Karuthamuthu

Karuthamuthu
കറുത്തമുത്ത്
Genre	Drama Romance Thriller
Written by	Pradeep Panicker
Directed by	Praveen Kadakkavoor
Country of origin	India
Original language	Malayalam
No. of seasons	4
No. of episodes	1450
Production
Production location	Kerala
Cinematography	Hemachandran B.Kumar
Editor	Ajith Dev Pothencode
Camera setup	Multi-camera
Running time	22 minutes
Release
Original network	Asianet
Picture format	1080i (HDTV)
Original release	20 October 2014 (2014-10-20) – 9 August 2019 (2019-08-09)
Chronology
Related shows	Karthika Deepam Muddulakshmi Bharathi Kannamma Rang Majha Vegla Kartik Purnima
External links
Official website

Karuthamuthu (transl. 'Black pearl') was a 2014 Indian television Malayalam language series, which premiered on 20 October 2014 on Asianet channel. It is the second longest running television soap opera in Malayalam television completing successful telecasting for five years with 1,450 episodes and four seasons.^[1]

Karuthamuthu started off with story of a black-skinned lady, her life tribulations and story with Kishor Satya and Premi Viswanath in the leading cast. Kishor Satya, Renu Soundar and Akshara Kishor played the lead role of season 2 which portrays on the story of Balamol (Daughter of Dr.Balachandran and Karthika). Darshana Das and Rini Raj plays the lead role in season 3 which dealt the trials and tribulations of Balamol and Podimol (Daughter of Jayachandran and Kanya). Pradeep Chandran as Abhiram IPS. Finally, Season 4 portrayed the story of Muthu (Abhiram-Bala's daughter) played by Baby Kezhiya retaining the same cast of previous season.

The show had highest TRP rating in the beginning and towards the last season rating decrease which force the channel to stop the serial. It is the first Malayalam show to be remade in five languages (Telugu, Kannada, Hindi, Marathi and Tamil). The show has been retelecasted in Asianet Plus in the noon slot of 1.00PM IST since 15th June 2020, but was later stoped due to low rating.

Plot[]

Season 1[]

Karthika, a dark-skinned girl, is treated badly by her fair-skinned sister. She marries Balachandran but has to fight societal and family pressures in order to lead a happy married life.

Season 2[]

Nathan finds Karthu and her daughter roaming around in streets of Tamil Nadu and takes them back but Karthu is physically ill and admits her in a hospital without being into others eyes. The series takes a twist with Bala's arrival to Kaipamangalam.^[2] Everyone refuses her except Balan. Later, Balachandran and family learn that Balamol is his own daughter at the same time Karthu's presence on the other hand Mareena and Balan's marriage was fixed, cruel Mareena comes to know the fact that Balan is making a fool of her and plans to kill him. Mareena and Karthu's step-father know that Karthu and her daughter is alive. They plan to kill them without anyone knowing about it. After an accident, Karthu loses her memory and is taken care by Dr. Arun, his mother wants him to marry Paru (Karthu). In an attempt to kill Balan unfortunately Jayan is killed by Mareena and Kanya becomes mentally unstable and later she gives birth to a baby girl. Balan suffers from cancer and leaves to Canada. Finally after series of events Kanya kills Mareena and is imprisoned. Podimol cared for by Karthu who remember her past and is back to Kaipamangalam finally Balan, Karthu and Bala reunite. Mareena's ghost started attacking payyans but everything was just a mirage. According to an astrologer's findings, Kunjusekharan becomes worried about Podimol as he predicted that Bala and Podimol cannot survive together at a place. Kunjusekhara mislead Kanya who came back but returns to her house with her baby.

Season 3[]

Balachandrika becomes the sub collector of the city and story goes around her life. Now the story turn to show the relationship between Balamol and Podimol. Balamol being a collector catches Podimols's wrong doings and forms an instant dislike towards her, despite Bala's soft heart. Bala and Abhiram are in love with each other from quite a long time, but Podimol loves Abhiram, too. Bala secretly marries her long-time lover Abhiram, without Podimol's knowledge. Later Bala's family reveals that Podimol is Bala's cousin and suddenly out of nowhere Bala suddenly starts caring for her, even though Podimol doesn't know that Bala is married to her dear. Bala accidentally promises Podimol to get her love. Aromal, Bala's cousin tries to convey the message to Podimol that Bala is already married to her love. Podimol rejects this idea saying that her blood, her sister won't let her fail. On the other hand, Bala and Abhiram spend time secretly with each other in the fear of Gayathri learning about their marriage. Abhiram and Bala are keen on spending time with each other but cannot due to fate. Meanwhile, Bala conceives and Podimol gets to know it later. She decided to die but Bala saved her. After treatment under Dr. Arun, she got fine and marry Ganesh, a gentleman whose mom is a horrible woman. Balan died before the wedding and everyone found out two days after the wedding. Bala does all the rituals of her father who left for his heavenly abode. She faints and gets admitted in the hospital where she experiences severe pains. Her condition becomes critical when she was pushed from the stretcher by a person sent by Kunju Shekharan. However, she survived the attack. Bala and Abhiram are blessed with a baby girl. The whole family is joyous. Meanwhile, Gayathri faces ill treatment from her mother in law who berates her all the time. However, her husband provides her with full support from his side.

