''Beautiful'' is a 2011 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 ...

musical Musical is the adjective of music. Musical may also refer to: * Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance * Musical film and television, a genre of film and television that incorporates into the narr ...

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...

film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

written by

Anoop Menon Anoop Menon (born 3 August 1976) is an Indian actor, director, screenwriter and lyricist. He worked in television before acting in Malayalam films and has acted in more than 75 films. Menon won the Kerala State Film Award for Best Supportin ...

and directed by

V. K. Prakash V. K. Prakash (born 12 October 1960) is an Indian film director and actor. He makes films, music videos, and commercials, and works predominantly in Malayalam, but has also directed Telugu, Marathi, Kannada and Hindi films. Prakash's debut featu ...

. The film stars

Jayasurya Jayasurya (born August 1978) is an Indian actor, distributor, Sponsor, Model, film producer, playback singer, and impressionist, who works in the Malayalam films. He has appeared in more than 100 films and has won several awards, including a N ...

and

Meghana Raj Meghana Sunder Raj Sarja (born 3 May 1990) is an Indian actress who primarily works in Malayalam and Kannada films along with a few Telugu language, Telugu and Tamil language, Tamil films. She made her acting debut in the 2009 Telugu film ''B ...

in the lead roles. The cinematography was by Jomon T. John and the music was composed by

Ratheesh Vegha Ratheesh Vega ( ml, രതീഷ് വേഗ) is a composer, singer, and musician who works in Malayalam films. His debut as a film music composer was in the 2010 hit film ''Cocktail''. Career Ratheesh completed his degree in music from Madra ...

. It tells the story about the intense bonding of two friends, one

quadriplegic Tetraplegia, also known as quadriplegia, is defined as the dysfunction or loss of motor and/or sensory function in the cervical area of the spinal cord. A loss of motor function can present as either weakness or paralysis leading to partial or t ...

and the other a musician. The film released on 2 December 2011 to predominantly positive reviews and was a commercial success.

Plot

Stephen Louis (

) is a

by birth who is immensely rich, and believes in celebrating each moment of life. Despite being able to move only his neck, he loves to see beautiful things and aspires to celebrate life. He is assisted by his Manager Kamalu ( Nandu) and his caretaker/driver Karunan (Jayan) in a palatial house in Fort Kochi. As most of his relatives look to take advantage of his position, Louis has kept all of them at bay, barring his cousin brother Alex (

Tini Tom Tini Tom is an Indian actor, comedian and mimicry artist from Kerala. He works in Malayalam films and television. Early life Tini was born in North Paravoor, Kerala, India. His father Tomy T.D. is an engineer. He has a sister Tincy. Tom comple ...

) with whom he shares a good relationship. John (

), a musician at a hotel, enters his life. John is completely opposite from Stephen's nature. He is always worried about the future. Though poles apart in their attitudes, both enjoy a good friendship and try to make each other happy. During this, they realize that they were childhood friends. But with the arrival of a beautiful home nurse named Anjali (

), the attitudes of both friends towards their lives turn around. The movie takes unexpected twists and turns and Anjali finally turns out to be Alex's mistress. Her real name is Annie. She had come to Louis's residence undercover to poison him and to steal him off his wealth, with Alex, who had taken advantage of Louis' openness with him, in on the vicious ploy. Unfortunately, John, who last visited Louis before his poisoning, was blamed. But after the police take John away, Alex's maid recognizes him and Anjali at the hospital, in which Louis was dying of poisoning. The police let go off John and arrest Alex and Anjali. Surprisingly, on a good note, Louis survives and the friends live together happily.

Cast

as Stephen Louis, a

. *

as John, a musician. *

as Anjali/Annie. *

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 Kamalu *

Jayan Cherthala Jayan Cherthala is an Indian actor in Malayalam cinema. He is from Cherthala, near Alappuzha, Kerala in India. He has performed in more than two dozen movies in Malayalam, and TV serials. He is the state president of Kerala Sarva Kala Sangam ...

as Karunan, the driver. *

as Alex Malaickal *

Unni Menon Unni Menon (born 2 December 1955) is an Indian film playback singer. He has recorded over 4000 songs in many Indian languages including Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada.S.S.KavutaA melodious journey The Hindu. Retrieved 29 November 2008 In ...

as Peter *

P. Balachandran Padmanabhan Balachandran Nair (2 February 1952 – 5 April 2021) was an Indian writer, playwright, scenarist, director, and actor. He was known for his work in Malayalam literature and Malayalam cinema. Career Balachandran is best known for ...

