1. Plot

2. Cast

3. Production
    Development  Casting  Filming 

4. Soundtrack

5. Release
    Box office 

6. References

7. External links

Kayamkulam Kochunni is a 2018 Indian Malayalam-language epic period film directed by Rosshan Andrrews and written by Bobby & Sanjay. It is based on the life of Kayamkulam Kochunni, a famed highwayman who robbed from the rich and gave to the poor during the British Raj in the early 19th century Central Travancore. The film stars Nivin Pauly in the title role; Mohanlal makes an extended cameo appearance as highwayman Ithikkara Pakki.

Principal photography commenced on 30 September 2017 in Udupi, Karnataka and was completed on 1 June 2018. Made on a budget of {{INR}}45 crore, it is one of the most expensive Malayalam films. The film was released on 11 October 2018, it became the second highest-grossing Malayalam film of all time.

Plot

At the start, a messenger tells the people of Kayamkulam that Kayamkulam Kochunni, a famed Mappila highwayman of the area, will be executed by hanging. The story then moves into a flashback.

Baputty, Kochunni's father, is a small-time poor thief who struggles to look after his family. One time he gets caught and is humiliated by the local Brahmins in front of Kochunni, who was a young boy at the time. His mother, not wanting him to grow up in abject poverty and suffering the same fate as his father, persuades him to leave home, so Kochunni leaves. He ends up in the house of a local Brahmin landlord and works as an employee in one of the landlord's shops.

The film fast-forwards and Kochunni (Nivin Pauly) is now an adult. During his time there, Kochunni sees Janaki (Priya Anand), a Hindu Dalit girl who is a servant, and falls in love with her, also learning from her that Thangal (Babu Antony), a state-renowned (Kalari) master, has opened a school to train students in the art. After jumping into a well and wrestling with a large python to rescue a boy, he's awarded a medal of bravery by the local British officer and makes a wish that he wants to join in with the dance and celebrations in their local British fort, which the officer grants.

Kochunni goes to the school but is turned away by Thangal on the basis that, like his father, he might become an even bigger thief by learning the martial art. Janaki also confesses her love for him, and with her help, he learns it by sitting and watching the training on a tree next to the school. However, one day he gets caught by Thangal and he tests Kochunni by making him fight the best student at the school, Thananayik Keshava Kurup (Sunny Wayne), which Kochunni wins. Thangal has a change of heart and promises to teach him believing that one day kochunni will become his successor, and seeing this, Keshava gets angry and leaves the school, threatening Kochunni that they'll meet one day and he will having his revenge.

During a stormy journey from Kochi , Kochunni's beloved caretaker falls into Kayamkulam lake and while rescuing him,Kochunni sees a stash of gold at the bottom of the lake.K kochunni report this to local Brahmin landlords and the Brahmins persuade him to get this gold to them in return for three wishes. He successfully gets the gold to them and they grant him one of the wishes, which was a bag of gold. However, their henchmen beat him up during his return and the Brahmins falsely accuse him on grounds of robbery and punish him by dipping his hand in boiling oil and hanging him upside down for 4 days. Janaki is then stoned and banished from Kayamkulam,f or loving a man from another caste ,much to Kochunni's dismay.

However on the fourth day Ithikkara Pakki (Mohanlal), a notorious highwayman of the place known for ruthlessly beheading his enemies, comes and frees Kochunni, taking him to Pakki's hideout in the forest. There, he persuades Kochunni to take revenge against the Brahmins by stealing, and he agrees. He's then subject to intense and hard training by Pakki and two other thieves. He becomes a successful highwayman as well by carrying out robberies against several travelling Brahmins. They then rob several shops of Brahmins in the Kayamkulam market to show their power.Eventhough they rob many stores , Kochunni refuses to rob his ex-caretaker's store,telling him that he can't watch his beloved ones being attacked by others , unlike what he did when Kochunni was falsely accused by the landlords.then one day kochunni and friends went to rob a brahmins house they broke the wall and went in quietly but some of other brahmins in the house woke up and saw them pakki who saw this kiled some of them. then pakki and a freind went slowly and quietly to a room filed wth gold but unfortunately some brahmins saw this and tried to lock pakki and freinds there itsef. kochunni seeing this went to the brahmins room and took the brahmins 2 children ad ran away the brahmin seeing this asked his fellow brahmins to leave pakki and freinds and go save his [brahmins] daughter.

Cast

• Nivin Pauly as Kayamkulam Kochunni
• Mohanlal as Ithikkara Pakki (Guest appearance)
• Sunny Wayne as Thananayik Keshava Kurup
• Babu Antony as Thangal
• Priya Anand as Janaki
• Priyanka Thimmesh as Suhara
• Shine Tom Chacko as Kochu Pillai
• Romanch as Kunju Marakkar
• Manikandan R. Achari as Vava
• Sidhartha Siva as British Advicer
• Aneesh G. Menon as Noor Ahmed
• Amith Chakalakkal as Mammad
• Sadiq
• Mukundan
• Thesni Khan as Suhara's Mother
• Sunil Sukhada as Brahmin
• Sudheer Karamana as Brahmin leader
• M. S. Bhaskar
• Idavela Babu as Brahmin
• Jude Anthany Joseph as Brahmin
• Sudev Nair as Swathi Thirunal Rama Varma
• Padmaraj Ratheesh as Jootha Pillai, a trader
• Nora Fatehi as Item girl in the song "Nrithageethikalennum"

