''Cobra'' is a 2012 Indian

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 2 ...

-language

action Action may refer to: * Action (narrative), a literary mode * Action fiction, a type of genre fiction * Action game, a genre of video game Film * Action film, a genre of film * ''Action'' (1921 film), a film by John Ford * ''Action'' (1980 fil ...

black comedy Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, or gallows humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discu ...

film written and directed by

Lal Lal ( fa, لعل, hi, लाल, bn, লাল, ur, لال, ps, Lāl) is an Indo-Iranian surname and given name, which means "darling", "precious", or "beloved", from the Sanskrit ''lala'' ("cajoling").''Dictionary of American Family Names''F ...

, starring Mammootty and himself in the lead roles. The songs were composed by

Alex Paul Alex Paul is an Indian music director who works in Malayalam cinema. Personal life Alex is the son of A. M. Paul, a music artist who formed the first orchestra (in Malayalam: 'ganamela') troupe in Kochi & Philomina. He is the younger brother ...

, and background score by

Deepak Dev Deepak Devraj Komath (born 30 April 1978), better known as Deepak Dev, is an Indian music composer, best known for his compositions in Malayalam cinema. He started his career in the Film Industry through the movie ''Chronic Bachelor'' (2003) dir ...

Plot

Cobra is the short form of ''Co-brothers'' (Kottayam Brothers). The film tells the story of two rich brothers: Raja and Kari. Gopalan and Balan play the roles of their security guards. The two begin to seek brides to marry. Their marriages get fixed. But on the day of the marriages, one of the brides is late for the ceremony. Thinking that she has eloped, Raja cancels the marriage. They move to Coimbatore. There they meet John Samuel who is looking for prospective buyers for his house. He needs money for the education of his daughters, both of which are doing medical studies in Bangalore. While the Cobras are negotiating the deal, they see a picture of the two girls, Sherly and Annie and they plan to marry them. Samuel wants to hide the news of selling the house from his daughters; he asks the Cobras to hide the news for another 6 months until their studies are over. The Cobras say that they will delay the registration until the 6 months have passed, and during that period they will stay at Samuel's house as tenants. Meanwhile, Isaac and his brother Albert are trying to forcefully take Samuel's house and his hospital. Isaac tries to humiliate the Cobras on the day of the inauguration of his new physical fitness center. Samuel and Isaac get into a verbal fight and set a boxing match the next weekend with a deal that whoever wins will get the hospital. Isaac finds out that Raja has a twin brother named Shivadas Naidu who looks exactly like him. Isaac blackmails Raja saying that if he does not forfeit, he will bring Shivadas to Kari. Raja thinks that it will break Kari's heart, so he decides to back out from the fight. However, Kari and Samuel decide to carry on with the match. Raja joins them. Even during the match Isaac tries to blackmail Raja showing him Shivadas standing near the venue. Initially, Raja does not fight back and gets badly beaten. Then Kari comes into the ring and beats Albert and he also gets badly beaten by Isaac. Seeing Kari getting beaten up, Samuel tells him to accept the defeat, but Kari refuses and tells that if he fails then Raja will also fail and he won't allow for it. On hearing this, Raja fights back and defeats Isaac, thus winning the match. Meanwhile, seeing the love between Raja and Kari, Shivadas leaves the scene without anyone noticing.

Cast

* Mammootty as Raja ( Rajavembala) / Sivadas Naidu (

dual role A dual role (also known as a double role) refers to one actor playing two roles in a single production. Dual roles (or a larger number of roles for an actor) may be deliberately written into a script, or may instead be a choice made during produc ...

) *

as Kari ( Karimoorkhan) * Lalu Alex as John Samuel *

Kaniha Divya Venkatasubramaniam, better known by her stage name Kaniha or Kanika, is an Indian actress who predominantly works in Malayalam cinema along with a few Tamil, Telugu and Kannada movies. Kaniha made her debut in the 2002 Tamil film '' Fiv ...

as Annie *

Padmapriya Padmapriya (born Padmalochani; died 16 November 1997) was an Indian actress who worked in Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu films. Her first movie was in Telugu, ''Adapillala Tandri'' (1974). In Kannada, she debuted with ''Bangarada Gudi'' ...

as Sherly *

Salim Kumar Salim Kumar (born 10 October 1969) is an Indian actor, comedian, director and writer in Malayalam cinema. Mostly known for his comic and comedy roles, Salim Kumar is considered one of the best and most prominent comedians in the history of Mal ...

as Gopalan *

Babu Antony Babu Antony (born 22 February 1966) is an Indian-American actor and martial artist, who works primarily in Malayalam cinema. He has also acted in several Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Sinhalese, Hindi and English films. He started his career doing a ...

as Isaac *Ranjith Velayudhan as Albert, Isaac's brother *

Ramu The Ramu River is a major river in northern Papua New Guinea. The headwaters of the river are formed in the Kratke Range from where it then travels about northwest to the Bismarck Sea. Along the Ramu's course, it receives numerous tributaries ...

Maniyanpilla Raju Sudheer Kumar (born 20 April 1955), better known by his stage name Maniyanpilla Raju (Malayalam:മണിയൻപിള്ള രാജു), is an Indian actor and producer who works in Malayalam film industry.Jagathy Sreekumar Sreekumar P. K. (born 5 January 1951), better known by his stage name Jagathy Sreekumar or simply Jagathy, is an Indian actor, director and playback singer, who has appeared in over 1500 Malayalam films in a career spanning almost four decades ...

as grandfather of Isaac * Siddique as Alphonse *Vijay Menon as Referee *

Radhika Radha ( sa, राधा, ), also called Radhika, is a Hindu goddess and the chief consort of the god Krishna. She is worshiped as the goddess of love, tenderness, compassion, and devotion. She is the avatar of goddess Lakshmi and is also d ...

as Raja's ex-fiancée *Leena Maria Paul as Kari's ex-fiancée

Music

The soundtrack album of the film was composed by

and lyrics penned by Santhosh Varma.

Production

The movie was shot at Ernakulam,

Chalakudy Chalakudy is a municipal town situated on the banks of Chalakudy River in Thrissur district of the Kerala state in India. It is the headquarters of Chalakudy taluk. It is the base camp for travellers to Athirappilly Falls and Vazhachal Falls. ...

Trivandrum Thiruvananthapuram (; ), also known by its former name Trivandrum (), is the capital of the Indian state of Kerala. It is the most populous city in Kerala with a population of 957,730 as of 2011. The encompassing urban agglomeration populatio ...

and

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated populati ...

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

Reception

Sify.com Sify Technologies Limited (formerly Satyam Infoway) is an Indian information and communications technology company providing end-to-end ICT solutions including telecom services, data center services, cloud & managed services, transformation in ...

's Moviebuzz rated the movie "average", saying it is "a botched up version of the conventional recipes". Rediff.com rated 3/5,Review: Cobra is recycled fare - Rediff.com Movies
/ref> saying that "Cobra offers nothing much to the discerning viewer and just cashes in on the actors' star image".

References

{{Lal Films 2012 films 2010s Malayalam-language films Films set in the 1980s 2012 romantic comedy films Indian romantic comedy films Films shot in Chalakudy Films shot in Kochi Films shot in Thiruvananthapuram Films shot in Thrissur Films directed by Lal