My Dear Kuttichathan

My Dear Kuttichathan
Directed by	Jijo Punnoose
Produced by	Navodaya Appachan Jose Punnoose
Written by	Raghunath Paleri T.K. Rajeev Kumar
Starring	Dalip Tahil Sonia Master Aravind Master Mukesh Surya Kiran Rajan P. Dev Jagathi Sreekumar Jagadish
Music by	Ilaiyaraaja
Cinematography	Ashok Kumar
Edited by	T. R. Sekar
Production company	Navodaya Studios
Release dates	24 August 1984 (1984-08-24)
Country	India
Language	Malayalam
Budget	1 crore

My Dear Kuttichathan (Malayalam:മൈ ഡിയർ കുട്ടിച്ചാത്തൻ) is a 1984 Indian Malayalam fantasy film directed by Jijo Punnoose making his directorial debut.^[1] The film was produced by his father Navodaya Appachan under Navodaya studio in Kerala. It was the first Indian film to be filmed in 3D.

The film revolves around a little ghost who is under the spell of an evil sorcerer however it gets released by three children and befriends them. The film's script was written by Raghunath Paleri and T. K. Rajeevkumar. The film's soundtrack was composed by Ilaiyaraaja. The film's cinematography and editing was done by Ashok Kumar and T. R. Sekar respectively.

Originally filmed in Malayalam, a re-edited version was released in 1997 which makes it the first DTS movie in Malayalam and also was dubbed in Hindi as Chhota Chetan in 1997 and became a big box office hit. Scenes with Urmila Matondkar were added. In 2010, further scenes were added in Tamil with Prakash Raj and Santhanam and was released as Chutti Chathan. A new re-mastered version with additional footage released on 25 August 2011. My Dear Kuttichathan went on to become the Highest Grossing Malayalam Film of all time grossing more than 1.5 Crs at Boxoffice.

Plot

The character 'Kuttichathan' is formed on the basis of the specialties of a deity popularly known as 'Chathan' who is being worshiped mainly in the south Indian state, Kerala. There are cruel magicians everywhere in the world. One of them is the Karimbhootham (black magician), who enslaved an invisible spirit with his magic spells, whom he calls Kuttichathan ("Little Ghost" in English and "Chhota Chetan" in Hindi). Two boys and a girl befriend Kuttichathan by accident and release him from the grip of the magician.

On the way Kuttichathan meets Ashish, a member of the police, who is after Karimbhootham.

They understand that this Chathan is friendly to kids and is a very good friend. Therefore, the girl promises to keep Kuttichathan in a house for two reasons: one, her father drinks too much, so she wants Chathan, who is a very good magician, to make him himself, as her mother has died, there is no one to control him; second, Chathan, being a small boy, also drinks a lot. He could drink all that her father drinks, thereby changing her father's attitude.

At the same time, the cruel magician wants the Kuttichathan to lay hands on a treasure. Even though the magician is the owner of the Kuttichathan, he is burnt and killed by the Chathan in the climax. Chathan turns into a bat and flies away.

Cast

• Kottarakkara Sreedharan Nair - The Cruel Magician
• Kuttichathan — M.P.Ramnath
• Sonia - Laxmi
• Master Suresh — Vijay
• Arvind — Vinod
• Dalip Tahil - Laxmi's father
• Alummoodan
• Jagathy Sreekumar
• Mukesh
• Sainuddin - Bartender
• Rajan P. Dev - School Teacher
• Jagadeesh - Cabaret Announcer
• Kalabhavan Mani - Magician
• Kallapetti Singaram — Rickshaw driver

Production

My Dear Kuttichathan was the first Indian film to be filmed in 3D.^[2] Jijo Punnoose, son of Navodaya Appachan made his directorial debut with this film. Jijo decided to direct a 3D film after getting inspired by an article in "American Cinematographer" shown to him by Ramchandra Babu.^[3] Ashok Kumar handled cinematography for the film.^[4][5]

Soundtrack

Malayalam version

Tamil version (Dubbed)

Release

The film was released in 1984 along with dubbed versions in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi. Telugu and Hindi versions were titled Chinnari Chethana and Chhota Chetan respectively. All the versions proved to be successful.

Hindi version was re-released by Nitin Manmohan in 1997 with additional scenes which involved Urmila Matondkar and other Hindi actors.^[6] In 2010, Sri Thenandal Films re-released Tamil version titled Chutti Chathan in 2010 with added scenes starring Santhanam and Prakash Raj.

Legacy

The film became a trendsetter and remains a cult classic in Malayalam cinema. The optical illusion in house set used in the song "Aalipazham Perukkaan" was built in Kishkinta Theme Park.^[7]

Box office

The film was highly successful in Malayalam, Tamil and Hindi versions,^{[8][9][10][11]} became the most grossing Malayalam film at that time.^[12] The film was re released in 1997 which was also highly successful at box office, had earned 60 times its initial investments.^[13][14]

References

External links

• My Dear Kuttichathan at the Internet Movie Database
• Technical presentation by Jijo on Gravity Illusion used in the film