as Advocate Chandy *

Aparna Nair Aparna Nair is an Indian actress, who appears in Malayalam cinema. Biography Aparna was introduced to cinema by the veteran Lohithadas in '' Nivedyam''. After ''Nivedyam'', she portrayed Panchali in the play ''Chayamukhi'', which had Mohanlal a ...

as Meera * Ammu Venugopal as John's sister *

Praveena Praveena is an Indian Television actress and a dubbing artist who predominantly appears in Malayalam films, she has also appeared in Tamil and Telugu films. She started her acting career through 1992 film ''Gowri''. She has received several ...

as Doctor *

Thesni Khan Thesni Khan is an Indian actress who appears in Malayalam films, television, and stage. She made her acting debut through '' Daisy'' in 1988. She is widely known for the portrayal of character roles. In 2020, she contested in the second season ...

as Kanyaka * Kishore Kumar as Biju, Alex's friend *

Kochu Preman K. S. Premkumar (1 June 1955 – 3 December 2022), better known by his stage name Kochu Preman, was an Indian actor who worked in Malayalam film industry. He acted in more than 300 films, mainly in supporting comedy roles, and also appeared i ...

as Kunjachan, Alex's uncle *

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 ...

as Nancy, Alex's aunt *

Joju George Joseph George, better known as Joju George (born 22 October 1977) is an Indian actor, playback singer and producer who works mainly in Malayalam cinema. He has acted in Malayalam films and worked on Tamil projects as well. In 2015, he won the ...

Pauly Valsan Pauly Valsan is an Indian actress who has been acclaimed for acting in Malayalam films and plays. She debuted in Malayalam film industry with the supporting roles in the 2008 movie ''Annan Thambi'' In 2017, she won the Kerala State Film Award for ...

Lishoy Lishoy is an Indian actor in Kerala. He has played characters in stage, television and film. Personal life Originally from Thrissur, Lishoy gained popularity as a stage actor in professional theaters, such as Kazhimpram Theaters. Later he e ...

as Louis Varghese, Stephen's father * Master Dhananjay as Stephen (as childhood)

Production

Anoop Menon says the film was inspired by a real life incident, the persisting memory of his quadriplegic childhood friend. The film started its shooting in

Kochi Kochi (), also known as Cochin ( ) ( the official name until 1996) is a major port city on the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea, which is a part of the Arabian Sea. It is part of the district of Ernakulam in the state of K ...

in September 2011. Other main Location was in

Munnar Munnar () is a town and hill station in the Idukki district of the southwestern Indian state of Kerala. Munnar is situated at around above mean sea level, in the Western Ghats mountain range. Munnar is also called the "Kashmir of South Indi ...

.The film was first titled as "Ladies and Gentlemen" and was later changed to "Beautiful". It has been produced by Anand Kumar under the banner of Yes Cinema. Moral anarchy is the religion of the film's characters as they come out with volatile statements regarding marriage and loyalty. The casual reference to marital infidelity mouthed by Praveena's character in the film has irked many, but Anoop insists that he was just being realistic while penning the lines. "Even the films that come under the realistic tag hardly handle such subjects in honest and transparent manner. We camouflage the reality with flashy elements so that you don’t have to confront it openly. All my women characters are bold and I believe today’s women are daring enough to discuss such stuff," he says. ''Beautiful'' was a turning point in Meghana Raj's career. Although she herself was Prakash's first choice for the role, she was approached only four days before the shooting started. The actress says: "I was approached four days before the shoot. I absolutely fell in love with the bad girl role. I never dreamt that I could carry off the role and the entire credit goes to my director V.K Prakash. I remember coming for the shoot with makeup and groomed hair and being very politely told to remove my makeup and oil my hair by VKP. I was asked to bring all my bindis, out of which one was selected to be my only makeup in the film." Meghana admits that it was challenging to achieve the right amount of underplayed sensuality, which was part of the character of Anjali, who conveys a lot through her eyes and body language. Major portion of the movie was filmed from Bastion Bungalow in

Fort Kochi Fort Kochi, Fort Cochin in English, Cochim de Baixo ("Lower Kochi") in Cochin Portuguese creole, is a neighbourhood of Cochin (Kochi) city in Kerala, India. Fort Kochi takes its name from the Fort Manuel of Cochin, the first European for ...

, Kerala.

Soundtrack

The film's songs and background score were composed by

and arranged by Gopi Sundar. Parvathy S. Nair from ''

The Times of India ''The Times of India'', also known by its abbreviation ''TOI'', is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by The Times Group. It is the third-largest newspaper in India by circulation and largest ...

