''Kunjananthante Kada'' is a 2013

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 ...

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

Salim Ahamed Salem Ahamed is an Indian film director, screen writer and producer. After working for a long time as a travel consultant, he joined as a creative director and script writer in a television channel. His directorial debut, '' Adaminte Makan Abu ...

. The film stars

Mammootty Muhammad Kutty Panaparambil Ismail (; born 7 September 1951), known mononymously by the hypocorism Mammootty (), is an Indian actor and film producer who works predominantly in Malayalam cinema, Malayalam films. He has also appeared in Tamil l ...

in the titular role, as a shopkeeper, alongside debutante actress

Nyla Usha Nyla Usha Gopakumar is an Indian actress, television host, and radio jockey from Trivandrum, Kerala. After working for nearly a decade as an RJ at Hit 96.7 in Dubai, she made her acting debut in 2013 with '' Kunjananthante Kada''. Early lif ...

while

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 Mala ...

and

Balachandra Menon Balachandra Menon ( ml, ബാലചന്ദ്ര മേനോൻ) (born 11 January 1954) is an Indian actor, director and script writer. He made a number of films in the 1980s and 1990s. He has directed 40 films and has acted in over 100. ...

play other pivotal roles. The story is about a small-time shopkeeper in Kannur and his attempt to find his own place in a rapidly changing world. The film features original background score composed by Isac Thomas Kottukapally. The songs featured in the film are 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 ...

Madhu Ambat Madhu Ambat is an Indian cinematographer. With a career spanning over 40 years, he is one of the most prolific cinematographers in Indian cinema. He is best known for his work in films such as ''Amaram'', '' Anjali'', and ''Makaramanju''. He cu ...

is the cinematographer, while sound design, editing and mixing were handled by

Resul Pookutty Resul Pookutty (born 30 May 1971) is an Indian film sound designer, sound editor and audio mixer. He won the Academy Award for Best Sound Mixing, along with Richard Pryke and Ian Tapp, for ''Slumdog Millionaire''. Pookutty has worked in Hind ...

. The film's shooting commenced in February 2013. It released on 30 August 2013. Mammootty won Asianet Film Award for Best Actor.

Plot

The story is set in a village around the

Mattannur Mattanur, also spelled Mattannur, is a town, municipality, and an aerotropolis in Kannur district, Kerala, India. Mattanur is about 27 km east of Kannur and Thalassery, two major towns of the district. Mattanur lies between Kannur, ...

Iritty Iritty is a Municipality and a Taluk of Kannur district in Kerala State, India. The town is the main market place for the farmer communities in the surrounding regions. Iritty is known as The Coorg Valley in God's Own Country. Iritty is one o ...

area of

Kannur Kannur (), formerly known in English as Cannanore, is a city and a municipal corporation in the state of Kerala, India. It is the administrative headquarters of the Kannur district and situated north of the major port city and commercial hu ...

, Kerala. Kunjananthan (Mammootty) manages a provision store the village. Resigned to an unhappy marriage, it is this shop that is at the centre of his existence. The owner of the building pleads with him to vacate the shop so he may settle his debts, but Kunjananthan does not relent. Eviction, however, seems unavoidable when the government tries to acquire land for a road development project. Kunjanthan's travails to retain the shop from the second half of the film.

Cast

as Kunjananthan *

as Chithira *

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 ...

* Siddique *Navneeth Madhav as Kunjananthan's son

Reception

The film opened with mixed reviews from critics. Sharika C. of ''

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the secon ...

'' said, "Forget Adaminte Makan Abu, its many laurels, the director who held out a lot of promise and watch this one without strings attached. And you may be a little less disappointed." Jisha G. Nair of ''

Malayala Manorama ''Malayala Manorama'' is a morning newspaper in Malayalam published from Kottayam, Kerala, India by the Malayala Manorama Company Limited. Currently headed by Mammen Mathew; it was first published as a weekly on 22 March 1888, and currently has ...

'' rated the film 3/5 and concluded her review saying, "The film lags throughout, which may bore the audience. At times, the expressions of the actors and the delivery of dialogues could have been more realistic and strong to have the originality and seriousness of the issues. The last word is that the film is not a complete entertainer." Paresh C Palicha of

Rediff.com Rediff.com (stylized as ''rediff.com'') is an Indian news, information, entertainment and shopping web portal. It was founded in 1996. It is headquartered in Mumbai, with offices in Bangalore, New Delhi and New York City. , it had more than 300 e ...

rated the film 2.5/5 and said, "''Kunjananthante Kada'' is a half baked story which leaves us feeling something is amiss all the time."

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 ...

gave the verdict as "average" and commented, "''Kunjananthante Kada'' has its moments that need to be appreciated for sure, but you get the feeling that the viewers have been taken for granted by the makers here. It is hard not to be disappointed by this one!" Contrastingly, Aswin J. Kumar of ''

The Times of India ''The Times of India'', also known by its abbreviation ''TOI'', is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by The Times Group. It is the third-largest newspaper in India by circulation and largest ...

'' wrote a positive review and said that ''Kunjananthante Kada'' is "a film Salim Ahamed can be proud of.""Kunjananthante Kada"
/ref> Mammootty received the Best Actor award at

Asianet Film Awards The Asianet Film Awards is an award ceremony for films presented annually by Asianet, a Malayalam-language television network from the south-Indian state of Kerala. Asianet says that awards ceremony has been instituted to honour both artis ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kunjananthante Kada 2013 films 2010s Malayalam-language films Indian drama films Films shot in Kannur 2013 drama films