''Meesha Madhavan'' () is a 2002 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 comedy film 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 ...

directed by

Lal Jose Lal Jose is an Indian director, actor, producer and distributor who works in the Malayalam film industry. He started his career as an Assistant director in the Malayalam cinema. His directorial debut was with the 1998 film ''Oru Maravathoor ...

and written by

Ranjan Pramod Ranjan Pramod is an Indian screenwriter and director best known for his work in Malayalam cinema. He made his debut as a writer with ''Randam Bhavam'' (2001). His popular films include '' Meesa Madhavan'' (2002), '' Manassinakkare'' (2003), '' ...

. 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 ...

in the title role, while

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 '' ...

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 ...

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 ...

and Cochin Haneefa play supporting roles. It was the highest-grossing Malayalam film of that time and ended up being an industrial hit. Meesha Madhavan raised Dileep's stardom to a whole new level and developed a cult following in Malayalam cinema. It was remade in Telugu as Dongodu (2003) starring

Ravi Teja Bhupatiraju Ravi Shankar Raju (born 26 January 1968), known professionally as Ravi Teja, is an Indian film actor and producer who predominantly works in Telugu cinema. He is known for his roles in action comedy films. He is one of the highes ...

and 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 Hori (2010) starring Vinod Prabhakar and in Tamil as Kollaikaran starring Vidharth.

Plot

Madhavan is a clever thief who robs for a living and is well known in the village. He is following the principles of his mentor Mullani Pappan who trained him to be a thief when Madhavan was a young boy. Meesa Madhavan got his name by the popular saying that if Madhavan rolls his Moustache (Meesa in Malayalam) looking at someone, he will rob his house that night. His enemy is the local money lender Bhageerathan Pillai who refuses to give back his father's property despite Madhavan paying back the loan with interest years ago. Madhavan falls in love with Bhageerathan Pillai's daughter Rukmini. Despite being childhood friends, in the beginning of the movie Rukmini hates Madhavan as he is a well known thief in the locality. But later on when she realizes that Madhavan's sisters marriage was cancelled because of her father, she slowly started falling for him and later both fall in love with each other. The sub inspector in the village Eappen Pappachi has an eye on Rukmini. Eappan steals the idol from the local

Temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...

with the intention of selling it and puts the blame on Madhavan. It becomes Madhavan's responsibility to find the culprits and he does that with his mentor's help and thus uniting with his girl friend, with the blessing of her father, Bhageerathan Pillai.

Cast

Soundtrack

The music album of ''Meesa Madhavan'' happens to be one of the most popular works of Vidyasagar. The lyrics were written by

Gireesh Puthenchery Girish Puthenchery (1961–2010) was a noted Malayalam Lyricist, Poet, Scriptwriter and Screenwriter. He was always referred to as the aristocratic lyricist of Malayalam who had a distinctive writing style of his own. He also served as the dire ...

. A part of the song "Karimizhi Kuruviye" was reused in "Aasai Aasai Ippoluthu" in ''

Dhool ''Dhool'' () is a 2003 Indian Tamil-language masala film written and directed by Dharani. The film stars Vikram, Jyothika and Reema Sen. Vivek, Sayaji Shinde, Telangana Shakuntala, and Pasupathy, among others, play important roles. Produced by ...

''.

Reception

The film was commercial success at the box office and became the highest-grossing Malayalam film of that time and ended up being an industrial hit. It had completed 250 days in theatres.

References

External links

* {{Lal Jose 2000s Malayalam-language films 2002 romantic comedy films Indian romantic comedy films Indian action comedy films 2002 films Malayalam films remade in other languages Films shot in Palakkad Films shot in Ottapalam Films scored by Vidyasagar Films directed by Lal Jose