''Godfather'' is a

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...

Indian

Malayalam 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 ...

-language

action comedy Action comedy is a genre that combines aspects of action and comedy. The genre is most prevalent in film with action comedy films, though several TV series fit this genre. Film The action comedy film is a film genre that combines aspects of acti ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

written and directed by

Siddique–Lal Siddique–Lal are a screenwriter and director duo, consisting of Siddique and Lal. They were active together in Malayalam cinema during 1986–1995. They were initially assistant directors to director Fazil. Particularly known for making fil ...

. It is produced by Appachan under the banner of Swargachithra. The film stars an

ensemble cast In a dramatic production, an ensemble cast is one that is composed of multiple principal actors and performers who are typically assigned roughly equal amounts of screen time.Random House: ensemble acting Linked 2013-07-17 Structure In contrast to ...

consisting of N. N. Pillai,

Mukesh Mukesh is an epithet for the Hindu god Shiva, and literally means "conqueror of the Muka demon". It also means god of 3 worlds, heaven, hell & earth, which in turn represents Hindu god Shiva. It is commonly used as a male given name in India. Peopl ...

Philomina Philomina (1926 – 2 January 2006) was an Indian actress, who worked in the Malayalam film industry. She acted in more than 750 films in her career. She played mostly character and comedy roles, besides that of mother and grandmother. She star ...

Thilakan Palappurathu Kesavan Surendranatha Thilakan (15 July 1935 – 24 September 2012) was an Indian film and stage actor who appeared in over 200 Malayalam films. Thilakan was known for his elaborate method acting, realistic and spontaneous appearan ...

, Kanaka,

Innocent Innocence is a lack of guilt, with respect to any kind of crime, or wrongdoing. In a legal context, innocence is to the lack of legal guilt of an individual, with respect to a crime. In other contexts, it is a lack of experience. In relation ...

, Siddique,

Bheeman Raghu Bheeman Raghu (born 6 October 1953) is an Indian actor, singer, dancer, former politician and police officer (retired) who appears mainly in Malayalam films and is best known for his villainous and comedy roles. In a career spanning over three ...

and K. P. A. C. Lalitha. A retelling of

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

's ''

Romeo and Juliet ''Romeo and Juliet'' is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare early in his career about the romance between two Italian youths from feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetim ...

,'' The film revolves around the rivalry between two families, the Anjooran and Anappara

houses A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air condi ...

and the consequences faced when two members of the families fall in love. ''Godfather'' was initially planned to be released before ''

In Harihar Nagar ''In Harihar Nagar'' is a 1990 Indian Malayalam-language comedy thriller film written and directed by Siddique-Lal. The film, set in the fictional locality of Harihar Nagar follows four unemployed bachelors: Mahadevan (Mukesh), Govindan Kutty ...

'' (1990), however Siddique-Lal felt that the film's script was not complete, and as a result stretched production time. The film was released on 15 November 1991 to positive reviews and became a

blockbuster Blockbuster or Block Buster may refer to: *Blockbuster (entertainment) a term coined for an extremely successful movie, from which most other uses are derived. Corporations * Blockbuster (retailer), a defunct video and game rental chain ** Bl ...

, running for 417 days. The film was the second highest grosser of the year, only surpassed by ''

Kilukkam ''Kilukkam'' () is a 1991 Indian Malayalam-language musical romantic comedy film directed by Priyadarshan and written by Venu Nagavalli. The story set in Ooty revolves around tourist guide Joji (Mohanlal) and photographer Nishchal (Jagathy Sree ...

.'' It was later remade in

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

as ''

Peddarikam ''Peddarikam'' () is a 1992 Indian Telugu-language drama film, produced and directed by A. M. Rathnam under the Sri Surya Movies banner. It is a remake of the Malayalam film '' Godfather''. The film stars Jagapathi Babu, Sukanya, N. N. Pilla ...

,'' in

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people *Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece See also * * ...

as ''Ghayaal,'' in

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

as ''Hulchul'', in

Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...

as ''Pandavaru'' and in

Odia Odia, also spelled Oriya or Odiya, may refer to: * Odia people in Odisha, India * Odia language, an Indian language, belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family * Odia alphabet, a writing system used for the Odia languag ...

as ''The'' ''Love Dot Com''''.''. The shooting was entirely happened in

Kozhikode Kozhikode (), also known in English as Calicut, is a city along the Malabar Coast in the state of Kerala in India. It has a corporation limit population of 609,224 and a metropolitan population of more than 2 million, making it the second la ...

