Oppam

Plot

Jayaraman (Mohanlal) was born blind, but has a heightened sense of smell, hearing and touch. He belongs to a big family and works as an elevator operator of an apartment in Kochi, as he wants to earn money for his sister's marriage. He is loyal to Krishnamoorthy (Nedumudi Venu), a retired judge residing in the same apartment. Jayaraman accompanies Krishnamoorthy on his trips for finding a person he was looking for since the time he was working as a judge. Though, Jayaraman had never asked any questions regarding it as he feels that it was unnecessary.

On their last trip, Krishnamoorthy feels that it is time to reveal the truth behind the quest. Years ago, a man named Vasu (Samuthirakani), was sentenced to jail by Krishnamoorthy for a crime he did not commit (abiding by law though he understood Vasu is innocent). It leads to the death of Vasu's entire family, who poison themselves. Vasu becomes mad, and, resorts to avenge his loss. At the time of his arrest he gives Krishnamoorthy a warning that he would kill him and his family. Now Vasu has been released from Jail, and Krishnamoorthy feels that it is not safe anymore.

Krishnamoorthy is alleged to have a daughter Nandini (Baby Meenakshi), a school going girl. He is scared of Vasu, because if Vasu would ever come to know of Nandini, he would kill her. Hence, she is studying elsewhere and lives all alone under the shelter of the nuns at her convent, nor she knows about the existence of her father. Her only relation is to Jayaraman, whom she calls Ramachan, who visits her often. Jayaraman is sent to the school occasionally by Krishnamoorthy to checkout Nandini. She asks Ramachan about her father on his every visit, to which Jayaraman replies that he would bring him on his next visit.

One day, Krishnamoorthy asks Jayaraman to help him transport money from his bank account to another deposit, setup for the welfare of Nandini. Since transferring it via bank account can be traceable, they had to withdraw and transport the money manually to another deposit. Jayaraman withdraws the money and hand it over to Krishnamoorthy, and this is accidentally watched over by Devayani (Vimala Raman), a divorcee and the maid of apartments in the flat. Krishnamoorthy puts the money in his safe at the apartment.

Another day, a large wedding party is occurring at the apartment where everyone in the flat are invited.After the partying, Jayaraman goes up to Krishnamoorthy's apartment to find him dead. He also find the money missing from the safe. Suddenly he feels the presence of someone else in the apartment. The killer tries to run, but Jayaraman engages in a close contact fight with him, which the killer finds hard to defeat him. Later on, the killer is revealed to be Vasu, during the fight eventually understanding Jayaraman is blind, he tricks him on his disadvantage and escapes in an auto.

During the entire chaos, it is found that Krishnamoorthy's money is missing and the police frame Jayaraman as the thief. At the police station it is found out that it was Devayani's brother who had the money and not Jayaraman. Jayaraman is still not allowed to go and he is charged on the case of murder of Krishnamoorthy. Jayaraman pleads to give him a chance to find out the killer as he could feel the killer's presence but it all went in vain. He is beaten up by the police in an attempt to convict him of the murder, but he finally manages to escape by beating up the policemen. The later part of the film shows how Jayaraman tries hiding Nandini from Vasu with the help of Ganga (Anusree Nair), a police officer using his wit and power.

Here he reveals to Ganga that Nanidini was Vasu's daughter who according to Moorthy was still alive and not Moorthy's and that Vasu is trying to kill his own daughter. The trio hide in the convent which was under the mother's supervision. On that night Vasu comes and a thrilling hide and seek ensues. Finally Vasu was almost near Nandini to kill her when Jayaraman shoots him using his great sense of sound. The final scene shows Jayaraman and Nandini starting to live together as father and daughter giving each other immense love and care.

