daysa movie is a movie i never felt chemmeen has portrayed women indecently anywhere love has no language colour or creed and pareekkutty and karuthammas love transcended all societal restrictions regarding the attire of the female characters all malayali women used to wear mundu and blouse those days i dont know why we have to do a post mortem on a film which is listed as one of the best movies in indiathere were hardly any romantic scenes between pareekkutty and karuthamma in the film and neither the filmmaker nor the cameraman have shown women in a bad light through the dressing style latha raju who played panchamiwhat about the tales narrated in the mahabharata and the ramayana it is unfortunate that a classic film even after 50 years of its making is being politicised chemmeen is an exemplary work of art which should be always appreciated for its content style of making and technical excellence it has to be noted that its grandeur has been such that it has been dubbed into more than 30 languages if the dheevara sabha thinks that the film is an insult then what about the tales narrated in our epics mahabharata and ramayana satyavathi who is the queen of kuru kingdom was from a fishing community vyasa who wrote mahabharata is her son from parashara maharishi