Plot

Anjooran, and his four sons Balaraman, Swaminathan, Premachandran and Ramabhadran are in severe enmity with the Anappara family. Anjooran's bitter hatred toward Anappara Achamma stems from events in the past, when the men of Anappara abducted Balaraman's fiancée and forced her to marry the eldest son of Achamma. The resulting series of events saw Anjooran's wife being killed, and him being sent to jail for avenging her by murdering Achamma's husband. Consequently, he develops a hatred toward all women, and their entry into his home is prohibited from then on. Anjooran's youngest son Ramabhadran is a law college student. At Law college, he and his friend Mayin Kutty try all means to humiliate their classmate Malu, who is the granddaughter of Achamma. Malu gets engaged to Shyam Prasad, a young state minister, but the minister withdraws from the relation as Anjooran intervenes and threatens him of political consequences. Incensed, Achamma hatches a plan to divide Anjooran's family by having Malu seduce Ramabhadran and making him turn against his father. When Malu expresses her feelings to Ramabhadran, as per the advice of her grandmother, Mayin Kutty ideates that Ramabhadran could divide the Anappara family by seducing Malu and turning her against them. On his advice, Ramabhadran too acts as if he is in love with her. The facade soon falls and they really fall in love with each other. While wondering about ways to get his family to support this relationship, he gets to know that Swaminathan is leading a secret double life as Ramanathan, with a wife Kochammini and two children. When confronted with this information, Swaminathan promises to help unite him and Malu. Through a turn of events, Anjooran learns of Ramabhadran's love affair and Swaminathan's deceitfulness. Consequently, they're both ostracised from the family. Over at Anappara, Achamma is shocked to know that Malu's love is not a mere act. She and her sons decide to get her married to the family's advocate's son. However, she still tries to bring her plans to fruition by sending out signals that the house is divided over the issue. To this end, she sends her sons to beg for Anjooran's help in preventing Ramabhadran from marrying Malu (a request that Anjooran approves), and approaches Ramabhadran himself assuring him of all help in doing so. However, Achamma does not know that her youngest son Veerabhadran is sympathetic to the lovers' cause and has revealed her plan to Ramabhadran. With his help, Ramabhadran sneaks in to the marriage hall and almost marries Malu. Enraged, Achamma curses Anjooran for not being vigilant enough, exposing her duplicity. Ramabhadran then admits that he sneaked in not to marry Malu, but to foil Achamma's plan and save his father's honour. A regretful Anjooran allows the wedding of Ramabhadran and Malu to take place and welcomes both him, Swaminathan and their families back into the fold, thereby paving the way for the entry of women into his house once again.

Cast

* N. N. Pillai as Anjooran *

as Ramabhadran, Anjooran's youngest son *

as Aanappara Achamma * Kanaka as Malu, Achamma's granddaughter and Parasuraman's daughter *

as Balaraman, Anjooran's eldest son *

as Swaminathan / E. K. Ramanathan, Anjooran's second son *

as Premachandran, Anjooran's third son *

Jagadish P. V. Jagadish Kumar (born 12 June 1955) known mononymously as Jagadish, is an Indian actor, screenwriter, television presenter and former politician. He has starred in over 375 Malayalam films and 2 Hindi films. He is best known for his comi ...

as Mayin Kutty, Ramabhadran's Friend * Siddique as Veerabhadran, Achamma's youngest son *

Paravoor Bharathan Vadakkekarayil Koran Bharathan (16 January 1929- 19 August 2015), better known as Paravoor Bharatan was an Indian actor who acted in Malayalam films. He started his career in movies during the 1950s. Bharathan is known as a versatile actor and h ...

as Parasuraman, Achamma's eldest son / Achamma's husband (Double Role) * Janardhanan as Bhoominathan, Achamma's second son *

Kundara Johny Johny Joseph with the stage name Kundara Johny is an Indian actor in Malayalam cinema. He has acted in more than 100 films. He has also done Tamil films like ''Vaazhkai Chakram'' and ''Nadigan ''Nadigan'' () is a 1990 Indian Tamil-languag ...

as Hemachandran, Achamma's third son * K. P. A. C. Lalitha as Kochammini Teacher, Swaminathan's wife *

Sankaradi Chandrashekaran Menon, better known by his screen name Sankaradi (14 July 1924 – 8 October 2001), was an Indian actor. He was a veteran Malayalam comedian and character artist, who had over 700 Malayalam films to his credit. He dominated the ...

