Niram

Niram
DVD cover
Directed by	Kamal
Written by	Dr. Iqbal Kuttippuram Sathrughnan
Starring	Kunchacko Boban Shalini Jomol
Music by	Vidyasagar
Cinematography	P. Sukumar
Edited by	K. Rajagopal
Distributed by	Johny Sagarika Release & PJ Entertainments
Release date	November 1999 (1999-11)
Running time	170 minutes
Country	India
Language	Malayalam
Box office	₹5 crore[1]

Niram (English: Colour) is a 1999 Malayalam Romantic film directed by Kamal, starring Kunchacko Boban and Shalini in the lead roles. The film is about a special friendship between a boy and girl, Aby (Kunchacko Boban) and Sona (Shalini). The film's music was composed by Vidyasagar.

Niram was a commercial success, and brought back in a genre of college campus based films in Malayalam cinema. The film was remade in Telugu as Nuvve Kavali starring Tarun and Richa Pallod, in Tamil as Piriyadha Varam Vendum starring Prashanth and Shalini, in Kannada as Ninagagi with Vijay Raghavendra and in Hindi as Tujhe Meri Kasam starring Ritesh Deshmukh and Genelia D'souza.

Niram had a lasting effect in the youngsters of that generation who got influenced by the concept of friends being lovers which is a philosophy propagated in Shahrukh Khan's movies. It is this influence that has led several couples to acknowledge themselves as 'Da' and 'Di' which helped them form a unique bond of friendship. With more and more youngsters choosing their best friends as partners, this movement has had a significant impact in improving gender equality and strengthening family relationships in the state of Kerala.

Plot

Aby (Kunchacko Boban) and Sona (Shalini) are neighbor and family friends. They were brought up together and have been together since childhood. They share a special form of friendship and romance was nowhere in their plan. They are pair of pranksters, fun-loving and always up to some tricks. Their families find their friendship special, their friends call them siamese twins (having never seen them away from each other).

The story take a turn, when Sona goes to Bangalore to participate in a youth festival, Aby misses her so much that he realizes that what he feels for Sona is more than friendship. He is all set to tell her his love when he realizes that he doesn't know how she feels about him, also he feels he should not take undue advantage of the freedom their parents have given them. When Sona returns, she tells Aby about Prakash Mathew (Boban Alummodan), who proposed to her when they were in Bangalore. Sona, who is confused about her feelings for Prakash, confides in Aby who encourages her to confess her feelings to Prakash. Sona and Prakash become a couple but this brings unexpected strain into Aby's and Sona's friendship. Prakash's reactions to Aby's closeness to Sona makes Aby realize things will never be the same again. Aby realizing that Sona is hurt by Prakash's actions towards him starts showing interest towards Varsha (Jomol), who has always been in love with Aby. Aby starts avoiding Sona and starts spending more time with Varsha. This infuriates Sona.

Meanwhile, Prakash and Sona's marriage is fixed. Varsha asks Aby to meet her Dad, but he does not turn up for the meeting giving excuses. Varsha later tells him that she realizes that he loves Sona and as long as that is the case, he would never reciprocate her feelings and it is best to tell Sona the truth. In the meantime, arrangements start for Sona's marriage to Prakash. After a dinner where the families of Aby, Sona and Prakash discuss marriage, Sona realizes that she would be moving to USA, away from her parents and Aby . She gets emotional and asks him why he never loved her, then everything would have been perfect! Aby is overcome by emotion and hugs her. He apologizes and leaves immediately. Sona is shocked at the extent of his feelings and she goes to his house and finds a card in which he has written SUK-RI-YA (which in the movie means - I love you) near her name. Sona is hurt and when Aby comes into the room gets very angry at him for having hidden so many things from her and finally tells him that she loves him too. Aby tries to pacify her and make her understand that it would be inappropriate to tell their parents at this stage.

She gets engaged to Prakash and Aby decides to leave before the wedding. Their parents are flummoxed at his sudden decision to leave and try to dissuade him. Aby is adamant and Sona goes to leave him to the railway station. In the meantime, their parents find out that they are in love and come in search of them to find the pair sitting on the stairs of the station, Aby not having left. Their parents suggest that they get married as they are special for each other.

Cast

• Kunchacko Boban as Aby
• Shalini as Sona (Voice Dubbed by Sreeja Ravi)
• Jomol as Varsha (Voice Dubbed by Ambili)
• Boban Alummoodan as Prakash Mathew (Voice Dubbed by Vijay Menon)
• Lalu Alex as Dr. Sunny
• Devan as Jacob Job
• Ambika as Aby's mother (Voice Dubbed by Anandavally)
• Bindu Panicker as Maya (Sona's mother)
• Babu Swamy as Colonel Uncle (Shukriya Uncle)
• Kovai Sarala as Rukku (Aby’s Maid)
• KPAC Lalitha as Prakash Mathew's Grandmother
• Prem Prakash as Mathukutty
• Ponnamma Babu as Prakash's mother
• Rizabawa as Jinan
• Divya Unni (Guest Role as herself)

Soundtrack

The music was composed by Vidyasagar and lyrics was written by Gireesh Puthenchery and Bichu Thirumala.

Box office

The movie was a huge commercial success and made a theatrical run of more than 150 days due to positive reviews and word of mouth.The film was the 3rd biggest hit of the year just behind Friends and Pathram. The film became immensely popular among the youth and turned the lead pair into overnight superstars. The film collected around ₹5 crore from box office.^[2]

References

External links

• Niram on IMDb