''Seniors'' is a

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

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

comedy Comedy is a genre of dramatic works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. Origins Comedy originated in ancient Greec ...

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre. ...

directed by

Vysakh Ebbey Abraham (born 1 June 1980), better known by his stage name Vysakh, is an Indian film director who works in Malayalam cinema, Malayalam films and is known for several commercially successful films like ''Pokkiri Raja (2010 film), Pokkiri R ...

and written by Sachi-Sethu. The plot follows four friends who return to their alma mater as students. It stars

Jayaram Jayaram Subramaniam, (born 10 December 1965), is an Indian actor who works predominantly in Malayalam cinema, in addition to Tamil cinema, Tamil, Telugu cinema, Telugu, Kannada, Hindi, Sanskrit, and Bhojpuri language films. He is also a chenda ...

Kunchacko Boban Kunchacko Boban (born 2 November 1976) is an Indian actor and film producer who works in the Malayalam film industry. He is referred to as Chackochan, and during the early 2000s, he was called "chocolate boy" because of his romantic image. He ...

Biju Menon Biju Menon (born 9 September 1967) is an Indian actor who predominantly appears in Malayalam films, and also has a few Tamil, Telugu and Kannada film credits. He made his debut in the 1994 Malayalam film ''Puthran''. In a career spanning over ...

, and

Manoj K. Jayan Manoj Kadampoothramadam Jayan, also known as Manoj K. Jayan is an Indian actor who acts in Malayalam cinema, Malayalam films in addition to a few Tamil cinema, Tamil films. Manoj has won three Kerala State Film Award for Second Best Actor for h ...

. The film features songs by

Alphons Joseph Alphons Joseph is an Indian music director and playback singer who works in Malayalam film industry. He debuted with 2003 movie ''Vellithira (2003 film), Vellithira''. Alphons is also noted for singing "Aaromale" from the film ''Vinnaithaandi V ...

Jassie Gift Jassie Gift is an Indian cinematic music composer and playback singer. He composes songs and sings for Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil and Telugu films. He became famous after the release of the song "Lajjavathiye" from the film '' 4 The People''. ...

, and

Alex Paul Alex Paul is an Indian music director who works in Malayalam cinema. He has composed music for fifty films. Personal life Alex is the son of M. A. Paul, a music artist who formed the first orchestra (in Malayalam: 'ganamela') troupe in Kochi & ...

and a score by

Gopi Sundar Gopi Sundar C. S. (born 30 May 1977) is an Indian music director, Programming (music), programmer, playback singer, songwriter, actor and performer who works in the Malayalam, Telugu language, Telugu and Tamil language, Tamil film industries. ...

. The film was released in

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

and the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

on 7 May 2011. It was a blockbuster at the box office.

Plot

The film starts with two flashback scenes. In 1981, a husband is waiting for his flirtatious wife to come home and take care of their son and baby daughter. The wife comes with her boyfriend and after a fight, decides to leave the husband and children. In another flashback, it's a college day festival in 1996. After a dance performance, Indu comes to enquire about her sister, Lakshmi, who is with her four friends and one of them says he would drop her home. The friends are having a good time enjoying the college day festival. In a sudden turn of events, there is a loud scream and all the students rush out to see what happened, only to find Lakshmi dead. In the present day, out of the four friends, Rex Immanuel, Philip Idikkula, and Rashid Munna, three of them are excited to know about the return of Pappu, alias Padmanabhan, who was accused and spent time in jail for the murder of Lakshmi. Due to Pappu's stubbornness, the friends decide to get back to their studies, after a gap of 12 years. Now back from jail, Pappu wants to start everything from where they have missed it and the other three support him, taking a break from their jobs and joining the college for an

M.A Ma, MA, or mA may refer to: Academia * Master of Arts, a degree award * Marin Academy, a high school in San Rafael, California * Menlo-Atherton High School, a public high school in Atherton, California * Minnehaha Academy, a private high schoo ...

Philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

. Following certain hilarious sequences of the foursome in college, there are some interesting twists and turns to the plot, but the main aim of Pappu is to find the mystery behind the tragedy that happened 12 years ago and the killer who is among his friends. At the end of the college festival program, he identifies that Lakshmi's killer is none other than his friend Rex. Rex reveals that he was in love with Lakshmi and on her birthday when he came to visit her, he saw Lakshmi in bed with another person which made him angry to know that two women in his life—his mother and Lakshmi—are cheaters, making him kill Lakshmi. After saying this, he targets Jenny but Pappu stops him. He becomes the convict to save Rex. The film ends with Pappu back to college and everything is back to normal.

Cast

Soundtrack

Music was composed by

, and

with a score by

. The lyrics were written by Santhosh Varma and

Anil Panachooran Anil Panachooran (20 November 1969 – 3 January 2021) was an Indian lawyer, poet and lyricist, who worked in the Malayalam film industry. While undergoing treatment for COVID-19 during the COVID-19 pandemic in India, he died on 3 January 2021, ...

. The songs were in the charts upon release.

Reception

A critic from ''

Rediff.com Rediff.com, stylized as rediff.com, is an Indian news, information, entertainment, and shopping website. Founded by Ajit Balakrishnan in 1996, it was the first Indian website to become a mainstream news media organization. It is headquartered i ...

'' wrote that "''Seniors'' may turn out to be a commercial success. But for the discerning viewer, it is just a cheap comedy". ''Indiaglitz'' wrote "''Seniors'' will definitely score big time for its skillful performances and the superb execution of the subject. This is an entertainer that has something for everyone. So be at the movies houses for a movie that has the potential to rock big time."

Box office

The film was a commercial success. This movie was a blockbuster and ran over 125 days and grossed a total of

crore Crore (; abbreviated cr) denotes the quantity ten million (107) and is equal to 100 lakh in the Indian numbering system. In many international contexts, the decimal quantity is formatted as 10,000,000, but when used in the context of the India ...

References

External links

Indiaglitz article
* {{Sachy 2010s Malayalam-language films 2010s comedy mystery films Indian comedy mystery films Films shot in Kochi Films shot in Thrissur Films directed by Vysakh 2011 comedy films 2011 films Films scored by Alphons Joseph Films scored by Alex Paul Films scored by Jassie Gift Films about class reunions Films set in 1981 Films set in 1996 Films set in 2008 Films about murder