''Lion'' is a 2006

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

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

political thriller A political thriller is a thriller that is set against the backdrop of a political power struggle, high stakes and suspense is the core of the story. The genre often forces the audiences to consider and understand the importance of politics. The ...

film written by Udaykrishna-Sibi K. Thomas and directed by

Joshiy Joshiy (born 18 July 1952) is an Indian film director and producer from Varkala in Kerala who works predominantly in the Malayalam film industry. He made his debut with ''Tiger Salim'' (1978) and has directed over 80 films. He has also directe ...

. The film stars

Dileep Gopalakrishnan Padmanabhan Pillai, better known by his stage name Dileep, is an Indian actor, producer, and businessman who predominantly works in the Malayalam film industry. He has acted in more than 150 films and has won several awards, inc ...

Kalasala Babu Kalasala Babu (1950 14 May 2018) was an Indian actor who performed on stage, and in television serials and films. On stage Babu had been acting in radio plays while at college. Following his graduation in 1973, Babu acted in ''Paanchajanyam ...

Kavya Madhavan Kavya Madhavan (born 19 September 1984) is a former Indian actress, who appeared predominantly in Malayalam films. She made her debut in 1991 as a child artist in '' Pookkalam Varavayi''. Her debut role as a lead actress was in Lal Jose's '' ...

and

Vijayaraghavan Vijayaraghavan (born 20 December 1951) is an Indian actor who predominantly works in Malayalam cinema. He is popular for his character roles. He is the son of popular drama and cinema artist N. N. Pillai. He got his break by playing the iconic ...

alongside a supporting cast that include

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 decad ...

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 ...

, Sai Kumar,

Shammi Thilakan Shammi Thilakan is an Indian actor and dubbing artist who is active in Malayalam films. He is the son of veteran actor Thilakan. He lent his voice for Napoleon in ''Devasuram'', Prem Nazir in ''Kadathanadan Ambadi'' and for Nassar in ''Ghaza ...

Riyaz Khan Riyaz Khan is an Indian actor and bodybuilder. He predominantly works in Malayalam and Tamil films and television series, besides acting in a few Telugu and Kannada films, as well as two Hindi films. Riyaz debuted in Malayalam through the 1994 ...

and Karthika. The film was produced by Noushad and distributed by Shan Entertainment. The film was a blockbuster at the box office. It was remade in

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

as '' Nam Naadu'' and 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 ''

Evadaithe Nakenti ''Evadaithe Nakenti'' is a 2007 Telugu film directed by V. Samudra and Jeevitha. Rajasekhar plays the lead role. The film was released on 9 February 2007. This film has been dubbed in Tamil with the title ''Udambu Eppadi Irukku''. The film is a ...

''.

