Chathikkatha Chanthu

Chathikkatha Chanthu
VCD cover
Directed by	Rafi Mecartin
Produced by	Lal
Written by	Rafi Mecartin
Starring	Jayasurya Vineeth Lal Navya Nair Bhavana Madhu Cochin Haneefa Siddique Vinayakan Salim Kumar Janardhanan
Music by	Alex Paul Berny-Ignatius (score)
Cinematography	Saloo George
Edited by	Harihara Puthran
Production company	Lal Creations
Distributed by	Lal Release
Release date	14 April 2004
Running time	130 minutes
Country	India
Language	Malayalam

Chathikkatha Chanthu (Malayalam: ചതിക്കാത്തചന്തു, lit. "Chanthu Who Never Cheats") is a 2004 Malayalam musical-comedy film written and directed by Rafi Mecartin, and produced by Lal. It stars a huge cast consisting of Jayasurya, Vineeth, Lal, Navya Nair, Bhavana, Madhu, Cochin Haneefa, Salim Kumar,Vinayakan, Siddique, and Janardhanan. The music is composed by Alex Paul.

The film was remade in Kannada as Kal Manja starring Komal.

Plot

Chandu (Jayasurya) has a problem with his name: Everyone who hears it instantly believes that he is a betrayer (Chathiyan Chandu, the prefix 'chathiyan' or betrayer has been evolved from a legendary fictitious character named Chandu Chekavar in the lyrical ballads of Northern Kerala). He wants to be a famous script writer. He approaches as many directors as he can, but his stories are burlesques in which they stave off eventually. So he decides to write his own story. Chandu is the son of a servant (Kulappulli Leela) who works in a huge mansion. The master's (Thampuran) (Janardhanan) daughter Indira (Bhavana) is in love with Chandu. But Chandu doesn't want to hurt his master. So he refuses Indira's love, but Indira never gives up. One day the master gets hold of the love story and wants Chandu to give up.The master knows Indira's nature very well. So he directs Chandu to hoodwink her by writing letters that will describe his love with an imaginary character called "Vasumathi" in a fictional "Thottakkattukara" village. The master (Thampuran) purposefully gives Indira the letters which make her heartbroken. Now as fate permits, there genuinely exists a "Vasumathi" (Navya Nair) in a real Thottakkattukara village, who is on the verge of suicide (reason revealed later).Vasumathi receives the letter though She begins to expect a savior by reading between the lines of it. Vasumathi tells this case to her friend (Maya Vishwanath) and she helps her to find out the details of Chandu. In one of those letters, the master asks Chandu to write that he is planning to elope with Vasumathi to Madras(Chennai) which completely shatters Indira's heart. But she posts the letter after reading it. Chandu's final letter gives Vasumathi great expectations. Her friend also forces the poor girl to use this opportunity to save her life from that dungeon. Vasumathi decides to elope as per the last letter said. Thampuran (Janardhanan) then asks Chandu to leave town.Chandu reveals the truth behind the letters to his old school friend Pappan (Indrans) before his journey.He leaves his mother disheartened.Like the shakesperean proverb,love is blind and lovers cannot see, Vasumathi and her friend wait for Chandu at the bus station on the day of elopement. The Madras bus is in a hurry. When time goes by, the co-travellers ask them the reason for their delay. Vasumathi explains the whole story to Krishnan (Vineeth), who is a professional choreographer and others. At last Chandu arrives at the eleventh-hour and the bus heads towards Madras. On the way Vasumathi tries to impress Chandu,but he doesn't understand whom she really is. During the halt for dinner in a hotel, Krishnan smells a rat and trickily asks Chandu about his journey. Chandu spells his own story to Krishnan and tells him that even if the real Vasumathi comes he will not accept her. Hearing the story Krishnan and the passengers in the bus empathize for Vasumathi, and advise her to give up the journey and get home. But Vasumathi has no alternative to proceed. However, krishnan takes chandu and vasumathi with him to his cottage. Chandu meets Romeo (Vinayakan),who assists Krishnan,there and Vasumathi gets a temporary shelter in that cottage.The next day Krishnan takes them to his shooting spot.The shooting location is in a lukewarm mood due to the stereotypical choreography of Dance Master Vikram (Salim Kumar). The Director (Lal)and cameraman (Cochin Haneefa) become uncomfortable with him. Krishnan introduces chandu before the director. The director allows Chandu to unfurls his storyline in spite of being known the fact that he always gives away sloppy plots. Chandu opens his own tale to the director, he also adds that Vasumathi comes out of the home believing those letters. But the director doesn't accept it, indicates that no girl will trust such letters and flee home stupidly like he said. Seeing the logjam that Chandu faces Vasumathi hinders him and reveals her own life that, she was born in a rich family. She was the lone possessor of that massive wealth. It made her relatives jealous and greed. They hatched the plots to finish her family. Her uncle (Siddique (actor)) kills her mother(Navya Nair) and granny and cruelly treats her as if she was possessed by demons. The only relief for Vasumathi was her Grandpa (Madhu). But he was also misinformed by her relatives. Once she was proposed by her brother-in-law Aravindan (Krishnakumar) but Vasumathi politely warded it off. It heated up the vengeance of Aravindan and She was brutally tortured everyday by a Hindu priest (Jagathy Sreekumar) who practices false wizardry .After tolerating such harrowing and loathsome harassments, she decided to kill herself. When she was about to hang in a piece of rope,she received the letter.It reversed her decision. She started receiving more and more letters consicutively. Those letters became a ray of hope for her. She completely believed that there was someone for her. Vasumathi discussed it with her friend and she urged her to elope and save herself from the greedy devils at her home. So she ran away from her dwelling to find her love. When Vasumathi finishes her story Krishnan says to director that it was her own life and they decide to make them join together. The entire crew of the shooting place come together and enjoy that day with music and dance. Chandu commences to nurture a stardust towards Vasumathi. Vasumathi truly believes that Chandu soon be understood the reality and they will join together. When Vasumathi brings in herself to show the letters to him and suddenly there is a twist in the tale when Indira arrives at the place. She is brought by Pappan, informing her that the letter series was premeditated by her father to break the love of she and Chandu.The total plan collapses. But Chandu holds his nerves and introduces Vasumathi as his lover. When Indira delves it to Vasumathi, she denies it. A couple of days later, Aravindan reaches the cottage in search of Vasumathi and in the absence of Krishnan, Vasumathi was compelled to go with her brother-in-law. When krishnan returns home he reveals the truth to Chandu. He shows the letters, which was left by Vasumathi, to Chandu and Indira.Chandu decides to go after Vasumathi. When Chandu reaches her home, Aravindan ill-treats and manhandles him. When he comes back to Madras Romeo tells him that police have been arrested the entire crew. The next day the crew return after disquieted police torturing. Chandu decides to rewrite the script in order to save her from the clutches of her merciless relatives. They reach the home where her relatives reside and begin the play using artificially created horrific visuals and explosions and get the clue where Vasumathi is captivated. The friends then reach the palace where Vasumathi is detained. They find her in a room. The crew plot a lively mechanised drama of ghastliness and trepidation with the aides of cinematic ghost characters and audio-visual sequence of events. They turn out the palace completely into a blood-sucking ghost house. It works and the perpetrators become horrified. The Hindu priest is called at the end to capture the devilish incarnation of Vasumathi. But Vasumathi terrifies and manages to get him inside the palace and she and her 'vampires' make him terribly upset and fearful. He apologizes before Vasumathi for all the misdeeds that he has committed to her and flies off. But the game is not yet over. The enemies identify that, there is no ghost and it is just a kind of artificially carried out blooper play. They start retaliating by beating up on the crew. The crew realize the catastrophe and begin the final fight. The thampuran also reaches there at the end and apologizes his daughter Indira for his dirty moves.When the fight proceeds,the uncle of Vasumathi, strangleholds her near to the well, where he had unmercifully killed her mother by pushing into it. When he begins to commit Vasumathi the same, her Grandpa stabs him from behind with a sword and he dies immediately. Vasumathi realizes her Grandpa's love and care. The police arrest grandpa. He wishes Chandu to marry his granddaughter. But still a deadlock is there. Vasumathi counsels Chandu to give a life to Indira. At last there is a happy ending. Chandu becomes a successful script writer as he wishes and make a film based on his and Vasumathi's life. After a surprise it is revealed that a wedlock between Chandu and Vasumathi as well as Indira and Krishnan is done. The story ends on a beautiful note.

