''Sipayi Lahala'' () is an 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

comedy-drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

film directed by

Vinayan T. G. Vinayakumar (born 16 May 1957), professionally credited as Vinayan, is an Indian film director, screenwriter, producer, and lyricist, who works predominantly in Malayalam cinema and occasionally in Tamil cinema. Early life Vinayan is from ...

and written by

Sreenivasan Sreenivasan (born 6 April 1956) is an Indian actor, screenwriter, director, dubbing artist and producer who predominantly works in Malayalam cinema. Sreenivasan has starred in over 225 films. Sreenivasan wrote the screenplays of films such as ' ...

from a story by Vinayan in 1995 . It stars

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 ...

Vani Viswanath Vani Viswanath (born 13 May 1971) is an Indian actress who predominantly appeared in Malayalam and Telugu films. In 2000, Vani won the Kerala State Film Award for Second Best Actress for her performance in '' Susanna'', directed by T. V. Chandra ...

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 icon ...

Nirosha Nirosha is an Indian film and television actress. She is known for her works predominantly in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada films. After her debut in Tamil in the film ''Agni Natchathiram'' (1988, directed by Mani Ratnam), Nirosha went ...

and

. The film was a commercial success.

Plot

Rajendran is portrayed as a

peon Peon (English , from the Spanish ''peón'' ) usually refers to a person subject to peonage: any form of wage labor, financial exploitation, coercive economic practice, or policy in which the victim or a laborer (peon) has little control over emp ...

in Brittoli company. Its Managing Director Ramanathan is a pompous womanizer. Accountant Appukkuttan Menon is his close friend and trusted advisor. Rajendran, with the help of Appukkuttan pretends to be the manager so that his love interest Radhika's parents would agree to their marriage. Appukkuttan convinces Ramanathan that he can have Radhika if he lets Rajendran be the manager. Ramanathan wants to meet Rajendran's wife, and he arranges a reception meanwhile Appukutan arranges a girl to act as Rajendran's wife for the reception. During the reception, Rajendran is asked to sing while Ramanathan tries to romance Rajendran's wife and asks Appukuttan to take her to his room. After the party, Rajendran and Appukuttan return to their home. They tell the pimp to girl from the reception area. The pimp comes out of the reception area with the girl but a van of thugs block the cab and kidnap the girl. Next day, the pimp comes back to Appukutan and Rajendran for help to find the girl. Both of them say that they have paid the money and their roles are over but the pimp should find the girl himself. Police arrives at Brittoli office and takes Appukuttan to the police station. Appukuttan claims he does not know of the girl's present situation and is released for the moment. He returns home and tells Rajendran about the police enquiry and they both plan to leave the area. Rajendran's mother and Radhika, real wife of Rajendran, come to their home. Appukuttan tries to run away, but Rajendran locks Appukutan in a room. Appukuttan escapes from the room and disappears. The missing girl's father, Varma, comes in search of her. Varma demands that Rajendran find the girl within twenty four hours. Rajendran finally gets Appukuttan and they both go for shopping with Radhika, who is saddened by Rajendran's behaviour. At the shopping area, Ramanathan sees Radhika, who is now alone with Appukuttan after Rajendran hides, seeing Ramanathan coming. Ramanathan asks Appukuttan about Radhika, and Appukuttan replies vaguely. Appukuttan and Rajendran go to Ramanathan's house and say that Cleopatra would release an attack on Brittoli. Hearing this, Ramanathan goes with thugs to Varma's area, but Varma's people beat Ramanathan and his gang. Varma's wife comes to Rajendran's house and tells Rajendran that the girl is not in fact Varma's daughter but Varma wanted to make money by showing the girl and she would commit suicide if the girl does not come back after "marrying" Rajendran. Rajendran proclaims his innocence and the lady leaves crying. Rajendran phones Varma and scolds him. Rajendran sees Radhika crying. Radhika tells him she went to Varma's house to see the lady and she knows Rajendran is a bad person with many wives. Radhika takes her bag and walks away with Rajendran following her, but a gang kidnaps Radhika. Rajendran saddened by this development, goes to Ramanathan's guest house and finds the girl. Rajendran calls Varma to come to the guesthouse. Varma with his thugs come and fight with Ramanathan, Appukuttan and Rajendran. The fight ends and Ramanathan tells that on the reception night itself the girl revealed that she was not his wife and is beaten as punishment. Radhika was kidnapped by Ramanathan. Radhika goes with Appukuttan and Rajendran. While walking, Rajendran tells Radhika that he did all this to marry her to which Radhika says it would have been better if he had not lied. The film ends with Rajendran back in a peon's dress.

