Kammara Sambhavam

Plot

A group of liquor barons, who are members of the Indian Liberation Party (ILP), want the declining party to win the upcoming Kerala state election to benefit their business interests. To raise the ILP's image, they decide to make a biopic about Kammaran Nambiar, the party patriarch and the last veteran of the Indian independence movement. They ask director Pulikeshi to make a film based on a chapter in the book Unsung Heroes of India by Robert S. Coogan, in which Kammaran is depicted as a forgotten freedom fighter.

Pulikeshi meets Kammaran, now an ailing old man living in an old house with his son, Bose. Kammaran tells the story: During World War II, Kammaran was a cunning and selfish medical practitioner in Amritasamudram, who would do anything for personal gain. He gains the trust of Robert S. Coogan and cruel landlord Kelu Nambiar, for his personal gain. He also have crush on Kelu Nambiar's niece Bhanumathi. To destroy his love rival, Kelu Nambiar's son and Bhanumathi's cousin brother Othenan, Kammaran incites violence between the villagers, Othenan, Othenan's militants, Kelu Nambiar, the rebels of Amritasamudram and British officers. During the violence, Kammaran kills Kelu Nambiar, and Othenan is arrested. Later, Othenan visits Kammaran in the night, but as Kammaran tells the story he begins coughing and is unable to continue.

Pulikeshi makes the film as the ILP instructed, and when Kammaran watches it he realizes the roles have been reversed. Pulikeshi cast actor Dileep as Kammaran, the protagonist in the film. In it, Othenan and his friend Satnam are working for the British. They are captured as traitors by Netaji (Subhas Chandra Bose) but they escape, and Othenan kills the man who reported their treason. Kelu Nambiar is shown as a compassionate landlord, who supports the poor workers. However, Kelu Nambiar's wife, Maheshwari, is shown inflicting cruelty and torturing the poor workers. When Kammaran arrives, who is shown as the leader of the ILP, prevents the harassment towards the poor workers and gains a massive support from the workers, and Maheshwari is forced to flee. Kammaran is shown doing many things for the benefit of the villagers, such as looting money from the British to distribute it amongst the villagers. Bhanumathi is shown as Kammaran's wife. Othenan returns and plots with Maheshwari and the British against Kammaran. The plot involves the use of Netaji's death to gain Kammaran's trust so that they can then blame Kammaran for the planned assassination of Mahatma Gandhi.

Kammaran then tells the story of how he met Netaji. During the Battle of Imphal in 1944, Kammaran saved Netaji who was injured by a grenade. Netaji found such confidence in Kammaran that he asked him to form a party for the people. As a strong symbol, Kammaran took the axe, the weapon Maheshwari's men used to murder his father, on which he swore revenge against India's landlord system. He returns to Amrutha Samudram and forms the ILP.

To foil the assassination plot, Kammaran posts his men in three places along Gandhi's procession route to a temple, while he rides on a train with Gandhi. Othenan secretly boards the train and moves against Gandhi, but Surendran has warned Kammaran that Othenan is a traitor. Kammaran stops and chases Othenan to the top of the train. After a lengthy and hardcore fist fight, Kammaran kills Othenan using his axe. Kammaran stands to be hanged for killing a British officer. The only person who believes his story is Robert S. Coogan, who convinces Jawaharlal Nehru to free him. The film ends with Kammaran refusing his followers' request to participate in elections, but promising to be back when he is needed.

The film becomes a success and helps the ILP return to power. Elderly Kammaran is made the Chief Minister of Kerala. Pulikesi arrives and asks him what really happened to Othenan. It is then shown that years later Othenan came for Bhanumathi, who was then Kammaran's wife, and Kammaran killed him brutally by stabbing him several times and crushing him in an oilseed press, but doesn't reveal this to Pulikeshi. Kammaran tells Pulikeshi that the movie is now history in everybody's mind and that actual events no longer matter.

Cast

Dileep in dual roles as:

Kammaran Nambiar, the villanous protagonist

Master Ajaz as young Kammaran

Himself

Siddharth in a Dual role as:

Othenan Nambiar

Himself

Murali Gopy in dual role as

Kelu Nambiar

Himself

Namitha Pramod in dual role as :

Bhanumathi

Herself

Bobby Simha as Director Pulikeshi

Shweta Menon as Malayil Maheshwari / Herself

Manikuttan in dual role as

Thilakan Purushothamman

Himself

Kenny Basumatary as Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose

Vijayaraghavan as Francis

Siddique as Bose Kammaran

Nedumudi Venu as Selvan Mooppeennu

Indrans as Surendran

Vinay Forrt as Chandrabanu

Sudheer Karamana as Rajappan

Family tree

Dotted lines indicate a love relationship between characters, and dashed lines indicate marriage relationship between characters.

Production

Kammara Sambhavam is the feature film directorial debut of prolific advertisement filmmaker Rathish Ambat. The plot follows the adventures of Kammaran, the character played by Dileep. According to Ambat, "We can't limit the movie to any specific genre", it has politics, contemporary relevance, history and elements of a thriller. He describes the film as "a satire that has politics, history, and cinema". Murali Gopi worked on the script for nearly two years. He describes the film as a satire that crisscross period, pop, and black comedy. Sidharth makes his Malayalam film debut with the film. Namitha Pramod plays the female lead.

Principal photography began on 18 August 2016 in Kochi. The production was unexpectedly stalled while it was filmed in Theni, Tamil Nadu, during July 2017 because of Dileep's arrest. After a break, the filming resumed on 9 October 2017 in Vengara, Malappuram district; Dileep rejoined the film on 20 October in Malayattoor, Ernakulam district. There was a schedule in Chennai which completed before December 2017, after which one schedule was remaining to be shot in Theni. By the time it stalled production in July, the film had already spend ₹10 crore (100 million rupees) on budget. It was completed on a total budget of ₹20 crore.

Soundtrack

The film's original songs were composed by Gopi Sundar.