''Balettan'' is a 2003 Indian

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of ...

-language

family drama In film and television show, television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or docudrama, semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humour, humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional te ...

film directed by V. M. Vinu, written by T. A. Shahid, and produced by M. Mani. It stars

Mohanlal Mohanlal Viswanathan (; born 21 May 1960), known mononymously as Mohanlal, is an Indian actor and filmmaker who predominantly works in Malayalam cinema, Malayalam cinema besides also having sporadically appeared in Tamil cinema, Tamil, Hin ...

in the title role, along with Devayani,

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 M ...

Harisree Ashokan Harisree Ashokan (born 6 April 1964) is an Indian actor and director who is known for his comedy roles in Malayalam films. Ashokan has acted in more than 200 Malayalam films. He started his career as a mimicry artist in the troupe Harisree and ...

Riyaz Khan Riyaz Khan is an Indian actor and bodybuilder. He predominantly works in Malayalam cinema, Malayalam and Tamil cinema, Tamil films and television series, besides acting in a few Telugu language, Telugu and Kannada cinema, Kannada films, as well ...

, Innocent, and

Jagathy Sreekumar Sreekumar Achary (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 deca ...

. The film's songs were composed by M. Jayachandran, while the background score was provided by C. Rajamani. The film was released on 28 August 2003. ''Balettan'' was a blockbuster at the box office and the highest grossing Malayalam movie of the year and ran for more than 200 days in theatres. It won the Kerala Film Critics Association Awards for Best Popular Film. The film was remade in Telugu as '' Rajababu'' (2006).

Plot

Athaniparampil Balachandran (Balan) is an ordinary family man, living with his wife Radhika, two children, his younger brother and father, a locally respected retired

postmaster A postmaster is the head of an individual post office, responsible for all postal activities in a specific post office. When a postmaster is responsible for an entire mail distribution organization (usually sponsored by a national government), ...

. Balan struggles to balance his professional life amidst his multiple interests, which includes amateur theater and a penchant for helping others, including strangers. Nevertheless, he leads a cheerful life, with the support of his loving family, and has earned the status of being a major figure in the local society, earning the pet name Balettan (Balan, the elder brother). However, his good samaritanism, amateur interests and carelessness leads to circumstances that leave him deep in debt and he even gets arrested for cheating on false charges. His father bails him out of the problems with his pension savings, and expects Balan to become more responsible towards his family. One day, an unexpected

cardiac arrest Cardiac arrest (also known as sudden cardiac arrest CA is when the heart suddenly and unexpectedly stops beating. When the heart stops beating, blood cannot properly Circulatory system, circulate around the body and the blood flow to the ...

leaves Balan's father in the hospital, and right before his death, he confides to Balan about having another wife and daughter from an illicit relation, and asks him to take care of them, without letting the rest of his family or villagers knowing about the matter. After his father's death, Balachandran tries to realign his life between the two families and struggles with it. His family starts suspecting him of having an affair, as he is spotted with his half-sister. Amid the chaos, a stranger named Bhadran comes into Balan's life with sinister intentions, and blackmails him, with an eye on his half-sister. The rest of the story tells how Balan manages to solve his problems, including Bhadran's threats and getting his second family accepted in the society.

Cast

as Athaniparambil Balachandran Menon (Balettan), the film protagonist and a good samaritan * Devayani as Radhika, Balachandran's wife *

as Gopalan Menon, Balachandran's father * Sudha as Lekshmi, Balachandran's mother * Sudheesh as Sudheer Menon, Balachandran's younger brother * Lakshana as Nithya, Balachandran's younger sister *

as Bhadran, the main antagonist who ruins Balan’s life and constantly harassed Balan *

as K. K. Pisharadi *

as Manikandan * Nithya Das as Devaki, Balachandran's younger half-sister * Innocent as Achuthan / Achumama *

Indrans K. Surendran (born 16 March 1956), better known by his stage name Indrans, is an Indian actor and former costume designer, who appears in Malayalam films. He started his film career as a costume designer and actor in 1981 and got a breakthrough ...

as Koya *

Nandhu Nandalal Krishnamoorthy, better known by his stage name Nandu, is an Indian actor who primarily works in Malayalam films. He has worked in the industry for more than 30 years and is acclaimed for his performance in Mohanlal's ''Spirit (2012 fil ...

as Sukumaran * Kalasala Babu as Raghavan, Radhika's father *

Bhavani Bhavānī (also known as Bhāvya, Tulajā, Turajā, Tvarita, Aṃbā, Jagadambā and Aṃbē) is an epithet associated with Durga. Bhavani translates to "giver of life," meaning the power of nature or the source of creative energy. She is cons ...

as Sreedevi, Balachandran's father's second wife * Salu Kuttanadu as Neelandan * Vimal Raj as Basheer * Gopika Anil as Vidya, elder daughter of Balachandran * Keerthana Anil as Aarya, younger daughter of Balachandran *

Kalabhavan Mani Kunnisseri Veettil Raman Mani (1 January 1971 – 6 March 2016), better known by his stage name Kalabhavan Mani, was an Indian actor and singer. Mani started his career as a Impersonator, mimicry artist with the Kalabhavan comedy troupe. He had ...

as Musthafa (

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

)

Soundtrack

The film features songs were composed by M. Jayachandran with lyrics by Gireesh Puthenchery. The background score was provided by C. Rajamani.

Box office

The film was released on 28 August 2003 during the month of

Onam Onam () is an annual harvest and Hindus, Hindu cultural festival celebrated mostly by the people of Kerala. A major annual event for Malayalis, Keralites, it is the official festival of the state and includes a spectrum of cultural events. H ...

festival. ''Balettan'' was a commercial success at the box office, becoming the highest-grossing Malayalam film of the year. Made on a budget of 1.75 crore, the film grossed 14 crore. It ran for over 100 days. The film gave box office success to Mohanlal after a gap of almost two years, which according to '' Rediff.com'', "helped him regain the No. 1 spot". It was also the first major box office success of director Vinu.

Awards

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, id=0377445 2003 films 2000s Malayalam-language films Indian family films Indian drama films Malayalam films remade in other languages Films shot in Thrissur Films shot in Palakkad Films shot in Ottapalam Films scored by M. Jayachandran Films directed by V. M. Vinu