Plot

The film revolves round a socio-political family where Balagangadhara Menon, the Education Minister lives with his son B.Krishnakumar a.k.a. Unni-a politician, his wife Lakshmi, three daughters and two sons-in-law. Also with them is his P.A Joseph. Menon is always fond of his sons-in-law Pavithran and Gopinath IAS, and thinks that his son is a barrier to him as he tries to control their corrupt activities. Menon wants to become the Chief Minister himself by increasing college fees and throwing away the blame Avarachan, the present C.M since Avarachan was an honest politician. This causes major protests throughout the state, but CM refuses to give in. Sharika a.k.a. Shari and her mother Devaki comes to their place as the former got a temporary school teacher post in the area. Both were servants in Menon's house long back, but was dispelled by him due to a childish love affair between Unni and Shari. Shari then involves in a public Drinking Water Case and seeks Menon for help. Finding that Menon is not reliable, she along with Unni goes to Collector's office but is again thrown back. Finally they move through Judicial ways and blocks the case. Meanwhile, Unni's younger sister Meenakshi is in love with an ordinary school teacher Prasad and Unni tries to unite them. When Menon and others learn of this, they blindly refuses and wants A.S.P Harshan to marry Meenakshi as a part of their socio-political assets. Pavithran sends his henchmen to kill Prasad, and keeps Unni in prison in an unwarranted case. Meenakshi is forcefully married to Harshan, and Unni is helpless. Later Unni is released. The next day, Shari gets a cellphone belonging to the murderer of Prasad and she with the help of Unni goes to C.I Vijayan and submits the evidence. The murderer is arrested and subsequently Menon also, after being traced of a phone call from the former. Menon decides to use this opportunity as a political game and blames C.M against this. Much irritated, C.M meets the Governor asking to dissolve the state assembly. The governor does so, and all MLAs including Menon are fired. The next general election is to be held soon and party initially decides to place Krishnakumar as candidate from his constituency instead of Menon. However, Menon convinces the party members to make him as the candidate later. Krishnakumar is once again depressed, but his friends force him to contest as Independent candidate, to which he agrees. During the campaigning, Krishnakumar brings out the political dramas of his opponents and donates the ransom he obtained from Vendor Chandy and others as charity. Post election, Menon is surprised to find that Krishnakumar had won against him by a slight margin. Menon's party coalition wins seventy out of 140 seats and the opposition has 69. As Krishnakumar's support was required for the party to attain majority, he makes use of the situation by demanding the state Home Minister post. Even Balagangadhara Menon supports this and the party council has no choice and agrees. Thomman Chakko becomes the C.M while Krishnakumar and others becomes members of his cabinet. Krishnakumar makes use of his position in good ways and eradicates most of the corrupt evil activities in the state with the help of Police force and his friends. He even chases down high politicians and brings out the black money they kept. He transfers his brother-in-law ASP Harshan to Bihar. Thomman Chakko is also blackmailed against his corrupt assets and has no choice than obeying Krishnakumar. Meanwhile, Krishnakumar convinces Shari to marry him, and both register their marriage soon. This irritates Menon and he dispels both of them from entering house. Later, Krishnakumar and Shari began to live happily in Minister's official residence. Pavithran in the meantime tries to eliminate Unni in several ways but fails. He tells Menon that Unni should be killed. Menon gets stuck up at this and finally decides to be a good man. He secretly meets Unni and Shari in a sorry mood, and tells both to return home soon. He even decides to arrange a press meet to bring out all his corruptions. Pavithran finds that all his illegal wealth would be gone, and kills Menon using his henchmen depicting it as a lorry accident (by hitting the lorry with Menon's car). But unknown to him Menon's P.A, Joseph boards the car on which Menon travels for the press meet. Joseph survives the accident, and later relates it to Krishnakumar. He tracks down the lorry drivers but fruitless. He is finally informed by Pavithran's wife (Unni's elder sister), who had overheard Pavithran's conversations to kill Menon. Pavithran decides to flee but is confronted by Krishnakumar and the police. In a fight, Krishnakumar kills Pavithran using C.I Vijayan's gun and awaits arrest. But everyone convinces him to forget the incident. CI Vijayan consoles him and convinces him that the state needs incorruptible and honest ministers like him.The police closes down the F.I.R under CRPC 130/131 security acts. In the end Krishnakumar is seen congratulated by Ex. C.M Avarachan and his mission continues by giving the message "Leadership is action and not position".

Cast

as B.Krishnakumar Menon a.k.a. Unni,

Home Minister The Minister of Home Affairs (or simply, the Home Minister, short-form HM) is the head of the Ministry of Home Affairs of the Government of India. One of the senior-most officers in the Union Cabinet, the chief responsibility of the Home Minist ...

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 ...

as Balagangadhara Menon, ex- Education Minister of

* Sai Kumar as Pavithran IPS, Menon's son-in-law (antagonist) *

as Sharika Krishnakumar *

as CI Vijayan, Krishnakumar's security team member *

as Joseph, PA of Balagangadhara Menon and Unni *

as Thomman Chacko,

Chief Minister A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union terri ...

as Collector Gopinath

IAS IAS may refer to: Science * Institute for Advanced Study, in Princeton, New Jersey, United States * Image Analysis & Stereology, the official journal of the International Society for Stereology & Image Analysis. * Iowa Archeological Society, Uni ...

as ASP Harshan

IPS IPS, ips, or iPS may refer to: Science and technology Biology and medicine * ''Ips'' (genus), a genus of bark beetle * Induced pluripotent stem cell or iPS cells * Intermittent photic stimulation, a neuroimaging technique * Intraparietal sulcus, ...