Cast

as Brittoli Rajendran *

as Appukkuttan Menon *

as Radhika *

as Managing Director Ramanathan *

as Sajitha * K. P. A. C. Lalitha as Radhika's Mother *

Oduvil Unnikrishnan Oduvil Unnikrishnan (13 February 1943 – 27 May 2006) was an Indian actor who worked in Malayalam cinema. He has portrayed supporting roles in both dramatic and comedic roles.The HindMalayalam film actor Oduvil Unnikrishnan dead He is a four- ...

as Radhika's Father *

Sadiq Sadiq is a male name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Ja'far al-Sadiq, the 8th-century Muslim scholar and scientist, considered as an Imam and founder of the Ja'fari school of jurisprudence by Twelver and Isma'ili Shi’as, and a major fi ...

as Planter Ravi *

N. F. Varghese Nadakkaparambil Francis Varghese (6 January 1950 – 19 June 2002) was an Indian actor who worked in Malayalam film industry. He began his career as a mimicry artist in Kalabhavan, acting in minor roles, but later he turned to strong villain r ...

as Varma *

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 edu ...

as Rajendran's Mother *

Kunchan Kunchan is a given name. Notable people with the name include: *Kunchan Nambiar Kunchan Nambiar was a prominent Malayalam poet of the 18th century (1705-1770). Apart from being a prolific poet, Nambiar is also famous as the originator of the da ...

as Narayanan *

Kanakalatha Kanakalatha (born 24 August 1960) is an Indian actress who works predominantly in the Malayalam cinema. Personal life Kanakalatha was born to parents Parameshwaran Pillai and Chinnamma at Kollam, Kerala. She attended the Government Girls Sch ...

as Thankamma *

Spadikam George George Antony, popularly credited as Spadikam George is an Indian actor and former Kerala state Police officer who primarily works in Malayalam films. He came to the limelight with the 1995 film ''Spadikam'', after which his name was preceded b ...

as Sub Inspector *

Poornima Indrajith Poornima Indrajith ( née Poornima Mohan; born 13 December) is an Indian actress and television presenter who works in mainly in Malayalam cinema. Apart from that, she is a fashion designer. She is married to actor Indrajith Sukumaran. Early ...

as Office Staff *Sonia Baiju Kottarakara as Nancy

Soundtrack

The film includes songs composed by S. P. Venkitesh, with lyrics 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 direc ...

Reception

On 13 October 2018, Aradhya Kurup of ''

The News Minute ''The News Minute'' is an Indian digital news platform based in Bangalore, Karnataka. It was founded by Dhanya Rajendran, Chitra Subramaniam and Vignesh Vellore in 2014. Apart from Karnataka, it also has bureaus in the states of Telangana, And ...

'', wrote, "In Vinayan’s ''Sipayi Lahala'', Mukesh plays a peon, who agrees to the demands of his womanizing boss to “allow” his wife to sleep with him for a promotion. Though Mukesh does hire a drama artist to play his wife to fool his boss, the exploitation invariably happens, and it’s masterminded by the hero. A relevant issue that gets a dumbed down narrative.

References

External links

*{{IMDb title, 0354024 1995 films 1990s Malayalam-language films Films directed by Vinayan