''Cousins'' is a 2014 Indian

Malayalam language Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was des ...

romantic comedy film Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typica ...

directed by

Vysakh Ebbey Abraham (born 1 June 1980), better known by his stage name Vysakh, is an Indian film director who works in Malayalam films. He began his career as a television anchor and later as an associate director to Joshiy and Johny Antony. He debut ...

and scripted by Sethu. The film stars

Kunchacko Boban Kunchacko Boban (born 2 November 1976) is an Indian actor and film producer. Sometimes referred to as Chackochan, he works in the Malayalam film industry and has acted in more than 90 films in more than two decades. He is a member of the List ...

Indrajith Sukumaran Indrajith Sukumaran (born 17 December 1978) is an Indian actor and singer. He predominantly works in Malayalam cinema. Indrajith was born to the actors Sukumaran and Mallika Sukumaran and is the elder brother of Prithviraj Sukumaran. Indrajit ...

Suraj Venjaramoodu Suraj Vasudevan (born 30 June 1976), professionally credited as Suraj Venjaramoodu, is an Indian actor, comedian, impressionist, and television presenter, who appears in Malayalam films, television and stage plays. He has acted in more than 2 ...

and

Joju George Joseph George, better known as Joju George (born 22 October 1977) is an Indian actor, playback singer and producer who works mainly in Malayalam cinema. He has acted in Malayalam films and worked on Tamil projects as well. In 2015, he won the ...

in the title roles.

Vedhika Vedhika Kumar is an Indian actress and model who has established a career in the Malayalam, Telugu, Tamil and Kannada films. She started her acting career with the Tamil film ''Madrasi''. She made her breakthrough portraying ''Angamma'' in Ba ...

and

Nisha Aggarwal Nisha Aggarwal is a former Indian actress and model who appeared in Telugu, Malayalam and Tamil films. She is the younger sister of actress Kajal Aggarwal. Early life Aggarwal was born and brought up in a Punjabi family settled in Mumbai (pre ...

play the female leads, while Pradeep Rawat,

Kalabhavan Shajon Shaji John, professionally credited by his stage name Kalabhavan Shajohn is an Indian actor, director and comedian who works primarily in Malayalam cinema. He started his career as a mimicry artist in Kalabhavan, Kochi. Making his debut in 1999 ...

Kailash Mount Kailash (also Kailasa; ''Kangrinboqê'' or ''Gang Rinpoche''; Tibetan: གངས་རིན་པོ་ཆེ; ; sa, कैलास, ), is a mountain in the Ngari Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region of China. It has an altitude of ...

Miya George Gimi George, better known by her stage name Miya George, or more commonly Miya, is an Indian actress and model who predominantly works in Malayalam films, along with a few Tamil films. She started her career as an actress by playing supporting r ...

Shiju Shiju Abdul Rasheed is an Indian actor who works in Malayalam and Telugu films. He is known by stage name Devi Shiju in Telugu films as he played a role in Kodi Ramakrishna's Devi. He has appeared in more than 50 films and several popular TV s ...

and

Renji Panicker Renji Panicker (born 23 September 1960) is an Indian actor, scriptwriter, director, film producer, and journalist best known for his Malayalam films. He made his debut as a director with ''Bharatchandran IPS'' in 2005. Early life He did his ...

feature in supporting roles in the film. The story revolves around four cousins who undertake a journey with an intention, and followed by the issues they come across in between them. The film released on 19 December 2014. Cousins is produced by Vysakh Rajan under the banner of Vyshakha Cinemas, Music is by M. Jayachandran for the lines of Murugan Kattakada and Rafeeq Ahamed. Bangalore, Pollachi and Kodaikanal are the main outside Kerala locations of this comedy movie.

Plot

Sam is stuck somewhere in the past, courtesy a mishap that occurred six years back, that'd almost cost him his life. His psychiatrist suggests that he goes on a trip to Manipal where he was when the tragedy took place to try and recover his memories. Sam's fun loving cousins, Georgy, Pauly and Tony all join him on the fabulous road trip back to one of Sam's old, comforting places. Throughout the movie, the cousins meet Sam's girlfriend Aarathi (almost-wife)'s sister Mallika, and finds about their love story. Georgy already knows this and tells it to Pauly and Tony. He also tells them that when Sam and Aarathi tries to elope, her brother's men captured Sam but they didn't save Aarathi. Georgy comes to a conclusion that someone wants to kill Aarathi, so he decides to save her and makes her stay in their house. Georgy, Pauly and Tony decides to find the culprit who wants to kill Aarathi with Mallika's help.

Cast

as Sam, Arathi's love interest turned husband *

as Georgy, Malli's love interest *

as Pauly *

as Tony *

as Arathi, Sam's love interest turned wife *

Nisha Agarwal Nisha Aggarwal is a former Indian actress and model who appeared in Telugu, Malayalam and Tamil films. She is the younger sister of actress Kajal Aggarwal. Early life Aggarwal was born and brought up in a Punjabi family settled in Mumbai (pr ...

as Mallika/Malli, Georgy's love interest * Pradeep Rawat as Nagarajan *

as Veerappa Gounder *

Balachandran Chullikkadu Balachandran Chullikkad (born 30 July 1957) is an Indian poet, orator, lyricist and actor in Malayalam-language. Early life Balachandran was born in Paravur, Ernakulam, Kerala, India. He completed his graduation in English literature from the ...

as Varkey Master *

as Peter *

P. Balachandran Padmanabhan Balachandran Nair (2 February 1952 – 5 April 2021) was an Indian writer, playwright, scenarist, director, and actor. He was known for his work in Malayalam literature and Malayalam cinema. Career Balachandran is best known for ...

