Manu Uncle

Manu Uncle
Directed by	Dennis Joseph
Produced by	Joy Thomas
Screenplay by	Shibu Chakraborthy
Story by	Dennis Joseph
Starring	Mammootty Master Pratheek Master Star Master Sandeep Master Kareem Baby Sonia M. G. Soman Prathapachandran Suresh Gopi (cameo) Mohanlal (cameo)
Music by	Shyam
Cinematography	Jayanan Vincent
Editing by	K. Shankunny
Distributed by	Jubilee Productions
Release date(s)	1988
Country	India
Language	Malayalam

Manu Uncle is a 1988 Malayalam children's film written and directed by Dennis Joseph starring Mammootty in title role.^[1] The film is regarded as one of the best children's film ever in Malayalam cinema and it won a National Award and a Kerala State Film Award.

Plot

Mammootty plays the lead role Manu, M.A., L.L.B., BTech Electronics who is researching in astronomy. Manu's father (M. G. Soman) is a police officer. Lisi plays the role of Manu's sister Uma. Prathapachandran plays Ravunni, a family friend. Antony (Azeez) and Mary (K. P. A. C. Lalitha) are neighbours of Manu. Their children are Dany aka Lother and Ikru. Manu's elder sister (Jalaja)'s children comes from Delhi for their vacation. They with Dany and Ikru make up a four member team headed by Dany.

The children happened to visit the Art Museum on the very same time when the Marthandavarma's crown was stolen. Ikru noticed the robbers, Gomas, Appu and Kittu but was not able to describe them to his grandpa. Manu who has a well equipped communication system once happened to hear a conversation between Kittu and Gomas planning to loot Marthandavarmas's sword. Manu and his father rush to the palace. Gomas meanwhile already gets hold of the sword when he encounters Manu and his dad. A fight follows in which Manu gets injured by Gomas; so now Manu's father follows the robbers alone. But the police officer gets killed by the robbers in a planned lorry accident. The viewers are just now able to know who the mastermind behind the robbery which was Ravunni, the family friend.

Unfortunately for him though, the incident was witnessed by Khader, a young orphan who was happened to be in that lorry. The robbers see the boy and go after him. The boy manages to escape from them and in the process ends up meeting the four children, and tell them that their grandpa was not dead in an accident but was killed.

The curious children decide to investigate the murder. Ikru who had already met Gomas drew his picture which was noticed by Manu and Ravunni. Ravunni gets shocked and Manu started developing doubts about Ravunni after watching his tensed face. Manu goes to Ravunni's house when he was not their and made sure his doubts where true.

The children meanwhile decide to go to the gang's hideout as per the directions from Khader. They get shocked on knowing that it was Ravunni leading the gang. The gang sees the children who crossed their fence and Ravunni directs his cronies to kill them. But, soon Manu reaches there and saves the children. The climax scene has a very funny fight scene which was enhanced by the funny inspector role of Suresh Gopi as 'Minnal' Prathapan. The movie ends when the robber gang gets arrested by the police.

Mohanlal and Suresh Gopi had special appearance in the film. Mohanlal played the role of himself and Suresh Gopi as SI 'Minnal' Prathapan.

Cast

• Mammootty as Manu
• Master Pratheek as Dany aka Lother
• Master Star as Ikru
• Master Anoop as Shanku
• Master Kareem as Khader
• Baby Sonia
• M. G. Soman as DySP
• Azeez as Antony
• Prathapachandran as Ravunni Menon
• B. Thyagarajan as Gomas
• Mohan Jose as Security guard of Ravunni Menon
• Lizzy as Uma
• K. P. A. C. Lalitha as Mary
• Jalaja as Manu's elder sister

Special appearances

• Suresh Gopi as SI 'Minnal' Prathapan
• Mohanlal as himself

Crew

• Story,Direction ..... Dennis Joseph
• Screenplay, Dialogues and Lyrics .... Shibu Chakraborthy
• Producer .... Joy Thomas
• Distribution .... Jubilee Productions
• Cinematography .... Jayanan Vincent
• Editor .... K. Shankunny
• Stunt .... A. R. Basha
• Art Direction .... Sabu Pravadas
• Associate direction .... Jimmy
• P. R. O. .... Ranji Kottayam
• Stills .... R. Sukumar
• Make up .... Thomas
• Costume Design .... Kumar

Awards

• National Film Award for Best Children's Film^[2]
• Kerala State Film Award for Best Children's Film

Soundtrack

Composer: Shyam; Lyricist: Shibu Chakraborhy

• "Mele Veettile" .... K. S. Chithra
• "Oru Kili" .... K. S. Chithra & M. G. Sreekumar

References

1. ^ Manu Uncle
2. ^ India 1990: Annual review. India: Annual Review. India: Competition Review. 1990. p. 624. 

External links

• Manu Uncle at the Internet Movie Database