Rakshadhikari Baiju Oppu

Rakshadhikari Baiju Oppu is a 2017 Malayalam comedy-drama film written and directed by Ranjan Pramod. It stars Biju Menon in the lead role with Aju Varghese and Hannah Reji Koshy playing supporting roles. The movie is produced by Alexander Mathew and Satheesh Kolam under the banner 100th Monkey Movies. The soundtrack and background score are composed by Bijibal. Prasanth Raveendran handles the cinematography. It released in India on 21 April 2017 to positive reviews, eventually becoming a box office hit.^[2]

Plot

Rakshadikari Baiju Oppu explores the story of a funny and good-hearted man Baiju, portrayed by Biju Menon, who is a Government employee and a patron of the Rakshadhikari of Brothers Club in Kumbalam. The club doesn't have any office but functions under a tree , where relationships are made and the warmth and joy it radiates. The members play mainly cricket. There is no definite plot for the film, just routine incidents which happen in day to day life.

Cast

• Biju Menon as Baiju Kumbalam
• Aju Varghese as Unni
• Deepak Parambol as Manoj
• Hareesh Perumanna as Vineeth
• Hannah Reji Koshy as Ajitha
• Sankar Induchoodan as Hari Kumbalam
• Anagha L K as Rosy
• Krishna Padmakumar
• Janardhanan
• Indrans
• Vijayaraghavan as Balakrishnan, Baiju's father
• Dileesh Pothan as George
• Padmaraj Ratheesh as Chandran
• Alencier Ley Lopez as Surendran
• Manikandan Pattambi
• Sasi Kalinga
• Aabid Nassar
• Anjali Aneesh as Bijila
• Sreedhannya as Nirmala
• Ambika Mohan
• Nebish Benson
• Chethan Jayalal
• Master Vishal Krishna
• Hakkim Shah as Josemon
• Indian Pallassery
• K.T.S. Padannayil

Production

The shooting of the movie started on 6 October 2016. First look poster of the movie released on 4 March 2017.^[3]

Release and reception

Rakshadhikari Baiju Oppu released on 21 April 2017. After having a slow start at the box office, it soon picked up pace and reportedly collected ₹ 8.32 crore in 21 days.^[4] The film marked the comeback of writer-director Ranjan Pramod after two successive box office failures.^[4] The film completed 90 days run in theatres and fetched ₹ 13.6 crore gross.^[1] According to online portal Filmibeat.com, Rakshadhikari Baiju Oppu is among the best films released in the year 2017.^[1]

Critical reviews to the film have been mostly positive. Lauding the film as a feel-good entertainer, Mythili Ramachandran of Gulf News wrote: "Rakshadhikari Baiju is a refreshing film with its characters leaving behind a nice feeling."^[5] Veeyen also gave a positive review, writing, "Clever, enjoyable, witty and poignant by turns, ‘Rakshadhikari Baiju Oppu’ is an entertaining character drama with a subtle, pertinent note concealed within its folds."^[6]

References