Dasan and Vijayan (or Ramadas and Vijayan) are the protagonists of the ''

Nadodikkattu ''Nadodikkattu'' () is a 1987 Indian Malayalam-language satirical comedy film directed by Sathyan Anthikad and written by Sreenivasan based on a story by the Siddique–Lal duo. It stars Mohanlal and Sreenivasan in the lead roles, along with an ...

'' trilogy. The comical characters were created by directors

Siddique–Lal Siddique–Lal were a screenwriter and director duo, consisting of Siddique and Lal. They were active together in Malayalam cinema during 1986–1995. They were initially assistant directors to director Fazil. Particularly known for making fi ...

and are portrayed by

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 ...

(Dasan) and

Sreenivasan Sreenivasan (born 6 April 1956) is an Indian actor, screenwriter, director, dubbing artist and producer who predominantly works in Malayalam cinema. Sreenivasan has starred in over 225 films. Sreenivasan wrote the screenplays of films such a ...

(Vijayan). They first appeared as unemployed workers, later becoming

police officer A police officer (also called policeman or policewoman, cop, officer or constable) is a Warrant (law), warranted law employee of a police, police force. In most countries, ''police officer'' is a generic term not specifying a particular rank. ...

s by profession working in the

Crime Investigation Department In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Cane ...

(CID) in

Tamil Nadu Police Tamil Nadu Police is the primary law enforcement agency of the state of Tamil Nadu, India. It is over 150 years old and is the fifth largest state police force in India.

, India. The characters first appeared in the 1987

black comedy Black comedy, also known as black humor, bleak comedy, dark comedy, dark humor, gallows humor or morbid humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally ...

film ''

'' and later in its sequels ''

Pattanapravesham ''Pattanapravesham'' () is a 1988 Indian Malayalam-language Detective fiction, detective Comedy film, comedy film directed by Sathyan Anthikad and written by Sreenivasan. It stars Mohanlal, Sreenivasan, Karamana Janardhanan Nair, Karamana Janar ...

'' (1988), and ''

Akkare Akkare Akkare ''Akkareyakkareyakkare'', also known ''Akkare Akkare Akkare'' () is a 1990 Indian Malayalam-language buddy cop comedy film directed by Priyadarshan and written by Sreenivasan. It stars Mohanlal, Sreenivasan, M. G. Soman, Mukesh, Maniyanpilla ...

'' (1990). The first two films in the series was directed by

Sathyan Anthikad Sathyan Anthikad is an Indian film director, screenwriter, and lyricist who predominantly works in Malayalam cinema. In a career spanning five decades he has directed more than 50 films, been the lyricist for 12 films and been the scriptwriter ...

and the later by

Priyadarshan Priyadarshan Soman Nair (born 30 January 1957) is an Indian film director and screenwriter. He has worked primarily in Malayalam cinema, Malayalam and Hindi cinema, Hindi cinema since 1982, directing over 90 films in multiple Indian languages, ...

, the trilogy was scripted by Sreenivasan. Since the release of ''Nadodikkattu'', the characters have achieved a

cult status A cult following is a group of fans who are highly dedicated to a person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The latter is often called a cult classic. A film, book ...

in the

popular culture Popular culture (also called pop culture or mass culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of cultural practice, practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as popular art

f. pop art F is the sixth letter of the Latin alphabet. F may also refer to: Science and technology Mathematics * F or f, the number 15 (number), 15 in hexadecimal and higher positional systems * ''p'F'q'', the hypergeometric function * F-distributi ...

or mass art, sometimes contraste ...

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

, along with some other characters in the film, such as Anandan Nambiar (

Thilakan Palappurathu Keshavan Surendranatha Thilakan (15 July 1935 – 24 September 2012) was an Indian film and stage actor who appeared in over 200 Malayalam films. Thilakan was known for his elaborate method acting, realistic and spontaneous appeara ...

), Gafoorka (

Mamukkoya Mamukkoya (5 July 1946 – 26 April 2023) was an Indian actor known for his work predominately in Malayalam cinema. He mostly appeared in comedic roles. His unique usage of Kozhikode dialect and style marked his presence in the industry. In a c ...

), Pavanai (

Captain Raju Raju Daniel (27 June 1950 – 17 September 2018), better known by his stage name Captain Raju, was an Indian actor and army officer. He acted in more than 600 films in various languages, including Malayalam, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, an ...

), Prabhakaran (

Karamana Janardanan Nair Karamana Janardanan Nair (25 July 1936 – 24 April 2000) was a Malayalam film actor, who was active during the 1980s and 1990s. He was especially known for his character roles. He won wide acclaim especially for the role of the protagonis ...