Karthika Mathew Karthika Mathew (born Lidiya Jacob), better known mononymously as Karthika, is an Indian actress, who has appeared in several Malayalam and Tamil films Tamil cinema, also known as Kollywood is a part of Indian Cinema; primarily engaged ...

as Meenakshi Harshan aka Meenootty *

Shobha Mohan Shobha Mohan is an Indian actress known for her works, predominantly in Malayalam cinema along with few Tamil films. Biography Shobha Mohan was born to actor Kottarakara Sreedharan Nair and Vijayalakshmi at Kottarakkara in Kollam, Kerala. She ...

as Lakshmi Menon *

P. Sreekumar P. Sreekumar is an Indian actor, scriptwriter, director and producer who appears in Malayalam movies. He has acted in more than 150 Malayalam films. Presently he is serving as the Chairman of Kerala Cultural Activists Welfare Fund Board. Backgro ...

as Avarachan, Ex-

Madhupal Madhupal Kannambathu is an Indian actor, director, and screenwriter who works in Malayalam cinema. Madhupal made his acting debut with ''Kashmeeram'' in 1994 and his directorial debut with ''Thalappavu'' (2008), which was about Naxal Varghese an ...

as Siddarthan, Krishnakumar's friend *Saji Soman as Ajayan, Krishnakumar's friend *

Sreejith Ravi Sreejith Ravi (born 19 May 1976) is an Indian actor who appears predominantly in Malayalam films and also in Tamil films. He is the son of actor T. G. Ravi. Early life Sreejith is the son of actor and industrialist T. G. Ravi and V. K. Subhad ...

as Baby, Krishnakumar's friend *Bineesh Kodiyeri as Mukundan, Krishnakumar's friend *

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 ...

as DYSP Anantharaghavan, Krishnakumar's security team member * Santhosh as SI Prathapa Varma, Krishnakumar's security team member *Sudheer Sukumaran as SI Anirudhan Varma *

Bindu Panicker Bindu Panicker is an Indian actress who has more than 200 films to her credit. She has played both comedy and character roles in Malayalam cinema. She won the Kerala State Film Award for the best supporting actress in 2001 for Soothradharan. S ...

as Devaki, Sharika's mother *

Saiju Kurup Saiju Kurup (born 12 March 1979) is an Indian actor who works predominantly in Malayalam cinema and occasionally in Tamil cinema. He is credited as Anirudh in Tamil movies. He debuted in ''Mayookham'' (2005) by Hariharan. As of June 2021, he h ...

as Prasad *

Suvarna Mathew Suvarna Mathew is an Indian actress in South Indian movies. She was a prominent lead actress during the 1990s in Malayalam and Kannada films. She had acted in few Tamil, Telugu and Hindi movies as well. She has acted with Vishnuvardhan in '' K ...

as Rashmi Pavithran *

Lakshmi Priya Lakshmi Priya (born Sabeena Abdul Latheef; 11 March 1985) is an Indian actress who appears in Malayalam films. She participated in Bigg Boss Malayalam Season 4. Early life She was born on 11 March 1985 to Kabir, who was from Haripad, and Raml ...

as Sobha Gopinath *

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 Minister Divakaran *Poojapura Radhakrishnan as Minister Nandakumar *

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 ...

as Pottakkuzhy Chellappan, Minister for Forests and Wildlife,

T. P. Madhavan T. P. Madhavan (born 7 November 1935) is an Indian actor who appeared in Malayalam films. He started acting at the age of 40. He has acted in more than 600 films. He came into the film industry playing villain roles; later he started doing com ...

