Vettam

''Vettam'' () is a 2004 Indian Malayalam-language screwball comedy film directed by Priyadarshan based on a screenplay he had co-written with Udayakrishna-Siby K. Thomas from his story. It was produced by Menaka through Revathy Kalamandhir and distributed by Swargachitra Release. The film stars Dileep and Bhavna Pani with Kalabhavan Mani, Innocent, Janardhanan, Nedumudi Venu and Jagathy Sreekumar in supporting roles. It has over the years attained a cult status.

The movie is mainly based on the 1995 movie ''French Kiss'' which had already been adapted in 1998 in Hindi as ''Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha''. The comedy scenes of this movie were later adapted by the director for his 2009 Hindi movie '' De Dana Dan''. The climax of the movie was re-used from director's 2003 Hindi movie '' Hungama''.

Plot

A police officer is on Gopalakrishnan's ('Gopi') trail. Gopi is a petty thief and has stolen a very precious chain belonging to the Spanish Queen, from a Museum and is on the run. While on the run, Gopi meets Veena. Veena is on her way to break the marriage of her lover Felix to a tycoon's daughter. Due to fear of getting caught, Gopi hides the chain in Veena's bag but later discovers with the help of his friend Mani that it is missing. Gopi suspects that the chain is still with Veena and so he runs away from the police and follows her in her train journey.

Their journey comes to a halt when Gopi is forced to jump off the train, because of Veena who had gone to get some water and hence misses the train. Veena realises that the place was Gopi's hometown. Subsequently, he is needlessly beaten by his wicked elder brother and this leads to a fight. When Gopi's elder sister learns that he is in town, she informs him that his younger sister's marriage is fixed. Veena's opinion of Gopi changes when she realises the reason why he became a thief.

Gopi calls off his younger sister's marriage when he realised that there was a catch in it. His elder brothers were greedy of the family wealth and fixed the young girl's marriage with an unmarried and uneducated but rich old man. Gopi promises his sisters and their ailing bed-ridden father that he will find a better groom for his sister and he just needs more time. However he is unable to find the precious chain from Veena's bag. Astonishingly, Veena is seen possessing the chain and asks Gopi to accompany her in her goal if he wants the chain.

In order to fulfill his promises, Gopi sets off to find some money to fund his sister's wedding and to regain all the lost family properties. At the same Mani escapes the town with his lover and all of them meet up. The four of them stay at the hotel in Mysore where Veena's lover Felix and family are staying and plans to get engaged.

Felix's father, Mathew 'Mathachan' has cheque bounces and needs a large amount of money to pay them off. The bride's father, Fernandez agrees to give the money (without knowing of cases pending against Mathachan) and also arranges rooms for all the guests. At the same time Mathachan's clever second wife Swarnamma plans to elope with a con man. Another guest, Hamza Koya who is separated from his wife, books a room under a false name, to acquaint with another woman. His brother in law hires a professional killer Paasha to kill Koya. Yet another guest is a retired DIG of Police, Tom Uncle who is Fernandez's brother in law.

Gopi assigns Mani to meet a dealer's aide to sell the chain. Mani tells the man that he would be holding a rose flower as an identification. But the plans go awry as Kurup who is Mani's lover's father, arrives with his henchmen in search of his daughter. Mani is chased into Mathachan's room by Kurup and his men and hides in a wardrobe, while Kurup lands in trouble after mistakenly entering Tom uncle's room and disturbing his wife. Mathachan locks the wardrobe putting his mobile phone into it. Mani informs Gopi about the mishap. Gopi after spotting Kurup who was holding the rose flower, mistakes him into being a dealer and fixes a deal with him. There is a comical chaotic confusion as Kurup's daughter's name is Maala, and Gopi refers to the chain as 'Maala' (in Malayalam) as well.

Paasha gets a courier holding the photo of the man (Koya) he is assigned to kill. Felix spots Veena and reports it to his dad. Mathchan goes in search of Veena after knowing the colour of her dress. He accidentally bumps into Paasha. Unfortunately, Mathachan had a photograph of himself and Fernandez with him. Paasha who is unable to see without specs, switches Koya's photo with Fernandez's photo. At the hotel reception, a lady, who is actually a prostitute, arrives and Mathachan mistakes her to be Veena as she is also wearing the same-coloured dress. This is the same lady whom Koya is supposed to meet.

Paasha while going back to his room, bumps into a rose plant and tries to arrange it properly albeit proper vision. Now, the actual dealer of the chain- Abdullah arrives and spots Paasha holding the flower. Both of them fix a deal and Paasha is paid money. There is an unknown confusion as Paasha was asked by his boss to snatch Koya's chain after the murder. Abdullah mistakes Paasha to be talking of the one stolen by Gopi. Mani informs Gopi that he is stuck in a wardrobe and before he can specify the room, the phone charge is exhausted. Gopi requests a waiter to get Mani out.

Meanwhile, Paasha is now trying to kill Fernandez. Mathachan deals with the new lady who mistakes him to be Koya's man. Fernandez asks Tom Uncle to give some money to Mathachan while Mathachan asks Tom Uncle to give some of it to the lady. A Sub Inspector, Lambodaran, is staying in the hotel to get hold of Mathachan albeit not knowing his identity. Mathachan's wife Swarnamma mistakes Koya as Uncle Tom and asks him to come to her room. Koya who obviously misinterprets her, tries to molest her thereby spreading news that Uncle Tom tried to molest Mathachan's wife. At the same time, the other lady, after mistaking Uncle Tom to be Koya, tries to seduce him and later hides in his wardrobe. The waiter finds out the lady after trying to search the wardrobe. The two incidents tarnish the image of poor Tom and he is resented by his wife and other family members.

