''Venicile Vyapari'', () is a

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

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 Action-romantic comedy film directed by

Shafi The Shafii ( ar, شَافِعِي, translit=Shāfiʿī, also spelled Shafei) school, also known as Madhhab al-Shāfiʿī, is one of the four major traditional schools of religious law (madhhab) in the Sunnī branch of Islam. It was founded by ...

, starring

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 ...

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

Poonam Bajwa Poonam Bajwa is an Indian actress and model who appears in Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada films. She made her acting debut in 2005 with the Telugu film '' Modati Cinema'', after that she was featured in more Telugu film, such as ''Boss'' ( ...

. The film's plot unfolds in

Alappuzha Alappuzha or Alleppey () is the administrative headquarters of Alappuzha district in States and territories of India, state of Kerala, India. The Kerala Backwaters, Backwaters of Alappuzha are one of the most popular tourist attractions in Indi ...

, a town in

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 ...

popularly known as the ''Venice of the East''. Written by James Albert, the story follows a murder mystery.

Plot

The story revolves around Pavithran, who lost his parents in his childhood. He enters the police force by chance, though it is not his ambition to do so. Pavithran lands up in

(Alappuzha incidentally is attributed to the

sobriquet A sobriquet ( ), or soubriquet, is a nickname, sometimes assumed, but often given by another, that is descriptive. A sobriquet is distinct from a pseudonym, as it is typically a familiar name used in place of a real name, without the need of expla ...

, ''Venice of the East'') disguised as a merchant to investigate the murder of a union leader named Ajayan. Another character is Ammu, who is the leader of the union of coir workers and is in love with Pavithran.

Cast

as Pavithran *

as Ammu *

as Mahalakshmi *

Suraj Venjaramoodu Suraj Vasudevan (born 30 June 1976), professionally credited as Suraj Venjaramoodu, is an Indian actor, comedian, impressionist, and television presenter, who appears in Malayalam films, television and stage plays. He has acted in more than 2 ...

as Chandran Pillai / Odiyan Chandhu *

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 Kaladi Govindan *

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 Kamalasanan / Al-Kamalasanan *

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 ...

as Chungathara Raghavan * Suresh Krishna as Chungathara Aniyappan *

Biju Menon Biju Menon (born 9 September 1970) is an Indian actor who predominantly appears in Malayalam films, and also has a few Tamil cinema, Tamil and Telugu cinema, Telugu film credits. He made his debut in the 1994 Malayalam film ''Puthran''. In a car ...

as Sakhavu Ajayan (Cameo role) * Janardhanan as SP Raghurama Varma *

Guinness Pakru Ajay Kumar (born 31 August 1976), popularly known as Guinness Pakru, is an Indian actor. He has made an entry into the Guinness World Records for being the shortest actor () to play a character in a full-length film. He played the lead role i ...

as Kochukrishnan *

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 Aali Koya * Abu Salim as Abdu *

Kalabhavan Shajohn Shaji John, professionally credited by his stage name Kalabhavan Shajohn is an Indian actor, director and comedian who works primarily in Malayalam cinema. He started his career as a mimicry artist in Kalabhavan, Kochi. Making his debut in 1999 ...

as Panchayat President Isthiri Lonappan *

Kundara Johny Johny Joseph with the stage name Kundara Johny is an Indian actor in Malayalam cinema. He has acted in more than 100 films. He has also done Cinema of Tamil Nadu, Tamil films like ''Vaazhkai Chakram'' and ''Nadigan''. He surprised everyone wit ...

as CI K. Nambeesan *

Santhosh Santosh (), also spelled as Santhosh, is a Hindu masculine given name. The name means "Satisfaction" or "Gratification". Notable people with the given name Santosh * Santosh Bagrodia, former MP, politician representing INC * Santosh Bhattachary ...

* Anjali Nair as Ammu's friend *

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'' ...

as Police Constable

Production

The film was produced by Madhavan Nair under the banner of Murali Films.

stars in the film with

, Sreeraman,

, Rajan Padoor form the supporting cast. Shooting commenced in August 2011, and the film was mostly shot from

. The song "Kannum Kannum" was shot in

Ooty Ooty (), officially known as Udhagamandalam (also known as Ootacamund (); abbreviated as Udhagai), is a city and a municipality in the Nilgiris district of the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located north west of Coimbatore and so ...

. The film was scheduled to release on 4 November 2011, but was postponed to 11 November 2011 since there was a delay in the post production work of the film. Release was postponed again to 16 December 2011 due to a film strike in Kerala.

Reception

Sify movies gave the film a rating of 2.5/5, criticising the script.

Music

Bijibal Bijibal Maniyil is an Indian music composer and playback singer who works predominantly in Malayalam films, documentaries, short films and television commercials. He has composed for more than 150 feature films, several documentaries and televisi ...

composed the music for the film, which has lyrics by

Kaithapram 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 Kannett ...

. The film has a remix of the song "Kannum Kannum" from the 1980 film '' Angadi''. Mammootty stated that it was the desire of the director Shafi to use a hit song of the eighties in a dream scene of the film.

References

{{Shafi 2011 films 2011 romantic comedy films Films shot in Alappuzha Films shot in Ooty 2010s Malayalam-language films Films directed by Shafi