Nirmala is a 1948 India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

n Malayalam film directed by P. V. Krishna Iyer and produced by P. J. Cherian. The fourth talkie in Malayalam, Nirmala introduced playback singing to Malayalam cinema

Malayalam cinema

The Cinema of Kerala or Malayalam cinema refers to the film industry in the Indian state of Kerala, which makes films in the Malayalam language. Malayalam movies typically portray social or family issues and are considered more realistic than films from other parts of India. Malayalam cinema has...

. It was also the first film produced by a Malayali.

The songs were composed by P. S. Divakar, a renowned saxophone player, and E. I. Warrier. Lyrics were by renowned poet G. Sankara Kurup

G. Sankara Kurup

G. Sankara Kurup, , better known as Mahakavi G , was the first winner of the Jnanpith Award, India's highest literary award...

. There were 15 songs in the film, sung by P. Leela

P. Leela

Porayathu Leela better known as P. Leela was a popular Indian playback singer. She was awarded Padma Bhushan posthumously in 2006.-Early life:...

, P. K. Raghavan, Sarojini Menon, T. K. Govindarao, Vasudeva Kurup and Vimala B Varma. Govinda Rao and Sarojini Menon, who sang in this film, became the first male and female playback singers in Malayalam.

Cast

This film could be considered Cherian’s family project. His son Joseph Cherian was cast as hero, Joseph’s wife and Baby was the heroine. Apart from this his daughters, other relatives and artists from his own drama troupe were part of this film.

• Joseph Cherian
• Baby Joseph
• Cherthala Vasudeva Kurup
• P. J. Cherian
• Mathappan
• S. J. Dev
• Kamalamma