''Vamanapuram Bus Route'' is a 2004 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 Sonu Shishupal and written by Sudheesh John, starring

Mohanlal Mohanlal Viswanathan (born 21 May 1960), known mononymously as Mohanlal, is an Indian actor, film producer, playback singer, film distributor, and director who predominantly works in Malayalam cinema besides also having sporadically appeare ...

and

Lakshmi Gopalaswamy Lakshmi Gopalaswamy is an Indian actress from Karnataka and a classical dancer, qualified in Bharatanatyam. She has mainly acted in Malayalam films, while also appearing in few Tamil and Kannada films. She has also acted in several television s ...

. Shishupal also composed the songs featured in the film, while C. Rajamani provided the

background score A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film. The score comprises a number of orchestral, instrumental, or choral pieces called cues, which are timed to begin and end at specific points during the film in order to e ...

. The film was released on 23 January 2004.

Plot

The hamlet of Vamanapuram has no bus service. The conflict between the ruling party and the opposition in the Panchayath prevents any development in the village. The Panchayath President Gopalan Nair's ambition is to become a minister or at least a member of the Legislative Assembly. To finance his plans, he wants to pave the roads with asphalt and get funds from it. But the opposition stirs up trouble every time he tries. Then comes Lever Johnny and how he solves the problems forms the rest of the story.

Cast

as Lever Johnny *

as Meenakshi Nair *

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 ...

as Gopalan Nair, Panchayat President and Meenakshi's father * Janardhanan as Bahuleyan *

Adithya Menon Adithya Menon (born 6 April 1974) is an Indian actor who appears in Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi films. Early life Adithya Menon was born in Mumbai into a Malayali family hailing from Palghat in Kerala. His family emigrated to D ...

as Karippidi Gopi *

Nandhu Nandalal Krishnamoorthy better known by his stage name Nandu is an Indian actor primarily working in Malayalam films. Although he has been in the industry for more than 30 years, he is acclaimed for his performance in Mohanlal' s ''Spirit'', dir ...

as Kuttappan *

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 Appukkuttan *

Machan Varghese M. L. Varghese (1960 – 3 February 2011), popularly known by stage name Machan Varghese, was a Malayalam film actor and mimicry artist. He started his career as a mimicry artist in Kalabhavan (house of arts) and debuted as an actor through ''K ...

as Velayudhan *

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 ...

as Chandran Pillai *

Kottayam Naseer Kottayam Nazeer is an Indian actor, impressionist, and an artist from Kerala. Kottayam Nazeer started his career as a stage artist . Recently he also started his career in painting. Family Nazeer is married to Haseena. They have two sons, Moh ...

as Chackochan *

Maniyanpilla Raju Sudheer Kumar (born 20 April 1955), better known by his stage name Maniyanpilla Raju (Malayalam:മണിയൻപിള്ള രാജു), is an Indian actor and producer who works in Malayalam film industry.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 Kumaran *

Rajan P. Dev Rajan P. Dev (20 May 1951 – 29 July 2009) was an Indian film and stage actor. He was born in Cherthala in the Alappuzha district of the former state Thiru-Kochi (present day Kerala). He had acted in over 500 films in Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu ...

as Ouseppu *

Augustine Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berbers, Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia (Roman pr ...

as Kuliru Thankappan *

V. K. Sreeraman Vettiyattil Krishnan Sreeraman (born 6 February 1953) is an Indian actor, writer, TV anchor and social worker. Personal life and education He was born into a middle-class family at Cheruvathani village near Kunnamkulam, situated in Thrissur di ...

as Gangadharan * Baiju as Kunjachan * K. T. S. Padannayil as Velappan Nair / Mummy Maman, Gopalan's father-in-law and Meenakshi's maternal grandfather *Joby as Mathappu *Manka Mahesh as Ambujam, Gopalan Nair's wife and Meenakshi's mother *Abu Salim *

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 ...

Saju Kodiyan Saju Kodiyan is an Indian mimicry artist, comedian and actor who works in the Malayalam Film Industry. He started his career as a mimicry artist and has acted in more than 20 movies. TV shows *''Cinemala'' - Asianet *''Kadamattathu Kathanar'' ...

*A. S. Joby

Soundtrack

Beside directing, Sonu Shishupal also composed the songs featured in the film, lyrics were 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 ...

. The background score was composed by C. Rajamani. The film reused the song "Rajavin Paarvai" from the 1966 Tamil film ''

Anbe Vaa ''Anbe Vaa'' () is a 1966 Indian Tamil-language romantic comedy film written and directed by A. C. Tirulokchandar. The film stars M. G. Ramachandran and B. Saroja Devi, with S. A. Ashokan, Nagesh, T. R. Ramachandran, P. D. Sambandam, Manoram ...

'', originally composed by

M. S. Viswanathan Manayangath Subramanian Viswanathan (24 June 1928 – 14 July 2015), also known as M.S.V., was an Indian music director, singer and actor who predominantly worked in Tamil film industry. He was popularly known as ''Mellisai Mannar''. He compose ...

. The soundtrack album was released by MC Audios & Videos.

Release and reception

''Vamanapuram Bus Route'' was released on 23 January 2004. It opened in 36 theatres across

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 ...

. The film received unfavourable reviews from critics.

Sify 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 ...

's critic wrote that "our heart goes out to Mohanlal, one of the finest actors in the country who is being wasted in insipid films". Despite the criticism, the film managed to remain in all 36 theatres in its third week. In a 19 February 2004 box office report, ''

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 ...

'' wrote that "Mohanlal's ''Vamanapuram Bus Route'' is doing its third week in 36 centres in Kerala and doing good business outside Kerala".

References

External links

* 2004 films 2000s Malayalam-language films Indian comedy-drama films 2004 comedy-drama films Films shot in Thiruvananthapuram {{2000s-Malayalam-film-stub