Big Brother (2020 film)

Big Brother is a 2020 Indian Malayalam-language action thriller film written, directed and co-produced by Siddique. It was jointly produced by S Talkies, Shaman International, and Vaishaka Cynyma, in association with Carnival Movie Network. The film stars Mohanlal, Arbaaz Khan, Anoop Menon, Sarjano Khalid, Honey Rose, Siddique, Vishnu Unnikrishnan, Irshad, Tini Tom, Mirnaa Menon, and Gaadha. Big Brother marks the Malayalam film debut of Khan. The music for the film was composed by Deepak Dev.

Principal photography began in July 2019 and was completed in December. It was shot extensively in Bangalore, and the rest in Mysore, Mangalore, Ernakulam, and Coimbatore. Big Brother was released worldwide on 16 January 2020.

Plot
The story of the film begins with Sachidanandan (Mohanlal), who is released after 24 years of his life. Sachi's younger brother Manu (Sharjano Khalid) releases Sachi using Edwin Moses. Sachidanandan went to jail before Manu was born for accidentally killing to save his stepmother and his brother from an attack. During his life in the juvenile home, Sachidanandan committed a second murder to save his friends from a sadistic police officer. As a result, he is punished for solitary confinement. Sachidanandan has a special ability to see in the dark. Sachidanandan's ability is used by the police as a commando for many prisoner group commando operations. When he gets out of jail, Vendantham, IPS (Arbaaz Khan) seeks Sachidanandan's help, but Sachidanandan refuses. Since, he wants a peaceful life. However, Sachidanandan finds it hard to get himself out of troubles. 

After a loop of troubles , the drug lord whom the police is none other than Vedantham. He ran a drug empire as Edwin Moses. Edwin kills Khan (Tini Tom) and Pareekkar(Irshad). A angry Sachi blasts the container of drugs which belonged to Edwin. Then , he dies under the hand of Sachi. In the post-credits , it is shown that Sachi has returned to the habits which he used to do in his jail term.

Cast
 Mohanlal as Sachidanandan / Sachi
 Arbaaz Khan as Vedantham IPS / Edwin Moses
 Anoop Menon as Dr. Vishnu, Sachidanandan's Brother
 Vishnu Unnikrishnan as Khani
 Sarjano Khalid as Manu, Sachidanandan's brother
 Siddique as Shetty
 Tini Tom as Khan
 Mirnaa Menon as Arya Shetty, Shetty's daughter
 Irshad as Pareekkar
 Devan as ADGP Prathapachandra Menon, Vandhana's father
 Janardhanan as Vallyammavan
 Honey Rose as Dr. Vandhana
 Gaadha as Gemini
 John Vijay as Govind Raj
 Dinesh Panicker as Mohanachandran
 Abu Salim as D'Souza
 Shilpa Ajayan
 Vijayshanti as Sita 
 Asif Basra as Muthan
 Chetan Hansraj as Vinayaraj
 Ahran Chaudhary
 Appa Haja as Husband of Sachidanandan's stepmother
 Shaju Sreedhar
 Nirmal Palazhi as Velappan, servant
 Kollam Sudhi as Servant
 Anjali Krishna

Production

Development
In May 2018, Siddique revealed in an interview to The New Indian Express that his next Malayalam film is with Mohanlal and it will be released in April 2019. Later, media outlets reported that the film has been titled Big Brother. Soon, Siddique revealed that it is a big budget film with action and humour, and it would begin production in November that year. Denying the reports of Nayanthara and Innocent being cast in the film, he said "we are yet to confirm the cast as I have only a basic thread in my mind and am yet to start scripting". Big Brother was officially announced by Mohanlal through his social media on 9 October 2018 by sharing a title poster.

It was said to be jointly produced by Siddique's and Jenso Jose's S Talkies, Philipose K. Joseph's and Manu Maliackal's Shaman International, and Vaishak Rajan's Vaishaka Cynyma. Big Brother was initially planned with a budget of ₹28 crore, but it went up to ₹32 crore while in production and the corporate company Carnival Movie Network joined the project to invest the additional money. S Talkies and Carnival Movie Network also distributes the film. A pooja ceremony for the film was held on 24 April 2019, followed by a recording session by music director Deepak Dev. Siddique was completing the final draft of screenplay in May 2019.

Casting
More cast were revealed in May 2019, including Arbaaz Khan, Anoop Menon, Vishnu Unnikrishnan, Sarjano Khalid, Chemban Vinod Jose, Siddique, Janardanan, and Tini Tom in pivotal roles. Big Brother marks the Malayalam film debut of Bollywood actor Khan. He plays Vedandam IPS, an encounter specialist. Mohanlal plays Sachithanandan, and Menon and Khalid portrays his younger brothers. Menon plays doctor Vishnu, according to him, Vishnu is the "nicest character" he has played so far. Regina Cassandra and Satna Titus were in talks to play the female lead roles that month. The former for the role of Arya Shetty, the daughter of a wealthy businessman and Sachithanandan's romantic interest, and the latter as the pair of Khalid's character. Titus was confirmed in that month along with another debutante Shilpa Ajayan as the pair of Menon's character. Cassandra opted out from the film due to scheduling conflicts. She was replaced by newcomer Mirnaa Menon, whose casting took place only few days before filming. Gaadha plays one of the three female lead roles in the film, it is her first Malayalam appearance and second film after Nimir.

Filming
Principal photography began on 11 July 2019 in Ernakulam. Filming was initially scheduled to begin on 20 June 2019 with Mohanlal joining on 1 July after finishing his work in Ittymaani: Made in China. The film was mostly shot at Bangalore with a few scenes at Kochi. Mohanlal was filming scenes in Kochi in September. In October, filming took place near the HMT factory in Bangalore. The team were also shooting in Mysore in that month. Lalitha Mahal palace was a filming location. The film was to be shot at the streets of Mysore but heavy downpour caused delay and filming was restricted to indoor sequences. Final schedule of filming resumed in mid-November. Final schedule took place in places such as Ernakulam and Coimbatore. Mirnaa had 100 days shoot. Filming was completed in December 2019, taking longer than expected. The budget also hiked to ₹32 crore. The stunts were choreographed by Supreme Sundar and Stunt Silva, and the songs were choreographed by Brinda, Dinesh Kumar, and Prasanna Sujit.

Soundtrack

The film features a background score and three original songs composed by Deepak Dev, with lyrics by Rafeeq Ahamed and Santhosh Varma. The audio launch function of the film was held at Darbar Hall Ground, Ernakulam on 26 December 2019. The soundtrack album was released by the label Millennium Audios on 21 December 2019.

Release
Big Brother was released worldwide on 16 January 2020. The satellite rights of Big Brother was bought by Surya TV and online streaming rights were purchased by Amazon's Prime Video.

References

External links 
 
 

Category:Indian films
Category:2020s Malayalam-language films
Category:Films about brothers
Category:Indian action thriller films
Category:Indian action comedy films
Category:Films directed by Siddique
Category:Films set in Bangalore
Category:Films shot in Kochi
Category:Films scored by Deepak Dev
Category:Fictional portrayals of the Karnataka Police
Category:Indian films about revenge