Development

The initial reports about the film being directed by Priyadarshan and featuring Mohanlal playing a blind man came in November 2015, which was reported to be a crime thriller penned by a debutant. The project is financed by Antony Perumbavoor for Aashirvad Cinemas. The production was confirmed and the title Oppam was announced in December 2015. The director started working on the film ahead of another big-budget film starring Mohanlal which delayed production. The screenplay and dialogues are written by Priyadarshan himself which is based on the story by debutant writer Govind Vijayan. About the plot, according to Priyadarshan, "Mohanlal plays a visually challenged man, who is the only 'witness' of a murder. If he can't prove who the killer is, he will be charged with the crime. It's basically a cat-and-mouse game". While the genre is thriller, he assures "it got a little bit of humour too". A part of the cast and crew was finilized by the end of December 2015. According to Priyadarshan, it is for the first time he is working in a "crime-thriller" and his script cannot be accused as a loose remake or copy of any other films as it is "a fresh piece of creativity". In his word, "Oppam is the most challenging screenplay that I have written till date. I have applied the entire lessons I learnt from my career for this screenplay. More than that, you need good skills to give a visual form to that screenplay". The film, which is a low-budget project was tentatively planned to start production in February 2016, even though the dates of Mohanlal was not finalized at that time. The final draft of the screenplay and casting was completed only in February 2016.

Casting

While writing the screenplay, Priyadarshan tailor-made the protagonist for Mohanlal, who is the usual choice for lead actor in his Malayalam films. Oppam is the fortieth association of them together. Mohanlal is playing a visually challenged person throughout a film for the first time in his career. Tamil actor-director Samuthirakani was selected to play the antagonist opposite him. In the initial casting stage, Sanchita Shetty earlier known for her roles in the Tamil thriller films Soodhu Kavvum (2013) and Pizza II: Villa (2013) was offered one of the two female lead roles, which she accepted and expressed her interest to work in her Malayalam debut "...I fell in love with this film the moment I listened to the script. We'll begin shooting from next month [February] onwards".

In the final casting in February 2015, Vimala Raman was signed in for the female lead role, who last starred alongside Mohanlal in the 2008 film College Kumaran. She plays the love interest of Jayaraman (Mohanlal) and the story revolves around her character. After her casting, the other female lead role was yet to finalize, although Shetty was on the list she was later replaced with Anusree. She plays Ganga, an Assistant Commissioner of Police who is the only person who believes defendant Jayaraman's words as she can relate him to her grandfather who is also a visually challenged. Child artist Baby Meenakshi of Amar Akbar Anthony (2015) fame was also confirmed by the director to play a significant role in the film. Kalabhavan Shajohn was fixed in a character with antagonistic shades. Bollywood model and actress Devshi Khanduri is making her Malayalam film debut with Oppam, who plays a Punjabi girl having a love affair with a Malayali boy played by Arjun Nandhakumar. Sreeya Ramesh was confirmed in an unspecified role. Aju Varghese has a brief role as an Auto rickshaw driver, in which he share screen space with Mohanlal and Samuthirakani.

Filming

In mid December 2015, although the dates of Mohanlal was not finalized, the production team tentatively planned to start filming in February 2016. Principal photography and regular filming commenced on 5 March 2016 at Kochi in Kerala, Mohanlal joined on the same day. Ooty and Kochi are the major filming locations. A largely decorated set was constructed at Kochi to resemble a North-Indian wedding for picturizing a song sequence including Mohanlal and Vimala, with dancers in Punjabi attire. Vimala joined the sets on 12 March 2016. The song was completed filming in 3 days time. In Kochi, the filming was undergone for three weeks at the locations in Thammanam, Thrippunithura, and Marine Drive. The schedule was completed by the end of March 2016. Additional portions were filmed in Pullikkanam and Kanjar in Idukki District, where Mohanlal joined for a 10 days shoot.

The crew again returned to Kochi for their second filming schedule which started in early May 2016. Anusree also joined in this schedule. The team shifted to Vagamon after finishing their part in Kochi. In early June 2016, they moved to Ooty, Tamil Nadu for completing the rest of the portions. After that, a two-day schedule was chartered in Chithranjali Studio in Thiruvananthapuram for filming the climax scenes including Mohanlal and Samuthirakani. These portions were filmed in the third week of June 2016. With the Thiruvanathapuram schedule, the filming was wrapped on 14 June 2016. The post-production began in the same month right after the wrap; film's editing work started in late June 2016 in Priyadarshan's own Four Frames studio in Chennai. The crew returned to Chithranjali Studio in early July 2016 for dubbing.

Music

The film's original soundtrack was composed by four debutant music directors—Jim, Biby, Eldhose, and Justine of the music band, 4 Musics; the lyrics were written by B. K. Harinarayanan, Madhu Vasudevan, and Sharon Joseph. Ron Ethan Yohaan composed the film score. The soundtrack comprises six songs. All songs were released by Satyam Audios on 17 August 2016.

