''Kunjikoonan'' () is a 2002 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 wa ...

-language

romantic comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typic ...

film directed by

Sasi Shanker Sasi Shanker (1957 – 10 August 2016) was an Indian film director. He directed one Tamil film and ten Malayalam films. He won the National Film Award for Best Film on Other Social Issues The National Film Award for Best Film on Other Social Is ...

, written by

Benny P. Nayarambalam Benny P. Nayarambalam is an Indian screenwriter who works in Malayalam films and theatre. He wrote his first theatrical play ''Athyunnathangalil Deivathinu Sthuthi'' at the age of 19, for the production company owned by Rajan P. Dev, in which ...

, and produced by

Milan Jaleel Milan Jaleel is an Indian film producer and distributor mainly works in Malayalam cinema Malayalam cinema is an Indian film industry of Malayalam-language motion pictures. It is based in Kochi, Kerala, India. The films produced in Malay ...

. Starring

Dileep Gopalakrishnan Padmanabhan Pillai, better known by his stage name Dileep, is an Indian actor, producer, and businessman who predominantly works in the Malayalam film industry. He has acted in more than 150 films and has won several awards, inc ...

Navya Nair Navya Nair is an Indian actress who has appeared predominantly in Malayalam films, along with others in Kannada and Tamil. She is the recipient of several awards. Personal life Nair married Santhosh Menon in 2010, and the couple have a son. ...

and Manya with Saikumar,

Cochin Haneefa Muhammed Haneefa (22 April 1951 – 2 February 2010), better known by his stage name Cochin Haneefa, was an Indian actor, film director, and screenwriter. He started his career in the 1970s mainly portraying villainous roles, before going on t ...

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 Mal ...

Spadikam George George Antony, popularly credited as Spadikam George is an Indian actor and former Kerala state Police officer who primarily works in Malayalam films. He came to the limelight with the 1995 film '' Spadikam'', after which his name was preceded ...

Nedumudi Venu Kesavan Venugopal (22 May 1948 – 11 October 2021), better known by his stage name Nedumudi Venu, was an Indian actor and screenwriter from Kerala, who predominantly worked in Malayalam cinema. He acted in more than 500 films, primarily in Ma ...

and

Bindu Panicker Bindu Panicker is an Indian actress who has more than 200 films to her credit. She has played both comedy and character roles in Malayalam cinema. She won the Kerala State Film Award for the best supporting actress in 2001 for Soothradharan. Sh ...

. Dileep played dual roles in this movie. Dileep won

Asianet Film Awards The Asianet Film Awards is an award ceremony for films presented annually by Asianet, a Malayalam-language television network from the south-Indian state of Kerala. Asianet says that awards ceremony has been instituted to honour both artis ...

for Best Actor. The film was later remade into different indian Languages such as

Odia Odia, also spelled Oriya or Odiya, may refer to: * Odia people in Odisha, India * Odia language, an Indian language, belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family * Odia alphabet, a writing system used for the Odia languag ...

as Rasika Naagara (2003),

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, na ...

as ''

Perazhagan ''Perazhagan'' () is a 2004 Indian Tamil-language comedy drama film directed by Sasi Shanker, starring Suriya and Jyothika with both playing dual roles. The supporting cast includes Vivek, Manorama and Manobala. The movie's score and soundtrack ...

'' (2004), in

Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...

as ''Manmatha'' (2006).