Box-office performance

The movie was a commercial success at the Kerala Box Office.^[1][2][3][4] The imaginative story plot line and comedy scenes were well praised. The story is one that reveals that 'ghosts' are just imaginative creations developed in movies. It also shows how the "effects" of ghosts are portrayed in a movie.

Cast

• Jayasurya as Chandu, an aspiring screenwriter
• Navya Nair as Vasumathi, a traditional girl who believed Chandu's letters, and as Vasumathi's mother
• Vineeth as Krishnan a.k.a. Kichu, an assistant dance master who works under Vikram
• Bhavana as Indira, Chandu's cousin and his customary groom
• Lal as the Film Director
• Salim Kumar as Dance Master Vikram a.k.a. Michael alias Jackson alias Vikram alias, an overrated dance master in film industry
• Vinayakan as Romeo, a junior artist in film industry
• Cochin Haneefa as the Cameraman
• Siddique as Vasumathi's Uncle
• Janardhanan as Thampuran
• Kulappulli Leela as Chandu's mother
• Krishnakumar as Aravindan
• Madhu as Vasumathi's grandfather
• Indrans as Pappan, Chandu's closest friend
• Jagathy Sreekumar as Manthravadi (Guest Appearance)
• T. P. Madhavan
• Ramu as Vasumathi's uncle
• Mafia Sasi as Stunt Master
• Captain Raju as Film Producer
• Bindu Ramakrishnan as Vasumathi's grandmother
• Ponnamma Babu
• Manka Mahesh

Soundtrack

The film's soundtrack is composed by Alex Paul. Lyrics are penned by Gireesh Puthenchery and Santhosh Varma.

References

External links

• Chathikkatha Chanthu on IMDb