Mallu Singh

Mallu Singh (lit. 'Malayali Singh') is a 2012 Indian Malayalam-language action comedy film written by Sethu and directed by Vysakh. The film stars an ensemble cast including Kunchacko Boban in the lead role along with Unni Mukundan in the title role. It also stars Biju Menon, Manoj K. Jayan, Suraj Venjaramoodu, Rupa Manjari, Meera Nandan, Samvrutha Sunil, Aparna Nair, Geetha, Ganapathy, Siddique, Sai Kumar and Suresh Krishna. The film is credited as 50th film of Kunchacko Boban.

The film was dubbed in Hindi as Action King Mallu Singh and in Bengali as Fighter Mallu Singh.

Plot
The movie begins in a district court of Palakkad. Ananthan waits for a verdict regarding the heir of an isolated land. The lawyer informs Ananthan that the verdict has been postponed.

Ananthan threatens Aniyan alias Ani and his younger sister Aswathy alias Achu as they too are competing for the land. Ani wants to find Hari, who was his cousin and childhood friend. Hari has been missing for seven years. He finds his grandmother in tears most of the time and watching her, he decides that he must reach Hari. For many years Ani has been searching for Hari. So when Ani recognizes Hari in a TV program featuring Punjab, he sets forth to Punjab with great expectations of finding Hari.

On his way to Punjab, Ani meets Pooja and falls for her. In Punjab, with the help of Pooja, who happens to be the sister of Mallu Singh for whom Ani came searching for, he arrives in Mallu Street and meets Karthikeyan alias Karthi, Papan and Susheelan. When they learn that Ani has come in search of Hari, they ask about the story of Hari.

In Kerala, Hari wins a Kabbadi match and from then on, all of the villagers are very fond of him. One day, as Valiyampattu Raghavan Nair, Ani's father and Hari's maternal uncle, is carrying on with his harvest festival, Ananthan and his elder brother Govindan Kutty who have a grudge against Raghavan's family arrive at Raghavan's shop. When Ananthan kicks a plate containing groceries, Hari arrives at the spot. Govindan says that Raghavan and Ani have come to seize Hari's property. When Hari ignores, Govindan Kutty warns Hari to be aware of Raghavan as one day Hari will be kicked out him.

Hari decides to organise a new business in the hope to earn some money but in vain. Hari and Achu had been in love with each other since their childhood. So when Raghavan Nair arranged a marriage proposal for Achu, Ani and Hari interfere with it and cancels the marriage. This enrages Raghavan and he slaps Ani for canceling his own sister's marriage for a jobless Hari. To get rid of burdens and humiliations, Hari decides to leave the village for peace and promises a return after a long time. Ani then goes to his father and pleads with him to bring Hari back. Raghavan reveals that he just wanted Hari to become responsible and to be earning well, also that he had already accepted Hari as his son in law. On his way, Hari hears the screaming of Raghavan. When he is about to help him, Govindan Kutty and Ananthan accuse Hari for killing his own uncle for wealth. From then on, Hari was never seen. But it was revealed by the family's caretaker Nanu that, it was Ananthan and Govindan Kutty who actually murdered Raghavan.

On hearing the story, Karthi and Pappan decide to help Ani find Hari and resolve his issues in Kerala. Still, they are sure that it might not be the Harinder singh they knew as he was a proper Sikh.

One day, Ani finds Hari hitting up a Sardar student for troubling his sister Neethu. Keen on seeing him, Ani enthusiastically calls Hari loudly, expecting to be recognised. But he identifies himself as Harinder Singh, sporting a beard and a turban. Even in his behaviour, Harinder Singh looks like a typical Punjabi. Ani discovers that Hari is Mallu Singh.

Ani wants to make sure about Hari's identity and decides to stay there for a long period. However, Karthi, Pappan and Susheelan help Ani. Together, the four go in search of proof to make sure that 'Mallu Singh' is Hari.

