The King and the Commissioner

Plot summary

The story revolves around Joseph Alex I.A.S (Mammootty) and Bharathchandran IPS (Suresh Gopi). A Pakistan military group under Maj. Abu Jalal Rana trespasses Indian waters, targeting New Delhi. The plan, however, is intercepted by Dr. Emma John of Intelligence Wing as she informs it to her senior Padmabhushan Dr. Sudarshan (Nedumudi Venu). Before they can tell the home minister, however, they are killed by two cops, who is joined by a senior police officer, Shankar Ramdas (Devan). Unbeknownst to them, Imran, a photo journalist manages to take pictures of the scene onto his camera. Meanwhile, Kishore Balakrishnan (Vijay Menon), the senior analyst at the agency, sets off to see Swami Chandramoulishwar (Saikumar) at his ashram demanding for the information he passed before. However, Swami was able to suffocate him before pushing him into the Yamuna river. The next day, the bodies of Kishore, Dr. Sudarshan, and Dr. Emma are all found in the river. Since both the bodies of the doctors are seen in an intimate position, the police concludes that Kishore killed the two out of jealousy, and then killed himself right after by drowning himself into the river.

However, G.K (Janardhanan), the central home minister assigns Joseph Alex I.A.S to investigate the death of Dr. Sudarshan. Consequently, he goes to the forensic director and analyst to ask him to give a fresh report and include the facts that they have excluded deliberately before. After seeing a mysterious man in black leather jacket walking away from his car, Joseph gets a call from Nanda (Samvrutha Sunil), the daughter of the home minister and a news journalist. She shows him the picture of a cop holding a gun towards someone inside a white car. Imra, the owner photo has a gut feeling that he has seen Dr. Sudarshan in that car.

On the other hand, Mr. Bharath Chandran IPS is assigned to assist Joseph in probe. Both of them are able to get Shankar arrested, but was killed by a henchmen of Swami in court. Later on, Joseph is called into the PMO to tell that he is off the case now. He retorts and is able to be continue with the case after convincing the PM. He states that if something were to happen to the PM, the nation will suffer huge financial loss. The expenses is what Joseph is concerned about rather than the PM's life. Because of this, Swamiji gets pissed off that he decides to assassinate the PM through Rana. In this way, Raman Madhavan (Cherthala Jayan), the director of NID, will be the next PM after ensuring support from many coalition party leaders.

Meanwhile, ACP Arjun captures the PA coming out of Swami's ashram by disguising as the driver. However, although the PA is taken into custody, the pak army men pretending as Delhi Police comes in and asks for PA's custody. The next thing they did is to draw the gun out and shoot ACP Arjun on the head. In the ensuing fight, Ubaid manages to kill several Pak officers, but Rana shows up and kills both Ubaid and the PA. Enraged, Bharath storms into the ashram, but is held at gunpoint by Swamis men. Nevertheless, Joseph appears right in time to save Bharath from getting killed. So, Swami, and Raman Madhavan later at night, is taken into custody. When both of them are about to be taken to the location of the ISI agents, however, the people who accompanied them are shot dead in front of the building. Minutes later, Bharath and Joseph arrives into the dilapidated cottage with a team of commandos. There, they confront Rana, and both Joseph and Bharath draws their guns to shoot him 3 times respectively. Afterwards, Joseph comes close to Rana and quips at him before sticking a flag pole into his chest while chanting "Bharath Mata ki Jai". They also lock Swami and Raman Madhavan in a car. The bomb explodes after, killing both Swami and Madhavan.

Cast

The cast include:

Background

There were two separate films before entitled The King and Commissioner, which starred Mammootty and Suresh Gopi in 1995 and 1994 respectively. These films were successful at the box office during their period. Therefore, the 2012 film The King and the Commissioner is a film based on the two films mentioned. In addition, the lead actors in two different films were joined together with Renji Panicker as the scripwriter.

The 2012 film marks Mammootty's fourth film and Suresh Gopi's tenth film. Moreover, it also marks the comeback of Shaji Kailas-Renji Panicker duo after a gap of 16 years.

The film was earlier reported to be a successor to the three films namely The King, Commissioner, and its sequel Bharathchandran I.P.S. in 1995, 1994, and 2005 respectively. However, Kailas reportedly said that the film features a new plot in a new background, wherein the lead characters in Panicker's films and his are coming together.

Casting

The project was finalized after a long period of discussion since the relationship between the two lead stars was not so warm. The movie had its spate of controversies during casting itself. In fact, the director was even planning to replace Suresh Gopi with Prithviraj. Nevertheless, it has been said later that the duo buried the hatchet and agreed to shoot the film.

In addition, Shaji Kailas and Anto Joseph had initially announced that Reema Sen will play a role in the film, second to the lead heroine Samvrutha Sunil. However, Kannada actress Sanjanaa was later signed to play this role. Moreover, veteran actor and psychiatrist Dr. Mohan Agashe debuts in Malayalam in a cameo in the film. It was Mammootty, whom Agashe had known from the time he was shooting for Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, who suggested his name.

Filming

The shooting began in Trivandrum on 6 June 2011. Mammootty joined the set on 13 June. After one round of shooting in Trivandrum, the shooting shifted to Kochi and then to Delhi. Some scenes were also shot in Kozhikode. It is reported that the shooting of the film was going on in Kochi, when the income tax raids at Mammootty's residence took place. Mammootty had to be present before the investigators and the filming was delayed to a few days. It is also reported that the ill-health of Suresh Gopi was another reason for scrapping the shooting of the film. He is said to have reduced 15 kilos to look thinner, which led him to face health problems and take a leave from filming.

Critical reception

Rediff.com rated the film 2 out of five stars and said "It's high on nostalgia but The King And The Commissioner has nothing new to offer says.