Elippathayam

Elippathayam (Translation: The Rat Trap) is a 1982 Malayalam film written and directed by Adoor Gopalakrishnan. It stars Karamana Janardanan Nair, Sharada, Jalaja, and Rajam K. Nair. The film documents the feudal life in Kerala at its twilight overshadowed with grief, and a sense of carelessness/avoidance as a form of revolt. The protagonist is disenfranchised and trapped within himself and does not want to - unable to change with the social changes taking place around him. The film premiered at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival. It was also screened at the London Film Festival where it won the Sutherland Trophy.

==Plot== A middle-aged man, Unni, and his two sisters live in an ancient tharavadu (manor) in Kerala. They struggle as the traditional feudal way of life becomes untenable. Eventually, succumbing to the adverse conditions surrounding him, Unni becomes entrapped in his attitudes and ways, helpless like a rat in a trap. The movie's title, 'Rat Trap,' is a metaphor for a state of oblivion to changes in the external world, such as the disintegration of the feudal system in which some are caught, leading to irrelevance and destruction.