'' stated, "Ratheesh Vega has done it again. After he pulled at the heart strings of music lovers with ''Cocktail'' a year ago, the music maker has repeated the magic with the songs and background score of director V K Prakash's Beautiful."Parvathy S Nair. (9 December 2011)
"Cocktail of Beautiful music for Ratheesh Vega"
''

''. Retrieved 9 December 2011. ''Beautiful'' was Anoop Menon's debut work as a lyricist. Menon says his debut as a lyricist was quite accidental. "On the second day of the shooting of Beautiful, music director Ratheesh Vega, actor Jayasurya, and I were chilling out in Ratheesh's car, when he asked me to pen some lines to try out a tune he'd composed for the film. The result is Mazhaneer Thullikal...," says the actor.

Release

The film was originally scheduled to release on 18 November but was pushed back to 2 December due to a strike in the Malayalam film industry. it is the remake of Hollywood movie

The Intouchables ''The Intouchables'' (french: Intouchables, ), also known as ''Untouchable'' in the UK and Ireland, is a 2011 French buddy comedy-drama film written and directed by Olivier Nakache & Éric Toledano. It stars François Cluzet and Omar Sy. Nine w ...

. It opened in 46 centres inside Kerala on 2 December. The film had its international premiere at the first

Ladakh International Film Festival The Ladakh International Film Festival (LIFF) is an international film festival that is held annually in Ladakh, India. Inaugurated in 2012, it is the first international film festival to be held in Ladakh. It is held in the Himalayan town of ...

(LIFF) where it was one of the two Malayalam features to be screened.

Reception

Paresh C. Palicha of

Rediff.com Rediff.com (stylized as ''rediff.com'') is an Indian news, information, entertainment and shopping web portal. It was founded in 1996. It is headquartered in Mumbai, with offices in Bangalore, New Delhi and New York City. , it had more than 300 e ...

rated the film 3.5/5 and stated: "V K Prakash-directed Beautiful can be considered a significant milestone in the revival of Malayalam cinema." Veeyen of Nowrunning.com gave the film 3/5 and said: "V K Prakash's 'Beautiful' is a compelling evocation of the human desire dynamics at work." the site added that "Beautiful wouldn't call it a masterpiece, but it is without doubt, one of the most absorbing Malayalam films that I have seen this year." A critic from IndiaGlitz.com rated the film 3.25/5 and wrote: "On the whole, 'Beautiful' has a fresh, honest and unpretentious air to it, which makes it appealing. Played with subtlety and intelligence by its stars, the movie is sure to end up in the lists of the bests of the year. Rightly advised for a must and decent watch."

Sify.com 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 ...

gave a rating of 3.5/5 stating, "Beautiful has its own flaws and is far from perfect but needs to be appreciated for its courage to experiment. It could have been better and the jokes and the stance on morality may not find acceptance from all, but this one has sincerity written all over it. Now, the decision is all yours!" Kerala9.com gave a (3/5) and commented, "Beautiful is a cool clean film. Malayalam has got a director who understands what subtlety is."

Box office

The film was a commercial success.

Awards

; 1st South Indian International Movie Awards * SIIMA Award for Best Lyricist -

for "Mazhaneerthullikal" ;Film Guidance Society of Kerala Film Awards * Best Film * Best Actor -

* Best Scriptwriter -

* Best Music Director - Ratheesh Vegha * Best Singer -

;

Ramu Kariat Ramu Kariat (1 February 1927 – 10 February 1979) was an Indian film director for almost three decades from the 1950s to the 1970s, who directed many acclaimed films in the Malayalam cinema. His noted films include '' Neelakkuyil'' (1954), '' ...

Memorial Cultural Forum Awards * Special Jury Award -

; Thikkurissi Foundation Awards (2012) * Second Best Actor -

* Best Script - Anoop Menon * Best Cinematography - Jomon T. John ; Nana Film Awards * Best Actor -

;

Amrita TV Amrita TV is an Indian Malayalam Language general Entertainment television channel owned by Mata Amritanandamayi Math. It was launched in 2005. Theme song The theme song, "Lokasamastha," was composed by Rahulraj for Mata Amritanandamayi's 50t ...

Film Awards * Entertainer of the Year -

References

* https://archive.today/20121130101548/http://cinemalablog.blogspot.com/2012/01/malayalam-movie-beautiful-inspired-from.html

External links

Official website
* * Beautiful a
Malayalam Movie Database
{{V. K. Prakash 2011 films 2010s Malayalam-language films 2010s musical drama films 2011 thriller drama films Indian musical drama films Indian thriller drama films Films about disability in India Films shot in Kochi Films with screenplays by Anoop Menon Films directed by V. K. Prakash 2011 drama films