Hallo (film)


Hallo is a 2007 Indian Malayalam-language comedy thriller film written and directed by the Rafi Mecartin duo. The film stars Mohanlal and Parvathy Melton, with Jagathy Sreekumar, Siddique, K. B. Ganesh Kumar and Madhu in important roles. The music was composed by Alex Paul. The film received positive reviews from critics. Critics praised Mohanlal"s performance. The film was also a major commercial success. It was remade in Telugu as Naa Style Veru and in Kannada as Manjunatha BA LLB.

Plot

Sivaramananam is a once-brilliant advocate who now seems to be in a self-destructive mode. All the time he is portrayed in a highly intoxicated state. His clients had abandoned him a long time ago. But he has a very devout follower Chandy. Whenever Sivaraman gets into one of his drunken brawls, it is Chandy who rescues him.
Strangely, that doesn't diminish Sivaraman's public relation skills. After one particularly bad fight, he ends up becoming good buddies with three notorious rowdies in the area: Vadakkancherry Vakkachen / 'Vedakku' Vakkan, Bathery Bappu / Kolakolli and Pattambi Ravi / 'Chattambi' Ravi. Soon, they too join his gang of loyalists.
The reason why this once-hotshot advocate had hit the bottle is revealed later: he was in love with a girl named Priya. But, his father and brother weren't happy about it. They come up with a very cruel way of ending the relationship. They lock Sivaraman in a room in the house on the day Sivaraman and Priya decided to elope. Priya, unaware of this happening waits for Sivaraman. A group of gangsters see Priya waiting late into the night, molests her and then kills her. When Sivaraman finds out about it, he is devastated and reacts by becoming an alcoholic.
Then one day, he receives a phone call on his mobile phone from a stranger named Parvathi. She reveals that she is the daughter of a local Marwari banker. On the phone she tells him that her life is in grave danger and begs him to rescue her. The phone call changes his life...
Parvathi is the daughter of Bada Bhai, the owner of a very successful bank - Dalal & Dalal. The bank is jointly owned by him and his brothers and relatives. They want to take control of the bank by killing Parvathi. When Sivaraman finds out that the threat is from her family, he takes her home and pretends to be her husband.
Then begins the battle of wits and muscles with her greedy relatives. Slowly, Parvathi gets impressed by his brilliance and ends up falling in love with him.

Cast

The songs were composed by Alex Paul and the lyrics were written by Vayalar Sarath Chandra Varma.
TrackSong TitleSingerRagaDuration
1MazhavillinAfsal, Manjari, Sangeetha PrabhuBrindabani Sarang4:18
2KadukittuM. G. Sreekumar, Sangeetha Prabhu4:55
3Hallo HalloVidhu Prathap, Swetha3:53
4ChellathamareK. S. Chithra, Sangeetha PrabhuAbheri4.36
5BhajanManjari, Akhila, Andriya1:06
6KadukittuCochin Ibrahim, Sangeetha Prabhu4:55
7Hallo HalloSwetha3:53

Reception

The film was released on 56 screens in Kerala. It had the best ever opening day collection for a Malayalam film that year. Hallo was a blockbuster at the box office.

Remakes

The film was remade in Telugu as Naa Style Veru with Rajasekhar and in Kannada as Manjunatha BA LLB with Jaggesh.