Production

Development

By late August 2016, Rosshan Andrrews confirmed via media outlets that he would be directing a film based on the life of Kerala's heroic outlaw Kayamkulam Kochunni, written by his regular collaborators Bobby & Sanjay and Nivin Pauly playing the title character, to be produced by Gokulam Gopalan. It is the second film based on Kayamkulam Kochunni after the 1966 film of the same name.^[1] Kayamkulam Kochunni was a real-life thief who lived in 19th century in the Central Travancore region. He is said to have stole from the rich and gave to the poor like Robin Hood.^[2] The screenplay was written after a two-and-a-half year research by an eight-member team. The script was rehashed three times. Kayamkulam Kochunni holds the subtitle "most dangerous man". According to Andrrews, the film would feature Kochunni's life before and after his transition as a thief, his survival attempts, romance, and the social structure during the time. It would also discuss several unanswered questions in his story. Since the appearance of present-day Kayamkulam, Alappuzha district has changed from the time of Kochunni, a Sri Lankan village was to be set as Kayamkulam in the film. Filming was then planned to commence by the beginning of 2017 in Sri Lanka, a few scenes were also planned in Kayamkulam. Andrrews also revealed that they have plans to dub and release the film in Tamil language. P. M. Satheesh was signed as the sound designer. Initially they had talks with Santhosh Narayanan to compose the film's music.^[1]

Casting

According to Andrrews, Nivin was their first and only choice for the role of Kochunni.^[9] The film traverse through multiple timelines in Kochunni's life. Nivin was selected for the role since Andrrews felt that he has a flexible body language that suits any role, among his generation of actors. According to Sanjay, Nivin's features matches Sankunni's descriptions of Kochunni in Aithihyamala. Andrrews briefed the film's story to Nivin along with the story of another film he plans to follow up after Kayamkulam Kochunni, to both Nivin agreed.^[1] In July 2017, a casting call was released for both male and female aged between 5–40.^[10] Amala Paul and Priyanka Thimmesh was confirmed before August 2017. Amala's character was said to be an important figure in Kochunni's life; Priyanka plays the role of Suhra, his wife.^[4] Babu Antony confirmed his role in September 2017 as Ithingal Thangal, the mentor of Kochunni.^[11]

In late 2017, Amala opted out from the film due to scheduling conflicts, who was replaced by Priya Anand. Andrrews said the rain effected their schedule and had to make changes, which conflicted with Amala's dates who had commitments in Tamil films. Priya cancelled three films for Kayamkulam Kochunni; she plays Janaki. According to Priya, Janaki's story is relevant to every woman.^[12] Priya's voice was dubbed by Raveena Ravi.{{Citation needed|date=October 2018}} Wayne plays the character named Keshavan, who is well trained in Kalaripayattu.^[6] In early January 2018, Nivin and Andrrews announced that Mohanlal would appear in the film in the role of Ithikkara Pakki,^[13] a robber contemporary to Kochunni.^[14] In a February 2018 interview, Sanjay revealed that Mohanlal has 40 minutes screen time who appears at a particular juncture in the story, "we wished for someone of his stature to play this character. Pakki is Kochunni's contemporary and predecessor. It's Pakki who started the unique style of robbing and that’s what Kochunni continued with".^[15] In March 2018, Nora Fatehi was confirmed to be appearing in a song sequence in the film, which also features Nivin. Choreographed by Vishnu Deva, it was shot in Goa in that month.^[16]

Filming

Principal photography commenced on 30 September 2017 in Udupi, Karnataka.^[17][18] In the first schedule the team filmed in locations such as Mangalore, Manjeshwar, and Udupi for two months. It was reported that the filming would move to Sri Lanka for the following schedule. Nivin trained in Kalaripayattu every morning before shoot under trainers from Kerala. He had a shot crop haircut and wears a handlebar moustache for the character of Kochunni.^[19] Filming was held in Kasaragod and Mangalore during November and December 2017.^[20] Large sets were created for the film. Binod Pradhan was the cinematographer.^[3] Mohanlal joined the sets in Mangalore on 13 February 2018 and began filming from the following day with the combination scenes between Ithikkara Pakki and Kochunni.^[21] The 161 days long filming was wrapped in Sri Lanka on 1 June 2018.^[22][23]

Three cinematographers worked in Kayamkulam Kochunni—Binod Pradhan, Nirav Shah, and Sudheer Palsane. Pradhan worked for 110 days after which the filming was delayed due to Nivin's injury and other reasons and Pradhan had to join Kalank due to prior commitment. Shah was the cinematographer for the next 40 days, who shot the climax and scenes in Goa. Palsane joined for the remaining 11 days for filming the scenes in Sri Lanka. Film's colour grading was done by Red Chillies Entertainment.^[24] Kayamkulam Kochunni was made on a budget of {{INR}}45 crore, making it the most expensive Malayalam film made to date.^[25][26]

Soundtrack

The original soundtrack of the film was composed by Gopi Sundar and released by Eros Now.^[27] The lyrics for the songs were written by Shobin Kannangatt and Rafeeq Ahamed.

Release

Box office

References

External links

• {{IMDb title|7231546}}

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