Chronic Bachelor

Chronic Bachelor
Directed by	Siddique
Produced by	Fazil
Written by	Siddique
Starring	Mammootty Mukesh Rambha Bhavana Indraja Innocent
Music by	Deepak Dev
Release date(s)	10 February 2003
Running time	165 minutes
Country	India
Language	Malayalam

Chronic Bachelor is a 2003 Malayalam film about the life of Sathyaprathapan (known as SP), the bachelor mentioned in the title. The film was written and directed by Siddique. It features Mammootty, Mukesh, Rambha, Bhavana, Indraja, Innocent and others. The movie was produced by Malayalam director Fazil.

It was later remade in Tamil as Engal Anna starring Vijaykanth, Prabhu Deva, Namitha and Vadivelu.

Plot

The film opens with a flashback showing the family feud between families of Sathyaprathapan (Mammootty) and Bhavani (Indraja). Sathyaprathapan's sister and Bhavani's cousin are in love. The murder of Bhavani's cousin Vishnu, is wrongly accused on Balagangadharan (Lalu Alex), father of Sathyaprathapan. Sathyaprathapan's sisters commits suicide and Sathyaprathapan turns against his father. He starts to help Bhavani's family and mortgages his own house to finance her factory. A love develops between Sathyaprathapan and Bhavani. But Bhavani's greedy father wants to destroy Sathyaprathapan's family and tries to take their home. That is when Parameshwara Maman shows up, Sathyaprathapan's mom requests Maman to prove Balagangadharan's innocence. Parameshwara Mama and Sathyaprathapan finds Kuruvilla who witnessed the murder being committed by Bhavani's father goons. Meanwhile we see that Sathyaprathapan's mom faints and dies in the hospital. While in the hospital, his mom tells how Balagangadharan had a different wife and he should ask them forgiveness. He storms into Bhavani's house and accuses her dad, also trying to make her understand the truth but she doesn't believe him and stands by her father. Then Sathyaprathapan says he doesn't love her any more and vows that he will never trust a woman by remaining a chronic bachelor forever.

Then film comes to the present time showing a legal battle between Sathyaprathapan (now called SP) and Bhavani. Bhavani becomes furious when SP wins the legal battle to get back his house. She threatens to destroy SP.

From here, the story moves to the day to day life of SP and falls into a comic track throughout the first half. SP is now a successful businessman. SP has a stepsister, Sandhya (Bhavana), who is his father's daughter from the other wife. He now lives for her. But she doesn't know that SP is her brother, although she stays next door to him. Kuruvilla (Innocent) is SP's aide and he too is a bachelor. Bhama (Rambha) comes to stay in the hostel where Sandhya stays and tries to win the heart of SP. But SP considers her a nuisance.

SP agrees to take care of Srikumar (Mukesh). He is the son of Parameshwaran Mama (Janardhanan), who had helped SP to become a successful businessman. Srikumar is a flirt and womanizer. He is now after Sandhya and agrees to stay with SP, when he comes to know Sandhya stays next door to SP. Comical scenes recur throughout the movie, where Kuruvila, who doesn't like Srikumar and his friend Ugran (Harisree Ashokan) staying with them, tries to get them out of the house.

Bhama comes to know SP is sponsoring Sandhya's studies and confronts him. SP tells her that Sandhya is his sister. Bhama then asks Sandhya to call SP for her birthday party. But SP gets upset and confronts Bhama. Bhama then reveals that her sponsor was SP all the while. During the birthday party, Bhavani comes and takes Bhama away. Then it becomes clear that Bhama is Bhavani's sister. Rivalry arises between Bhama and Bhavani and Bhama runs away from home and promises to help SP, but he tells her he has no hatred at all. Then Bhama's family members come to take her forcefully, but is stopped by Srikumar and SP.

That's when SP asks Sandhya to move to his house. Srikumar and Ugran is moved to the guest house. Sandhya finally shows affection to Srikumar. One day SP and Kuruvilla catch Srikumar trying to reach Sandhya through the balcony. That is where SP knows that both of them love each other. And he tells that he knew it all the while and he arranged for everything. He fixes the marriage of Sandhya and Srikumar. He transfers everything he has to Sandhya's name because Srikumar's family thought Sandhya was an orphan. SP tells everything to Parameshwaran Mama's family which is overheard by Sandhya who runs home crying. SP upset runs to comfort her, where he explains how he will live his life as an apology to her mother's curses. But Sandhya tells that her mother loved him and told her to ask forgiveness if she sees him. Now Sandhay and SP re-unite as sibings. During the marriage festivities, Bhavani and her brother Hareendhran (Biju Menon) come to prevent the celebrations. Along with them comes the elder brother of Sandhya, Shekarankutty (Lalu Alex). He challenges SP, saying that he has more right over Sandhya as he is her brother, while SP is just a stepbrother. Shekarankutty then claims all of SP's property, which SP is willing to give, provided Sandhya lives happily and marries Srikumar. Bhavani's household members uses Shekarankutty to take advantage of SP; first by trying to snatch his company then trying to snatch his home. In the brawl, SP vows that Sandhya will marry Srikumar and he will wipe off everyone who stands in the way. Bhavani then tells SP that Sandhya will be married off to Hareendhran. Shekarankutty supports in the name of revenge.

Sandhya, torn between two brothers, comes running when the brothers fight among themselves on the account of who Sandhya will marry. She says she would marry anyone that her brothers tell ber too because she cares about both of them. SP then says he know what needs to be done to end the family feud, which should have been long ago. He then marches to Bhavani's house and starts hitting Bhavani's dad thinking of killing him. In the end, SP points at Kuruvilla and says he is the witness of Vishnu's murder. Bhavani's father finally admits that he killed Vishnu and framed it on SP's father. Then SP pours kerosene on Bhavani's dad and as he approach Bhavani, he is stopped by Hareendharan who begs for his sisters life. Bhavani realizes her mistakes and goes to SP's house to apologize. But she tells SP that only thing she can now offer is the marriage proposal of her sister Bhama to SP. SP initially refuses when Srikumar tells that he'll also remain bachelor if SP doesn't marry. SP finally agrees and tells him to go inside with Bhama.

Cast

Actor	Role
Mammootty	Sathyaprathapan (SP)
Mukesh	Srikumar
Rambha	Bhama
Bhavana	Sandhya
Indraja	Bhavani
Innocent	Kuruvila
Lalu Alex	Balagangadharan and Shekarankutty
Biju Menon	Hareendran
Janardhanan	Parameshwaran Mama
Harisree Ashokan	Ugran
Edavela Babu	Kuruvila (young)
Seema G Nair	Shekarankutty's mother
K. P. A. C. Lalitha	Vimala (Srikumar's mother)

Reception

The film was released as a Vishu release in 2003. It became a hit and ran for almost 100 days. It acted as a career boost for Mammootty, whose previous movies in 2001 and 2002, like Raksharajaavu and Phantom, had been disasters at the box office. Director Siddique kept his history of never delivering a flop.

Controversy

Siddique later claimed that the movie's collections were affected by pirated CDs and decided against directing another movie in Malayalam until piracy is controlled.He has since done many movies regardless of piracy.

External links

• Chronic Bachelor at the Internet Movie Database