All music composed by 4 Musics.

Release

The month of release was officially announced through the release of film's first-look poster in March 2016. The release was set for September 2016 during the festival time of Onam in Kerala. Oppam was released in India on 8 September 2016 by Maxlab Cinemas and Entertainments, it clashed with Jeethu Joseph's Oozham and Anand Shankar's Tamil film, Iru Mugan, at the Kerala box office. The film was released in 104 screens in Kerala. In Europe, the film was initially scheduled to be released in limited theatres on 14 September 2016 by PJ Entertainments and a wide release starting from 23 September. The opening was postponed from 14 September to 21 September due to censorship issue. The advance booking for the film in Europe began on 19 September. On 23 September, the film was released in 119 screens within the United Kingdom and Ireland alone, making it the largest release for a Malayalam film in the country. The release in the UAE and GCC was earlier scheduled for 29 September 2016, but was postponed to and released on 6 October.

Box office

Oppam earned ₹1.56 crore in the opening day from the Kerala box office. The collections were exponentially increased and grossed a total of ₹7.24 crore at the end of the weekend (4-day). The word-of-mouth publicity boosted the ticket sales. It set a statewide opening-week record (previously held by Premam) by collecting ₹12.60 crore in 7 days. It crossed ₹10 crore in the shortest time for a Malayalam film. The film collected ₹24.60 crore from Kerala when it completed 16 days theatrical run, and became the highest-grossing film of the year at the Kerala box office, till date, surpassing the record of Jacobinte Swargarajyam. Oppam crossed ₹30 crore mark in the shortest time for any film at the Kerala box office (in 22 days). In 26 days theatrical run, the film grossed ₹32.83 crore from the state. The film grossed ₹45 crore from worldwide box office in 31 days run, with ₹34.72 crore (US$5.2 million) from Kerala alone. Oppam became the fastest Malayalam film to gross over ₹50 crore at the worldwide box office within a short span of 39 days, with ₹37.83 crore from Kerala box office. The film grossed more than ₹42 crore from Kerala box office and over ₹65 crore at global box office surpassing Premam to become the third highest-grossing Malayalam film of all time.

In the United Kingdom, the film grossed £45,371 ($58,839) in its opening weekend (23 – 25 September), compiled from 74 territories alone. Oppam was the fourth best foreign opener of the weekend and was at twenty-sixth among the top openers of the weekend in the country. The film grossed ₹8.31 crore from GCC in 10 days. The total collection of the movie in 49 days after release is more than 56 crores. Out of which 40 crores, comes from the Indian market,10 from the GCC,4 from Europe and the rest from U.S.A.

Critical reaction

Oppam received positive response from audiences and critics. G. Ragesh from Malayala Manorama rated the film 3.5 out of 5 stars, and called it "a carefully crafted film", a "well-made" thriller that offers some "edge-of-the-seat moments". He felt that the performance of Mohanlal and the characterisation of Jayaraman is the best part of the film, which "celebrates the natural actor that Mohanlal is", and praised the "perfectly choreographed" action sequences. Paresh C. Palicha, writing for the Rediff.com said: Mohanlal is brilliant in the film, "the biggest positive about Oppam is that Mohanlal gives more sharpness and detailing to the writing and direction with his extraordinary performance and that makes the film a must watch", he rated 2.5 out of 5 stars. Moviebuzz of Sify described the film, "an engaging watch" and said: "Oppam is based on a script which is fine at best. But it is the slick presentation and of course, a brilliant performance from Mohanlal that overcomes its minor weaknesses". And remarked that, Mohanlal's performance adds to the "merits of this thriller in a crucial way". Anu James of the International Business Times gave a positive review, saying "the movie offers some edge-of-the-seat moments with an engaging narrative" and has an "impressive direction and screenplay", even though the culprit is revealed early in the thriller, "the movie doesn't let you get bored". Besides, she praised the performance of Mohanlal, songs, cinematography, and editing. She felt that, even with a predictable plot and few questions that might leave you confused, "the many positive aspects of the movie make the negatives fade away".

Remake

Hindi remake announced with Ajay Devgan in lead role