In Harihar Nagar

In Harihar Nagar
Directed by	Siddique-Lal
Produced by	Khais-Kuriachan
Written by	Siddique-Lal
Starring	Mukesh Siddique Jagadish Ashokan
Music by	S. Balakrishnan
Cinematography	Venu
Edited by	Gaurishekar K. R.
Production company	Mohsin Priya Combines
Distributed by	Swargachitra
Release dates	1990 (1990)
Country	India
Language	Malayalam

In Harihar Nagar is a 1990 Malayalam comedy-thriller film written and directed by the duo Siddique-Lal. It stars Mukesh, Siddique, Jagadish and Ashokan in major roles. The film became one of the biggest hits in Malayalam film history and has a dedicated cult following.^[1] It is referred to as part of the golden age of Malayalam comedy and among the most hilarious movies in Indian cinema.^[2] The film ran for 150 days.

The film has spawned two sequels, 2 Harihar Nagar (2009), In Ghost House Inn (2010) directed by Lal. In Harihar Nagar was remade in several other Indian languages including twice in Hindi as Parda Hai Parda and Dhol as well as in Kannada (Nagaradalli Nayakaru), Tamil (MGR Nagaril) and Telugu (Madhuranagarilo).

Plot

Mahadevan (Mukesh), Govindan Kutty (Siddique), Appukuttan (Jagadish) and Thomas Kutty (Ashokan) are four young men who live in the housing colony named 'Harihar Nagar.' The movie starts with an incident that takes place in Bombay, where a murder takes place for the possession of a briefcase. In the next scene the four young men make appearance with their tricks to impress young girls. A girl, "Maya" (Geetha Vijayan), along with her grandparents relocate to Harihar Nagar and happen to be Mahadevan's new neighbors. The four try to impress her on many occasions. One day they find her her posting a letter. They bribe the postman and manage to get hold of that letter. On reading the contents of the letter, they come to know that Maya has come to Harihar Nagar to learn about the murder of her brother - Sethu Madhavan (Suresh Gopi).

Maya visits the house of Andrews (Saikumar), a friend of Sethu Madhavan. She requests Andrew's mother, called Ammachi by him and his friends (Kaviyoor Ponnamma) to contact her if she gets any information about her brother. The four men meet Ammachi as Sethu's friends. They manage to get Sethu's photo by telling that they want it for the colony's sports club. Maya gets this information from Ammachi and meets the four guys. She believes them to be Sethu's friends after seeing his photo at their house. The four cook up a story about an affair Sethu had with a girl.

Hearing the news that four are the friends of Sethu Madhavan, they are kidnapped by John Honai, who wants the briefcase shown in the beginning of the movie. Maya was in search of her brother's girlfriend and she finds details of Annie Philip (Rekha), who was close to her brother from the library. Annie is now a nun in a church and adopted the name Sister Josephine. Josephine narrates about her history with Sethu when questioned by Maya. Andrew's father was a businessman who was killed by John Honai's father and he built a business empire with the money taken from Andrew's father. Andrews creates trouble in that business to take revenge. Honai's father then sells all his assets and tries to run away with that money in the briefcase, but gets killed on the way. At the beginning of the movie, they show Andrews as the murderer. Andrews hands over the briefcase to Sethu since he is being followed. Andrews is killed soon after.

Sethu comes to Harihar Nagar to give this money to Ammachi but when he gets to know that Ammachi is ignorant of Andrew's death and is still waiting for him, he gives it to Annie, who is Andrew's girlfriend. After returning to Bombay, Sethu is also killed by Honai.

The four men who were under captive by John Honai manage to escape and are on a run. Soon after Maya and her grandparents are then caught by Honai but the four rescue them. Ammachi comes to know about Andrew's death from Sister Josephine who gives her the briefcase. While Ammachi was cooking dinner, Honai comes to her house to get the briefcase. Ammachi removes the fuse and the lights go off. After a short game of "hide-and-seek," John lights a lighter. He goes in flames since the cooking gas was left open by Ammachi before he had entered the house.

Maya is packing her bags to leave Harihar nagar. She meets the four before leaving and hands them the briefcase as a gift. When her car leaves, the briefcase opens and the money, jewelry, everything falls out. She shouts from the car that it is for them. The film ends here.

Cast

• Mukesh as Mahadevan
• Siddique as Govindan Kutty
• Jagadish as Appukuttan
• Ashokan as Thomas Kutty
• Suresh Gopi as Sethumadhavan
• Saikumar as Andrews
• Riza Bava as John Honai
• Geetha Vijayan as Maya
• Rekha as Sister Josephine / Annie Phillip
• Kaviyoor Ponnamma as Andrews's mother
• Philomina as Sethumadhavan's and Maya's grandmother
• Paravoor Bharathan as Sethumadhavan's and Maya's grandfather
• Appa Haja as Cherian
• Thrissur Elsy as Mahadevan's mother

Soundtrack

The soundtrack features two super hit songs composed by S. Balakrishnan and lyrics penned by Bichu Thirumala. The songs were remixed and used by Alex Paul for 2 Harihar Nagar, the first sequel of this film.

1. "Ekantha Chandrike" - M. G. Sreekumar, Unni Menon
2. "Unnam Marannu" - M. G. Sreekumar, Chorus

Trivia

The film is one of the most widely viewed and remembered movies in Malayalam film history. It has a cult status among the youth even 25 years later. Dialogues between the four friends teasing each other is widely popular amongst college students.

Sequels

19 years after the release of the original, In Harihar Nagar had a sequel 2 Harihar Nagar directed by Lal of the director-duo Siddique-Lal. It was released on 1 April 2009. After its success, Lal planned another sequel, named In Ghost House Inn. It was released on 25 March 2010.

Remake versions

• Another Tamil version of the film, titled Idhu MGR Illam, was under production.^[5]

References

External links

• In Harihar Nagar at the Internet Movie Database