''Yugapurushan'' is a

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

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 film about the life and times of

Sree Narayana Guru Sree Narayana Guru () (20 August 1856 – 20 September 1928) was a philosopher, spiritual leader and social reformer in India. He led a reform movement against the injustice in the caste-ridden society of Kerala in order to promote spirit ...

. The movie is directed by

R. Sukumaran R. Sukumaran is an Indian film director. Sukumaran's entry into film-making was incidental. While on an exhibition in Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Balti ...

. It has an ensemble cast led by

Thalaivasal Vijay Thalaivaasal Vijay (born A. R. Vijayakumar) is an Indian actor and dubbing artiste. He has acted predominantly in Tamil and Malayalam films. Career Vijay's debut film was '' Thalaivaasal'' (1992), which became part of his stage name in Tamil ...

Mammootty Muhammad Kutty Panaparambil Ismail (born 7 September 1951), known mononymously by the hypocorism Mammootty (), is an Indian actor and film producer who works predominantly in Malayalam-language films. He has also appeared in Tamil, Telugu, ...

and Siddique.

Plot

The story revolves around the life and teachings of Sree Narayana Guru. Various events in his life like the Aruvippuram movement,

Vaikom Satyagraha Vaikom Satyagraha was a nonviolent agitation for access to the prohibited public environs of the Vaikom Temple in the Kingdom of Travancore that took place from 30 March 1924 to 23 November 1925. Kingdom of Travancore was known for its rigid an ...

are detailed. The movie involves two major sub plots which highlights the relevance of the guru and his teachings as well as his love to his fellow beings one where an intercaste couple portrayed by

Navya Nair Navya Nair (born Dhanya Veena; 14 October 1985) is an Indian actress who has appeared predominantly in Malayalam cinema along with a few Kannada and Tamil language films. Early and personal life Navya Nair was born Dhanya Veena on 14 October ...

and

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 ...

fights the caste establishment with the blessings of Gurudevan. Another sub plot involves a family where

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 ...

plays a drunken

abusive Abuse is the act of improper usage or treatment of a person or thing, often to unfairly or improperly gain benefit. Abuse can come in many forms, such as: physical or verbal maltreatment, injury, assault, violation, rape, unjust practices, ...

husband and his wife (

Kalpana Kalpana may refer to: Film and television * ''Kalpana'' (1948 film), an Indian Hindi-language dance film * ''Kalpana'' (1960 film), a romantic Bollywood film * ''Kalpana'' (1970 film), an Indian Malayalam film * ''Kalpana'' (2012 film), an I ...

) who is at the receiving end seeks the Guru's help and finally with the Guru's blessing Jagathy Sreekumar returns to the path of righteousness. The movie consists of four songs penned by

Kaithapram Damodaran Namboothiri Kaithapram Damodaran Namboothiri, popularly known as Kaithapram, is a Malayalam lyricist, poet, music director, actor, singer, screenwriter, music therapist and performer of Carnatic music. He debuted with the movie Ennennum Kannettante in 19 ...

and two poems by

Kumaran Asan Mahakavi Kumaran Asan (12 April 1871 – 16 January 1924) was a poet of Malayalam literature, Indian social reformer and a philosopher. He is known to have initiated a revolution in Malayalam poetry during the first quarter of the 20th century, ...

Cast

as K. C. Kuttan * Siddique as Dr. Padmanabhan Palpu *

Babu Antony Babu Antony (born 22 February) is an Indian-American actor and martial artist, who works primarily in Malayalam cinema. He has also acted in several Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Sinhalese, Hindi and English films. He started his career doing anta ...

Ayyankali Mahatma Ayyankali (മഹാത്മ അയ്യൻകാളി; 28 August 1863 – 18 June 1941) was an Indian politician, prominent social reformer, educator, economist, lawmaker, and revolutionary leader. He worked for the advancement of ...

as Savithri Antharjanam * Devan as Madhavan *

Sai Kumar Sai Kumar or Saikumar is the name of: * Sai Kumar (Malayalam actor) Sai Kumar, also credited as Saikumar, is an Indian actor who appears in Malayalam films. He is the son of Malayalam actor late Kottarakkara Sreedharan Nair. He appears in bo ...

as Namboothiri * Jishnu Raghavan as K. A. Ayyappan *

Hima Shankar Hima Shankar known as Hima Shankar Sheematty, is an Indian actress who appears in Malayalam films and short films. She has also directed and performed in many theatrical works. She took a part in the reality show Bigg Boss Malayalam. Early li ...

as Ponni *

as Koran *

Arun Cherukavil Arun Cherukavil, mononymously known as Arun, is an Indian actor who predominantly works in the Malayalam film industry. He made his film debut in 2000's with the role of Sooraj, one of the students, in Mohanlal starrer ''Life is Beautiful''. Af ...

as Kochu Thamburan *

Thampy Antony Antony Thekkek, better known as Thampy Antony, is an Indian-American film actor, writer, activist and producer. He is the elder brother of Malayalam actor Babu Antony. As a writer he has published books in Malayalam and English. He is the author ...

* Kailas Nath *

Subbalakshmi Subbalakshmi (21 April 1936 – 30 November 2023) was an Indian Carnatic musician, composer, and actress who worked in Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Hindi cinema. She was noted for her performance in '' Kalyanaraman'' (2002), ''Pandip ...

* Shobha Mohan * Kozhikode Sarada * Cherthala Lalitha *

Biju Pappan Biju Pappan (born 9 March 1969), is a Malayalam actor, his career began in movies in 1991 and continued both in television and films. He is well known for his anti-hero roles in ''Naran'' and ''Kayyoppu'', which were financial successes. He has ...

Chali Pala Chalil Babykkuttan better known as Chali Pala is an Indian actor who appears in Malayalam films. He is most known for playing supporting roles in Malayalam films. Biography Pala was born in Thiruvananthapuram. He debuted with the film ''Iyer t ...

* Vijayan Peringode * Devu Krishnan

Production

The film was in the making for more than fifteen years. Sukumaran says this movie was a childhood ambition, a destiny. His devotion to

is what promoted him to make this movie. Over 2000 hand drawn images constitute the story board.

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 ...

was initially cast as

Swami Vivekananda Swami Vivekananda () (12 January 1863 – 4 July 1902), born Narendranath Datta, was an Indian Hindus, Hindu monk, philosopher, author, religious teacher, and the chief disciple of the Indian mystic Ramakrishna. Vivekananda was a major figu ...

, a

cameo role 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 one ...

in the movie which comes in the flashback, but later on withdrew from the movie due to problems with his shooting dates. The cast includes some of the best in the

Malayalam film industry Malayalam cinema, also referred to as Mollywood, is a segment of Indian cinema dedicated to producing films in the Malayalam language, primarily spoken in Kerala and the Lakshadweep islands. It encompasses both the mainstream film industry a ...

Soundtrack

The film's soundtrack contains six songs, all composed by

Mohan Sithara Mohan Sithara (born 30 May 1959) 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 Mal ...

, with lyrics by

except for the song "Prajnjanam" which was penned by Sreenarayana Guru.

Release

''Yugapurushan'' was released in theatres in

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 ...

on 5 February 2010. The film got great responses from the critics. Though the film wasn't a crowd puller during its initial release, it eventually did have poor box-office overall.

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 1764750 2010 films 2010s Malayalam-language films History of Kerala on film Films scored by Mohan Sithara Films set in the British Raj