as Minister Kizhuppally *

Cochin Haneefa Muhammed Haneefa (22 April 1951 – 2 February 2010), better known by his stage name Cochin Haneefa, was an Indian actor, film director, and screenwriter. He started his career in the 1970s mainly portraying villainous roles, before going on to ...

as Vendor Chandy *

Idavela Babu Ammanath Babu Chandran (born 11 August 1963), better known by his stage name Edavela Babu, is an Indian actor who appears in Malayalam cinema. He made his acting debut in 1982 with ''Idavela'', from which he got his stage name. Since then, he ...

as Pathrose, Thomman Chacko's P.A *

Jagannatha Varma K. N. Jagannatha Varma (1 May 1939 – 20 December 2016) was an Indian actor who worked in Malayalam film and television industry. He was also a Kathakali artist. His son Manu Varma is also an artist and his son-in-law Viji Thampi is a film dire ...

as DGP Sundaram

*Vishnu Prasad as SP Jayamohan

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 Kannan, Election Posterman *

Anil Murali Anil Murali (12 April 1964 – 30 July 2020) was an Indian actor in Malayalam cinema. He acted in more than 200 films. He started out in the film industry as a villain before later taking on character roles. He died on 30 July 2020, as a re ...

as Vettoor Shivan *

Bose Venkat Bose Venkat is an Indian actor, director and dubbing artist who appears in Tamil films and television serials. Personal life Venkat is married to actress Sonia in 2003. The couple have a son Tejaswin and a daughter Bavadarani Career Venkat c ...

Kozhikode Narayanan Nair Kozhikode Narayanan Nair is an Indian actor in Malayalam cinema, who has acted in more than 300 films. He entered the "Malayalam" movie industry (Mollywood) through a drama troupe. His first film was ''Aabhijathyam'' (1970), and he is also reme ...

as Narayanan, Prasad's father *

Ambika Mohan Ambika Mohan is an Indian actress known for her work in Malayalam cinema and television series mostly in supporting roles. She made her debut in the film, ''Meghamalhar ''Meghamalhar'' is a 2001 Indian Malayalam-language romance film writ ...

as Prasad's Mother *

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 ...

Advocate An advocate is a professional in the field of law. Different countries' legal systems use the term with somewhat differing meanings. The broad equivalent in many English law–based jurisdictions could be a barrister or a solicitor. However, ...

Mercy Varghese *Kalabhavan Prajod as TV Reporter Satheeshan *Nandu Pothuval as Ananthakumar, a corrupt journalist *

Baburaj Mohammad Sabir Baburaj was an Indian music composer. He is often credited for the renaissance of Malayalam film music. Baburaj has rendered music to many evergreen Malayalam film songs. Early years Baburaj was born on 9 March 1929 in Kozhikod ...

as Mohan, Pavithran's spy *Ashwin Menon as younger Krishnakumar *Pallavi Narayanan as younger Sharika

Production

The film shoots in

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 populati ...

and near places. Two songs ''Chirimani Mulle'' and ''Sundari Onnu Parayu'' in the film were choreographed in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

Soundtrack

The music was 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) di ...

and the lyrics were penned by

Kaithapram Damodaran Namboothiri Padma Shri Kaithapram Damodaran Namboothiri, popularly known as Kaithapram, is a Malayalam lyricist, poet, music director, actor, singer, screenwriter, music therapist and performer of Carnatic music. He debuted with the movie Ennennum Kannet ...

. The background music was scored by

Ouseppachan Mechery Louis Ouseppachan (born 13 September 1955), known mononymously as Ouseppachan, is an Indian film composer and singer who primarily works in Malayalam films. He is a recipient of National Film Award, Filmfare Award and Kerala State Film ...

Box office

The film was a blockbuster at the box office and received positive reviews from the critics.

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, id=0928191 2000s Malayalam-language films Indian political films Indian action films Films shot in Thiruvananthapuram Fictional portrayals of the Kerala Police Films scored by Deepak Dev Films directed by Joshiy