Kochi Rajavu (translated as King of Kochi) is a 2005  Indian Malayalam-language action comedy thriller film directed by Johny Antony and written by the Udayakrishna-Siby K. Thomas duo. It stars Dileep in the lead role with Kavya Madhavan, Rambha, Harisree Ashokan, Murali and Jagathy Sreekumar in supporting roles.

The film marks the second collaboration between Dileep, Johny Antony, and the writing duo Udaykrishna–Sibi K. Thomas after C.I.D. Moosa (2003).

Plot

The film starts with Suryanarayana Varma a.k.a. Unni, who hails from a royal family, returning from prison. He had killed the son of a large family who are now searching for him. Unni's parents enroll him in a law college in Chennai. There he meets Meenakshi and gets into conflicts her brother Siva, and Siva's enemy Muthu. Meenakshi eventually falls in love with Unni. Once Meenakshi's family finds out about her love for Unni they visit his house for a marriage request. But Unni has a past he can't escape, which he narrates his flashback to Meenakshi.

He fell in love with a woman named Aswathy, a medical student. Aswathy's parents are dead, and she lives with her uncles Karimparakal Prabhakaran, Sudhakaran and Divakaran and their family. Prabhakaran wants to gain her inheritance by arranging a marriage between his eldest son Prakashan and Aswathy. Aswathy accidentally gets into the autorickshaw of Unni when she is going to meet Prakashan. During the ride, Unni falls in love with her and delays bringing Aswathy to her destination.

She becomes fed up with him and decides to tell her uncles. She and her uncle plan to make fun of him and calls Unni to her house. Unni gets shocked to see Aswathy's uncles, and realises that hit them before. They beat him very badly and throws him out. She falls for him after he recovers. They decide to get married, but her uncles objects and during a fight between Unni, Prakashan and their henchmen, Unni kills Prakashan in a fit of rage and in self-defence. For this, he is jailed for 5 years.

Back to present, Unni's father makes him believe Aswathy has been married off to a NRI settled in Gulf, so he gets engaged to Meenakshi. Meanwhile, Aswathy calls Unni, telling him that she is still waiting for him. He goes to Kerala to find her, and tries to escape with her in a truck. Chased by Aswathy's family and Meenakshi's family they are saved finally by the autorickshaw drivers and get married.

Cast

Release
The film was released on 14 April 2005 coinciding with Vishu. It was released alongside and faced competition from the Prithviraj-starrer Athbhutha Dweepu, the Mohanlal-starrer Chandrolsavam and the Jayaram-starrer Alice in Wonderland. Made on a budget of ₹2.5 crores, Kochi Rajavu was a commercial success. It grossed ₹2.804 crore from three days and ₹4.01 crore in 21 days from 44 screens with a distributor's share of  ₹1.73 Crore. It ended its commercial performance with the verdict "average" and thus emerged the year's Vishu winner.

Music

Music : Vidyasagar. Vidyasagar later adapted the song "Munthiri Padam" in Tamil as "Aruviyoda" for the film Pasa Kiligal.

Lyrics : Thunchath Ramanujan Ezhuthachan

References

External links 
 

2000s Malayalam-language films
2005 films
Films scored by Vidyasagar (composer)
Indian action comedy films
Films shot in Kochi
Films shot in Chennai
Indian prison films
Films directed by Johny Antony