Ani tries all his luck to make Hari reveal the truth. He even brings Achu to Punjab. Even after Harinder Singh's marriage gets fixed with Achu, Hari refuses to admit that he is Hari. Disheartened, Ani says that he is not ready for the marriage and they plan to return to Kerala. Then Harinder Singh comes to their room and tells that he is Hari and the truth.

That night, Disheartened by seeing his uncle die, Hari makes way through the road where the real Harinder Singh gives him a lift in his truck. On the way, Harinder reveals that he had left his home when he was a child and he also happily tells that he is going to meet his family after a long gap in Punjab.

As fate would have it, Harinder hands over the truck to Hari and takes rest which was sleepily ride by him which creates an accident in which Harinder dies. Upon witnessing two deaths, shocked and frustrated, he reaches Punjab only to witness Harinder's family being harassed by goons. He rescues them and defeats the goons. Harinder's father considers him as his own son and from then on Hari changes his identity to Mallu Singh. He says that he is helpless and has to be Mallu Singh for the rest of his life. But Harinder Singh's father hears this and says that Hari can live with them as their son but he has to return to Kerala and settle his family problems.

In Kerala, Ananthan plans the measurement of the land kept for the verdict. There's just one day left for the final verdict regarding the case and Ananthan confidently says that no one from the Valiyampattu family would come to take back the land as Raghavan Nair had been killed and Hari and Ani had also escaped and are nowhere to be seen in the country. Then Hari, Ani, Karthi and Pappan show up on the spot and fight Ananthan and his brothers to recover their land and to avenge the death of Raghavan. Once everything is settled, they move back to Punjab and marry their respective brides.

Cast

 * Kunchacko Boban as Valiyampattu Aniyan (Ani)
 * Unni Mukundan as Hari Narayanan / Harinder Singh (Mallu Singh) (Voice over by Mithun Ramesh)
 * Biju Menon as Karthikeyan (Karthi)
 * Manoj K. Jayan as Pappan (Pappu)
 * Suraj Venjaramoodu as Susheelan
 * Samvrutha Sunil as Aswathy (Achu), Ani's Sister and Hari's love interest
 * Rupa Manjari as Pooja, Ani's love interest and Mallu Singh's 3rd younger sister
 * Meera Nandan as Neethu, Pappan's love interest and Mallu Singh's 2nd younger sister
 * Aparna Nair as Shwetha, Karthi's love interest and Mallu Singh's 1st younger sister
 * Shaalin Zoya as Nithya, Mallu Singh's youngest sister
 * Esther Anil as young Nithya
 * Siddique as Valiyampattu Raghavan Nair, Ani's Father
 * Sai Kumar as Govindankutty
 * Suresh Krishna as Ananthan, main rival of Ani & Hari
 * Shavinder Mahal as Harinder's father
 * Geetha as Harinder's mother
 * Ganapathi S Poduval as Hari
 * Mamukkoya as Ramankutty
 * Sreejith Ravi as Chandrappan, Ananthan's younger brother
 * Joju George as Bhaskaran, Ananthan's younger brother
 * Kalasala Babu as Chellappan, Lawyer
 * Lakshmi Krishna Moorthy as the grandmother
 * Vysakh as a Singh in the truck (special appearance)
 * Udayakrishna as a Singh in the truck (special appearance)
 * Asif Ali as the original Harinder Singh (special appearance)
 * Hanzil Hydar Ali as Kuttoos (special appearance)

Production
Prithviraj Sukumaran was initially to play the role of Mallu Singh, but due to busy schedules, it went to Unni Mukundan.

Soundtrack
The soundtrack of the film was composed by M. Jayachandran with lyrics penned by Murukan Kattakada and Rajeev Alunkal. The background score was composed by Gopi Sundar.

Critical reception
The Times of India gave it a three stars out of five. Sify.com stated "Mallu Singh could be appealing in parts for those viewers who are there just for fun, without much logic. For the rest, here is one movie with lots of styles but no substance at all. Decide the category to which you belong, before heading for this one". Rediff.com gave a rating of 3/5, and stated that Mallu Singh is entertaining.

Box office
The film was a commercial success  and ran over 100 days.