Season 4[]

It portrayed the story of Muthu, daughter of Abhiram and Bala.

Cast[]

Season 1 and 2 (2014 – 2017)[]

• Kishor Satya as Dr. Balachandran
• Premi Viswanath^[3] / Renu Soundar as Karthika Balachandran: Balachandran's wife. Balachandrika's mother. Kanya's elder step - sister and sister - in - law. Mallika's daughter. Nathan and Jagadhamba's daughter - in - law. Abhiram's mother - in - law.
• Akshara Kishor as Balachandrika/Bala mol (200-775 episodes)^[4]
• Richard N J as Jayachandran
• Saranya Sasi as Kanya (1 to 115 episodes)
  • Lekshmi Priya replaced Saranya Sasi as Kanya (116 to 774 episodes)
• Archana Suseelan as Dr. Mareena
• Santhosh Kurup as Ret Prof. Nathan
• Giridhar as Sreekanth
• Srihari as Kunju Shekharan
• Sreelatha Namboothiri as Shekharan's mother
• Dr. Sharmila as Jagadhamba
• Rajani Murali as Nandini
• Shobha Mohan as Arundhathi
• Devendranath as Dr. Arun
• Thara Kalyan as Mallika
• Akhil Nair as Aromal
• Jayakumar Parameswaran Pillai as Sadanam Sadu
• Arun Mohan as Stephen
• Shiju as Shankar Das
• Lishoy as Dr. Fernandus
• Balachandran Chullikkadu as Dr. Perumal
• Bindu Murali as Lakshmi Dathan
• Sree Padma as Anjana
• Pratheeksha G. Pradeep as Raveena
• T.S.Raju as Abhi's ammavan
• Sarath Swamy as Amal
• Anand Narayan as Prem
• Cherthala Lalitha as Sadu's mother / Nathan's sister
• Lalitha as Mallika
• Sree Lakshmi as Anjana
• Illikettu Namboothiri as Sathyaseelan

Season 3 and 4 (2017 – 2019)[]

• Rini Raj as Balachandrika Abhiram IAS
• Pradeep Chandran as Commissioner Abhiram IPS
• Baby Kezhiya as Muthu
• Darshana Das as Gayathri
• Shalu Menon as Kanya Jayan
• Kiran Iyer as Ganeshan
• Santhosh Kurup as Ret Prof. Nathan
• Giridhar as Sreekanth
• Srihari as Kunju Shekharan
• Sreelatha Namboothiri as Shekharan's mother
• Dr. Sharmila as Jagadhamba
• Soniya Baiju Kottarakkara as Kaipatoor Kanakambaram
• Anoop Sivasenan as Sukeshan
• Niya as Karthika Balachandran
• Soorya Praveen as Ganga Sukeshan
• Bindu Ramakrishnan as Sukeshan's mother
• Babu Annur as Sukesan's father

Awards[]

8th ASIANET TELEVISION AWARDS 2015

9th ASIANET TELEVISION AWARDS 2016

10th ASIANET TELEVISION AWARDS 2017

11th ASIANET TELEVISION AWARDS 2018

Adaptations[]

Language	Title	Original release	Network(s)	Last aired	Notes
Malayalam	Karuthamuthu കറുത്തമുത്ത്	20 October 2014	Asianet	9 August 2019	Original
Telugu	Karthika Deepam కార్తీక దీపం	16 October 2017	Star Maa	Ongoing	Remake
Kannada	Muddulakshmi ಮುದ್ದುಲಕ್ಷ್ಮಿ	22 January 2018	Star Suvarna
Tamil	Bharathi Kannamma பாரதி கண்ணம்மா	25 February 2019	Star Vijay
Marathi	Rang Majha Vegla रंग माझा वेगळा	30 October 2019	Star Pravah
Hindi	Kartik Purnima कार्तिक पूर्णिमा	3 February 2020	Star Bharat	27 March 2020
Bengali	Anurager Chhowa অন���রাগের ছোঁয়া [5]	TBA	Star Jalsha	NA

References[]

External links[]

• Karuthamuthu at IMDb