as Guruji *

as Chandrarajan * Santhosh as Devarajan * Vijayakumar as Rajarajan * Abu Salim as Itty, restaurant manager *

Sreedevi Unni Sreedevi Unni is an Indian Mohiniyattam, Mohiniyattam dancer and actress best known for her work in the Malayalam cinema and TV serials. She is the mother of Monisha Unni. Filmography TV serials Albums * Ammakkayi * Thilodakam TV Show ...

as Arathi's and Mallika's grandmother *

Vinaya Prasad Vinaya Prakash ( Bhat), also credited as Vinaya Prasad, is an Indian actress who has primarily featured in Kannada, and Malayalam films and TV series besides acting in Telugu language films. She has won the State Best Actress Award for her pe ...

as Threasa, Sam and Georgy's mother *

Sunil Sukhada Sunil Sukhada is an Indian actor in Malayalam cinema. He debuted in a small role in the film '' Best Actor''. His first full length role was as the supermarket manager in '' Chappa Kurishu'' (2011). He won a special mention in the Kerala state ...

as Pauly and Tony's father *

Ponnamma Babu Ponnamma Babu is an Indian actress best known for her work in Malayalam cinema. She has acted in more than 300 films, TV serials and Comedy shows . She made her debut in ''Padanayakan'' in 1996. Personal life Ponnamma was born to Mathai and ...

as Pauly And Tony's mother *

Kamalinee Mukherjee Kamalinee Mukherjee is an Indian actress. She has predominantly appeared in Telugu films as well as Malayalam, Tamil, Hindi, Bengali and Kannada language films. After graduating with a degree in English literature, she completed a workshop on t ...

in a

cameo appearance A cameo role, also called a cameo appearance and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief appearance of a well-known person in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking ones, and are commonly eit ...

* Miya as Ann (cameo) *

Ranji Panicker Renji Panicker (born 23 September 1960) is an Indian actor, scriptwriter, director, film producer, and journalist best known for his Malayalam films. He made his debut as a director with '' Bharatchandran IPS'' in 2005. Early life He did h ...

as Doctor (cameo)

Production

was signed to portray

's love interest and

Bhavana ''Bhāvanā'' (Pali;Rhys Davids & Stede (1921-25), p. 503, entry for "Bhāvanā," retrieved 9 December 2008 from "U. Chicago" a Sanskrit: भावना, also ''bhāvanā''Monier-Williams (1899), p. 755, see "Bhāvana" and "Bhāvanā", retriev ...

's love interest. But she was later replaced with

as the team felt that somebody who is not a complete

Malayali The Malayali people () (also spelt Malayalee and also known by the demonym Keralite) are a Dravidian peoples, Dravidian ethnolinguistic group originating from the present-day state of Kerala in India, occupying its southwestern Malabar coast. ...

would be apt for the role. Filming locations include

Bangalore Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...

Kochi Kochi (), also known as Cochin ( ) ( the official name until 1996) is a major port city on the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea, which is a part of the Arabian Sea. It is part of the district of Ernakulam in the state of K ...

Pollachi Pollachi is a town and a taluk headquarters in Coimbatore district, Tamil Nadu state, India. Located about to the south of Coimbatore, it is the second largest town in the district after Coimbatore. Pollachi is a popular Marketplace for ja ...

Kodaikanal Kodaikanal () is a hill station which is located in Dindigul district in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. Its name in the Tamil language means "The Gift of the Forest". Kodaikanal is referred to as the "Princess of Hill stations" and has a long ...

and Athirapilly. The filming started on 10 August 2014 at

Bangalore Palace Bangalore Palace is a royal palace located in Bangalore, Karnataka, India, in an area that was owned by Rev. J. Garrett, the first principal of the Central High School in Bangalore, now famous as Central College. The commencement of the const ...

, where a majority of filming took place over the next weeks. Around 600 artists, including a cultural troupe from Bangalore and nearly 80 horses were part of a song sequence, which was a five-day-long shoot and costed over . Kamalini Mukherjee did an item number for the movie.

Soundtrack

The film's soundtrack contains 5 songs, all composed by

M. Jayachandran Madhusoodanan Jayachandran is an Indian composer, singer, and musician. He has won the Kerala State Film Award for Best Music Director for a record number of nine times. In 2005, he also won the state award for best male singer. In 2015, he wo ...

. Lyrics by

Murukan Kattakkada Kartikeya ( sa, कार्त्तिकेय, Kārttikeya), also known as Skanda, Subrahmanya, Shanmukha (), and Murugan ( ta, முருகன்), is the Hinduism, Hindu List of war deities, god of war. He is the son of Parvati an ...

Rafeeq Ahamed Rafeeq Ahmed (born 17 December 1961) is a Malayalam poet, lyricist and novelist. He has won the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Poetry and is a five-time winner of the Kerala State Film Award for Best Lyrics. With more than 600 songs in his cr ...

Critical reception

The film received mixed reviews from critics and audience alike. The good aspect of the movie would be the cinematography, which managed to visualise the movie in the best way possible. The art direction of the movie was commendable and added to the rich look of the movie. To conclude, "Cousins" passed to meet the expectations with excellent scripting and a highly predictable storyline.".{{cite news, title='Cousins' Movie Review:

References

{{reflist

External links

* {{IMDb title, tt4295566 {{Vysakh 2014 films Films scored by M. Jayachandran Films shot in Bangalore Films shot in Kodaikanal Films shot in Kochi Films shot in Pollachi Films shot in Chalakudy Films shot in Thrissur Films directed by Vysakh 2010s Malayalam-language films