Synopsis

The story revolves around Kunjan alias Vimal Kumar (

), a village youth who is sympathized for his

hunchback Kyphosis is an abnormally excessive convex curvature of the spine as it occurs in the thoracic and sacral regions. Abnormal inward concave ''lordotic'' curving of the cervical and lumbar regions of the spine is called lordosis. It can result ...

looks but is lauded for selfless service to others. He covers up his handicap with humor. Unmindful of his looks, Kunjan goes around seeking a suitable bride, with the help of his friend Thoma (

). Brushing aside many an insult hurled at him, he carries on. He carried the hardships of his life on his back, the pain of others too. He was of peak human moral, a man of great virtue In contrast to him is Prasad (also

), a violent college student, who loves his classmate Lakshmi ( Manya). She comes across Kunjan, who assures her that he would get her married to the man of her heart, but she is killed in a

fracas Fracas may refer to: * Fracas! Improv Festival, an improvisational theater festival held at the University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Method ...

involving a gangster named Vasu ( Sai Kumar). Meanwhile, the hunchback Kunjan comes across an orphaned poor blind girl, Chembagam (

). He wins her heart by helping her out. Thanks to his efforts, Chembagam regains her vision (the eyes of deceased Lakshmi are transplanted to her). This results in a tussle between Kunjan and Prasad, as to whom Chembagam belongs to now. However, fearing his looks, the hunchback, Kunjan, decides to leave way for the other. But fate has different things for him, where Vasu returns to avenge Kunjan. Prasad remembers Lakshmi and avenges her death by killing Vasu. Prasad approves Kunjan and Chembagam's wedding before being sent to jail.

Cast

in dual role as Vimal Kumar (Kunjan) & Prasad *

as Chembakam, Kunjan's love interest * Manya as Lakshmi, Prasad's love interest * Sai Kumar as 'Garudan' Vasu *

as Thomas *

as Chandran *

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 Divakaran *

as Aishumma *

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 ...

as Suhasini *

as Constable Padmanabhan, Prasad's father *Manka Mahesh as Prasad's mother *

as Lakshmi's father * Reena as Lakshmi's mother *

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 an ...

Narayanankutty Narayanan Kutty or Kalabhavan Narayanankutty is a Malayalam film actor. He has acted in more than 300 films. He handles mainly comedy roles. Background Narayanan Kutty was born Ernakulam. He started his career as a mimicry artist in Kalabhavan ...

*Deepika Mohan *

Nithya Das Nithya Das is an Indian actress who works prominently in Malayalam cinema along with Malayalam and Tamil Television series. Career Das was active in the film industry during the early-2000s. She started her career with the 2001 film '' Ee Par ...

in a

cameo role A cameo role, also called a cameo appearance and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief appearance of a well-known person in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking ones, and are commonly ei ...

as Kunjan's dream wife in the song "Kunjante Penninu"

Production

Filming

The film was mainly shot at various locations in

Thodupuzha Thodupuzha (തൊടുപുഴ) is a municipal town located in Idukki district, Kerala, India, that covers an area of . It lies on the banks of Thodupuzha river, which merges with the Kaliyar and Kothamangalam rivers at Muvattupuzha to f ...

. It was filmed in 83 days.

Soundtrack

The songs of this movie was composed by

Mohan Sithara Mohan Sithara is an Indian music composer. He received the Kerala State Film Award for the Best Music Director (2009) for the songs in Priyanandan's ''Soofi Paranja Kadha''. Since 1986 he has been an active musician in the Malayalam film indust ...

and penned by

Yusufali Kechery Yusufali Kechery (Yūsaphali Kēccēri; യൂസഫലി കേച്ചേരി 16 May 1934 – 21 March 2015) was a poet, film lyricist, film producer and director from Kerala, India. He wrote during the modern era of Malayalam poetry an ...

. In 2002

Radhika Thilak Radhika Thilak (1969 – 20 September 2015) was an Indian Malayalam-language playback singer. She sang 70 songs for Malayalam films. Career Some of her songs are "Arunakirana deepam", "Deva sangeetham", "Maya manchalil", "Kaithapoo manam", "Th ...

received best female playback singer award from Kerala film critics association for the song ''Omanamalare ninmaran''.

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 0356803, Kunjikoonan 2000s Malayalam-language films 2002 romantic comedy-drama films Indian romantic comedy-drama films 2002 films Malayalam films remade in other languages Films about disability in India Films directed by Sasi Shanker Films scored by Mohan Sithara 2002 comedy films 2002 drama films