After a wedding party, Paasha falls unconscious after falling into his own traps set for Fernandez. SI Lambodaran gets Mathachan's room number and goes there only to find Mani inside the wardrobe. Mani is chased by the SI as well as Kurup. Mani runs into Paasha's room while Kurup backs off after Uncle Tom spots him.

Felix wants to settle his differences with Veena and goes to the con lady's room by mistake. After Mathachan reveals that Felix had a previous relationship with 'Veena' (while pointing to the other lady), Fernandez loses his impression of the family and decides to call off the marriage and also starts trusting Uncle Tom.

Gopi wishes to hand the chain to a dealer named Freddy and asks Veena to face him. But Freddy is caught by police and the senior officer who was behind Gopi confronts her. She doesn't give the chain back initially, but later pleads with the officer to spare the innocent Gopi's life, as Gopi had once saved the police officer's son's life from a fatal accident. She also decides to give her own money entrusted by her father, to Gopi under the name of the chain.

SI Lambodaran gets hold of Paasha trying to kill Fernandez, and shows him the photograph thereby making it clear that Mathachan had assigned him to kill Fernandez. There is great confusion among Paasha, Kurup, Mathachan, Koya and the SI regarding the various deals of 'Maala'. During the chaos, Fernandez's daughter is mistaken as Kurup's daughter and thereby kidnapped by Kurup's henchmen. Mani and Gopi understand the whole mayhem and flee the hotel. Mathachan's wife elopes, and Koya, whose money was taken away by Mathachan's wife, follows them. The entire group of people along with the two families arrive at a factory space near the hotel and a hell lot of funny confusions cause a series of comical fights, chaos, and melee, finally leading to a hilarious electric shock.

In the end Veena gives the agreed money to Gopi. However, the police officer reveals to Gopi that the chain is still with him and that Veena had pleaded to avoid a case in Gopi's name.

Gopi had talked to Felix about Veena and how much she loves him. He promises Felix a large sum of money which he will pay off from the necklace's price. He does not reveal this to Veena. However Veena realizes Gopi's sacrifice for her despite having his own problems. Veena calls off her wedding with Felix as she realises that he only longs for riches and does not love her at all. Gopi proposes to her and she agrees. The film ends with both of them setting off to start a new journey of their life.

Cast

*Dileep as Gopalakrishnan (Gopi)
* Bhavna Pani as Veena
*Kalabhavan Mani as Mani, Gopi's friend
*Innocent as K. T. Mathew (Mathachan), Felix's father
* Janardhanan as Fernandez (Achayan)
*Nedumudi Venu as Retd. DIG Tom Uncle IPS, Fernandez's brother-in-law
*Jagathy Sreekumar as Anthappan / Paasha, a professional killer
* Cochin Haneefa as Kurup, Meghamala's father
* Sukumari as Prajitha, Tom's uncle's wife
*Jagadish as Hotel Waiter Sugunan
*Mamukkoya as Hamsakoya/ Raman Kartha
* Mithun Ramesh as Felix Mathew
*Spadikam George as SI Lambodharan
*Bindu Panicker as Swarnamma, Mathachan's second wife
* Manka Mahesh as Susy, Fernandez's wife
*Radha Ravi as IG Krishnaswamy IPS-Special Branch
*Ajith Kollam as Abdullah
*Geetha Vijayan as Anusree, Prostitute
*Kalabhavan Navas as Prince, Swarnamma's secret lover
*Sruthi Nair as Meghamala, Kurup's daughter
*Vimal Raj as CI Dineshan
*Sona Nair as 'Oppol', Gopi's elder sister
* Baiju as Prathapan, Gopi's elder brother
* Kalamandalam Kesavan as Parameshwaran, Gopi's father
*Machan Varghese as Babu, Kurup's helper
* Santhosh as Karunan, Gopi's elder brother
*Ramu as Madhava Menon, Gopi's eldest brother
*Ambalapuzha Raju as Train Station employee
* Kunchan as Train ticket examiner
*Nandhu as Rajeevan, thief
*Nandu Pothuval as Sugunan, train passenger
*Hakim Rawther as Kasim, Man at tea shop
*Ajayan Adoor as Sathyan, Hotel Manager
*D. Philip as Veena's father
* Vallathol Unnikrishnan as Varkeyachan, Mathachan's brother-in-law
*Krishna Prasad as Ganeshan, Hotel Manager
*Kannan Pattambi as Chackochan, Kurup's helper
*Joy Badlani as Virendhram
*Vijayan Peringode as Chandran, Veena's paternal uncle
* Sheetal Bedi as Special appearance in the song "Makkassayi Makkassayi"
*Jayaram as Taxi driver (uncredited appearance)

Production

Jyothika was initially cast as Veena but due to scheduling conflicts she was replaced by Bhavna Pani. A major part of the film was set and filmed at Howard Johnson's The Monarch Hotel in Ooty.

Soundtrack

The songs were composed by the duo Berny-Ignatius and the film score was composed by S.P. Venkatesh. Lyrics were written by Rajeev Alunkal, B.R. Prasad and Nadirsha.

Release and reception

The film was released on 20 August 2004 on the occasion of Onam along with other films like ''Kazhcha'', ''Natturajavu'' , Sathyam. The film was flop at the box office. The film was made with a budget of 2.25 crores. However, the film was only able to collect 4 crore at the box office in its final run, according to a report by '' Sify.com''. It has over the years attained a cult status.

References

External links

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{{Priyadarshan

2004 films
2000s Malayalam-language films
2004 romantic comedy films
Films with screenplays by Udayakrishna-Siby K. Thomas
Indian remakes of American films
Indian romantic comedy films
Films shot in Ooty
Films shot in Pollachi
Films shot in Palakkad
Films scored by Berny–Ignatius
Films directed by Priyadarshan