Chettayees

Plot

The whole story happens over two days, when five friends get together to celebrate New Year's Eve. The friends are John (Lal) a lawyer, Kichu (Biju Menon) a percussionist, Roopesh Krishna (Suresh Krishna) an actor, Bava (P. Sukumar) a chef and Babumon (Sunil Babu) a government employee. They are having a blast at John's apartment on the last day of the year. John, who is not in good terms with the apartment association goes to the new year party and ruins the party. The apartment owners who were looking for a way of taking vengeance, finds that a lady was staying at their apartment overnight and calls the police to charge them against immoral trafficking.

The girl turns out to be Merlin (Miya George), the wife of Kichu who was there to spoil her husband's New Year party. She was unhappy about the friendship of John and Kichu and was upset that Kichu spends more time with John than her. After the police leaves, John and Kichu ends up in a fight and they both part their ways. It turns out that John acted that way to rebuild Kichu's married life and that plan works. They keep their friendship going without Merlin knowing about it but in the final scene we understands that she knew about it all the time and she has no issues with it anymore.

Cast

Production

It was in the sets of 2007 film Chocolate that script writer Sachy approached Shajoon Kariyal with an interesting thread. Shajoon who was busy in the talks of Raman Police with Gireesh Puthenchery rejected the offer. (Raman Police never took off and Sachy's story was later directed by Joshiy as Run Babby Run in 2012). Shajoon, in the mean time, was also in the pre-production works of Talkies, a film planned by him with Mohanlal in the lead. This project also did not go into floor and this is when Sachy came up with the story of Chettayees.

Biju Menon, Shajoon, Sachy, Suresh Krishna, P. Sukumar and Sunil Babu used to get together in a flat in Kochi very often. It was during one of those evenings that Sachy came up with a thread that talked about friendship. Sachy says: "Some of my friends were spending more time with me and after a while, their wives started saying that actually their husbands should have married me. That prompted me to come up with the storyline. Some of the characters’ traits have been adapted and inspired from the habits of some of our own friends." Everyone liked the story and Shajoon, who was in search for a good script, immediately decided to direct the film. The friends decided to find a producer but in vain. Eventually they decided to launch a new production house named Thakaali Films and to produce the film under this banner.

Principal photography for the film commenced on 18 August 2012 and was completed in October. The film was mainly shot inside Navodaya Studio at Kakkanad, where the interiors of the apartment was set up.

Reception

Critical reactions to the film were mixed to negative. Rating the film , Paresh C Palicha of Rediff.com commented that the film "is too loud, with a lot of overacting." Sify.com's critic concluded his review stating, "Chettayees hits the extremes, good and bad that is, and mostly fails to keep a healthy balance. It's almost like a lazy effort that can leave you wanting for more." Veeyen of Nowrunning.com rated the film and said: "Chettayees could have made interesting material, had the makers added up to the very limited resources available at their disposal. But it makes no efforts to tide over these restraints and remains adamant that the ultimate effects produced are nothing above mediocre. This film sadly has a theme that could be discussed in ten minutes sharp; and that it has been stretched to a couple of hours is what makes the movie tiresome." IBN Live rated the film 6 in a scale of 10 and concluded their review saying, "Chettayees is an average fare, that could have hit big, if handled with a little more sensitivity and aplomb."