) and several dialogues in the film has become

catchphrase A catchphrase (alternatively spelled catch phrase) is a phrase or expression recognized by its repeated utterance. Such phrases often originate in popular culture and in the arts, and typically spread through word of mouth and a variety of mass ...

s. The characters were first introduced as unemployed youth.

Overview

The characters were created by

in a story they wrote. Dasan is shown as more educated than Vijayan, and enjoys teasing Vijayan about the same. The chemistry of Mohanlal-Sreenivasan combo in the film was widely acclaimed, since then they have united for such roles in many films that followed. The series began with ''

'' in 1987, directed by

, he directed its sequel ''

'' in the following year, in 1990,

continued the series with his directorial ''

''. ''Nadodikkattu'' was significant in increasing the demand for comedy films in Malayalam. About its cult following, Anthikad says "the secret of the duo still being alive in the Malayali's consciousness may be because it's a story of two unemployed youngsters told using a humorous narrative. Unemployment was one of the biggest issues and migration to greener pastures was typical of Malayali experience. This has continued to the current decade. So, the audience has no problem relating to Dasan and Vijayan,".

Film appearances

''Nadodikkattu''

In the film directed by Sathyan Anthikad, Dasan and Vijayan are two unemployed youth struggling to make two ends meet. Upon release, the film was widely acclaimed and was a commercial success.

M. G. Soman M. G. Soman (28 October 1941 – 12 December 1997) was an Indian actor and former Indian Air Force officer who appeared in Malayalam films. He was one among the leading star actors doing hero roles in Malayalam Cinema during the late 1970s and ...

appears as himself, although he appears in a character role as the Police Commissioner in ''

''.

''Pattanapravesham''

After the events of ''Nadodikkattu'', Dasan and Vijayan, who are now police officers, are enlisted to investigate a homicide in

. Being clueless in this new profession, they become involved with a gang of drug traffickers. A new threat follows them when Anandan Nambiar escapes from

jail A prison, also known as a jail, gaol, penitentiary, detention center, correction center, correctional facility, or remand center, is a facility where people are imprisoned under the authority of the state, usually as punishment for various cr ...

. ''Pattanapravesham'', also directed by Anthikad, was a critical and commercial success.

''Akkare Akkare Akkare''

The film sees Dasan and Vijayan investigating the theft and subsequent smuggling of a gold crown. This film was directed by

and is set almost entirely in the United States. Principal photography took place around

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

and

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

Mukesh Mukesh is an epithet for the Hindu god Shiva, and literally means "conqueror of the Muka demon". It is commonly used as a male given name in India. People with the name Mukesh include: * Mukesh (singer) (1923–1976), Indian playback singer from ...

Maniyanpilla Raju Sudheer Kumar (born 20 April 1955), better known by his stage name Maniyanpilla Raju (Malayalam: മണിയൻപിള്ള രാജു), is an Indian actor and producer who works in Malayalam film industry.Parvathy,

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 ...

Sukumari Sukumari Amma (6 October 1940 – 26 March 2013) was an Indian actress best known for her works in Malayalam and Tamil films. In a career spanning more than five decades, She has appeared in more than 2500 films predominantly in Malayalam, T ...

Jagadish P. V. Jagadish Kumar, Born On (12 June 1955) mononymously as Jagadish, is an Indian actor, screenwriter, and television presenter. He has starred in over 400 Malayalam films and two Hindi films. He is best known for his comic and character rol ...

, and

K. P. A. C. Lalitha Maheshwari Amma, better known by her stage name K. P. A. C. Lalitha (10 March 1947 – 22 February 2022), was an Indian film and stage actress who worked primarily in the Malayalam cinema, Malayalam film industry. Considered one of the greatest ...

appeared as accompanying characters. Earning praise for its use of slapstick humour and dialogue, this film performed well at the box office too.

Possible return

In 2016,

Vineeth Sreenivasan Vineeth Sreenivasan (born 1 October 1984) is an Indian actor, director, producer, dubbing artist, screenwriter, playback singer and lyricist who predominantly works in Malayalam cinema. He is the eldest son of actor and screenwriter Sreeniva ...

said, he is interested in bringing back the duo in his directorial and is looking for story ideas.

References

{{DV film series Comedy film characters Fictional Indian detectives Fictional Indian police detectives Fictional Indian people Film characters introduced in 1987 Fictional film duos Fictional Indian police officers Fictional unemployed people Male characters in film Indian film characters Indian film series