as Achamma's advocate *

Kollam Thulasi Kollam Kanjaveli Kuttilazhikathu Thulasidharan Nair is an actor in Malayalam cinema, who is better known as Kollam Thulasi relating to the name of his birthplace Kollam to his first name as customary in some parts of Kerala. His first appearance ...

as Anjooran's advocate *

Harisree Ashokan Harisree Ashokan is an Indian actor and director who is known for his comedy roles in Malayalam films. Ashokan has acted in more than 200 Malayalam films. He started his career as a mimicry artist in the troupe Harisree and then worked in Kalab ...

as Anjooran's houseboy *

Unni Mary Unni Mary (born 12 March 1962) is an Indian actress who works mainly in Malayalam films. She has also worked in Telugu, Tamil and Kannada films, where she had used the screen name Deepa. Personal life Unnimary was born to Augustine Fernande ...

as Omana, Hemachandran's wife *

Thodupuzha Vasanthi Thodupuzha Vasanthi was an Indian actress who acted mainly in Malayalam films. She appeared in over 450 movies and also in 16 tele-serials and 100 plays. She was a theater artist, before starting with small roles in movies. Her first full length ...

as Bhoominathan's wife *

Thesni Khan Thesni Khan is an Indian actress who appears in Malayalam films, television, and stage. She made her acting debut through '' Daisy'' in 1988. She is widely known for the portrayal of character roles. In 2020, she contested in the second season ...

as Mercy, Malu's friend *

Beena Antony Beena Antony is an Indian actress appearing in Malayalam film and television. She mainly appeared in supporting roles in films and television serials in her later career, including ''Ommanathinkalpakshi'', ''Mayaseetha'', ''Ente Manasaputhri' ...

as Beena, Malu's friend *

Ravi Vallathol Ravi Vallathol (25 November 1952 25 April 2020) was an Indian actor, mainly noted for his acting in many famous serials, including the first serial in Malayalam. Biography He was born as the son of famous Drama legend T. N. Gopinathan Nair ...

as Dr. Balakrishnan, Son of Achamma's advocate and Malu's fiancée * Thrissur Elsy as Hostel warden *

Zeenath Zeenath A.P is an Indian actress and dubbing artist. She was a prominent supporting actress during the 1990s in Malayalam films. Background Zeenath was born to Abu Achippuram and Fathima in Nilambur, Malappuram district. She had her primary ed ...

as Kadappuram Karthyayani * Vinod Kozhikode as Achamma's henchman

Music

Box office

The film was a huge commercial success, becoming one among the biggest blockbusters ever in Malayalam film industry. It ran for 417 days at Sreekumar Theatre in

Thiruvananthapuram 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 populati ...

alone, which still remains an unbeaten record in Malayalam film history. The film grossed ₹ 22,84,147 in 246 days from Sreekumar Theatre, Thiruvanthapuram.

Remake

The film was remade into

as ''

'' (1992). In 1993 producer

N. Chandra Chandrashekhar Narvekar (born 4 April 1952) is an Indian producer, writer and director, known for gritty realism, in his early dark and loud films. His most successful commercial films are ''Ankush'', ''Pratighaat'', ''Tezaab'' and '' Narsimha''. ...

and director Purshottam Berde remade the film into

as ''Ghayaal''. In 2004,

Priyadarshan Priyadarshan (born 30 January 1957) is an Indian film director, screenwriter and producer who works predominantly in Malayalam and Hindi films, while also having done six films in Tamil and two films in Telugu. He has done about 31 films in Hi ...

remade the film in

as '' Hulchul''. It was also remade in

as ''Pandavaru'' (2006) and in

as '' Love Dot Com''.

Legacy

The film ran for more than 400 days in

movie theatres A movie theater (American English), cinema (British English), or cinema hall ( Indian English), also known as a movie house, picture house, the movies, the pictures, picture theater, the silver screen, the big screen, or simply theater is a ...

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...

. Especially the film ran for 417 days in Sree Kumar Theatre in

Awards

Kerala Film Critics Award The Kerala Film Critics Association Awards are presented annually by the Kerala Film Critics Association to honour both artistic and technical excellence of professionals in the Malayalam language film industry of India. The awards were instit ...

for Best Second Actress -

References

External links

*
''Godfather''
at the Malayalam Movie Database {{Lal Films 1990s Malayalam-language films Malayalam films remade in other languages Indian romantic drama films Films shot in Kozhikode 1991 romantic drama films 1991 films Films directed by Siddique–Lal