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Classmates (2006 film)

Classmates is a 2006 Indian Malayalam-language coming-of-age drama film directed by Lal Jose and written by James Albert. The film features an ensemble cast including Prithviraj Sukumaran, Narain, Kavya Madhavan, Indrajith Sukumaran, Jayasurya and Radhika in the lead roles and Balachandra Menon, Shobha Mohan Jagathy Sreekumar, Anoop Chandran, and Suraj Venjaramoodu in major supporting roles. The story revolves around a college graduate class of 1991. In 2006, working in different corners of the world, the friends get together for a class reunion to revive the joy and laughter of their college days. On the night of the reunion, one of the students is almost murdered and goes into a coma.

Plot
2006: It was Murali's dream to have a 15-year reunion with his classmates from college, but he had mysteriously died while still in college in 1991. His parents, Iyer and Lakshmi, both teachers at the college, decide to fulfill their deceased son's dream and organize the reunion. His classmates include Suku, Satheesan, Vasu, Pious, Thara and Raziya. Suku is now a successful diamond dealer and business tycoon based in Mumbai, Satheesan is an MLA, while Vasu is his PA. Pious is settled in the Middle East and Thara is a classical dancer and runs a dancing school. Raziya had suffered a nervous breakdown years ago and is on her way to a slow recovery. All the old classmates arrive for the reunion and are reliving their old memories. Unexpectedly, Suku attempts suicide that night, although the friends suspect that this is not the case. Even though they find out his personal diary with many negative notes and suicide notes penned by him, they refuse to believe. Pious then narrates Suku's back story to Iyer while at the hospital. 1991: Murali is a singer, Suku is a firebrand student union leader in student politics and Pious is a rich and spoiled brat and is Suku's best friend. Suku's rival Satheeshan leads the opposite faction of student politics with his sidekick Vasu. Thara Kurup is the daughter of an MLA and also an award winning classical dancer. Raziya comes from a conservative Muslim family. During the final year of college, when Satheeshan finds out that Suku and Thara are in love, he plans to separate them and makes her stand against Suku in a college election. Just before the election day, Satheeshan steals a letter that Thara wrote for Suku and keeps it inside the ballet box. Pious sees this and he and Suku plan to retrieve the letter in the night but are unable to do so. The same night, Raziya and Murali, who are in love with each other decide to meet in the generator room to elope. Raziya waits for Murali in the generator room; however Murali does not show up. The next day, Thara's letter gets exposed which causes a public scandal and Satheeshan tells everyone including Thara that Suku was the one who put the letter inside the ballot box to misuse the letter. Thara breaks up with Suku and a vicious fight then breaks out between Suku and Satheeshan. During the fight, they are told that Murali has been found dead by Raziya in the generator room. Raziya then has a nervous breakdown. After Murali's funeral, Suku decides to discontinue his studies. He goes to Mumbai and begins his diamond business. His business associate, Shantharam, helps Suku with his family as well and marries him to his daughter Ratna. After Shantharam's death, Suku takes over the business, but he and Ratna get a divorce. 2006: In the present, Thara reveals that she came to the reunion to apologize to Suku for her breakup. After Suku left for Mumbai, she had realized that Suku was actually a kind and honest person. She reveals that a guilt-ridden Satheeshan had met her after a few years and admitted that he put Thara's letter in the ballot box for his petty political gains and that he was the reason why he stopped coming to college. She had also learnt about Suku's marriage and divorce. Thara reveals that on the night of the get-together, Thara meets Suku in the generator room and she tearfully apologizes to him and she confesses her love to him and asks him gently whether they can reunite as that young boy with the new grown moustache and his girl with the beautiful eyes. Suku then slightly holds her hands and she becomes emotional and bursts into tears and embraces him emotionally and he holds her in his arms. She also emotionally tells that she does not understand why he tried to commit suicide even though she reunited with him. Suku also had confessed that on the night Suku and Pious went to take Thara's letter from the ballot box, he hid in the generator room from the security and found somebody already there. In the darkness, mistaking it to be one of Satheeshan's men, he attacked and inadvertently killed that person who turned out to be Murali. Due to his shock and guilt, he had decided to discontinue his studies and leave the college. He also told that she is free to tell everyone about that fateful incident, but she never told anyone. Raziya later talks to Iyer about her nervous breakdown and her recovery. She then reveals that she also had gone into the generator room to remember Murali, but had hid from Suku and Thara and had overheard them. Raziya, consumed with rage due to the death of Murali, visits Suku the next day and strangles him when he was alone using a string from Murali's guitar, and stages it as a suicide; however she regrets it later. When Suku regains consciousness in the hospital, he tells the police that he tried to commit suicide, instead of what actually happened. Suku apologies to Iyer for killing Murali and tells Iyer to kill him as he does not want to live with everyone's curses. Iyer, Lakshmi and Raziya forgive him and ask Suku to be with Thara as she had been waiting for him for the past 15 years. So Suku forgives her and accepts her as his spouse and she embraces him with tears of joy. == Cast ==
Soundtrack
Alex Paul scored the film's background music and composed its soundtrack, lyrics for which was penned by Vayalar Sarath Chandra Varma. The soundtrack album consists of six tracks. The songs were recorded at Panchathan Record Inn, and the soundtrack was released under the Sathyam Audios label. It was released in Thiruvananthapuram on 31 August 2006 in the form of audio cassettes and compact discs. Reception Upon the album's release, it topped the charts with the song "Ente Khalbile" receiving significant radio and TV airtime. According to a year-end analysis by Sify, Classmates had become the highest selling soundtrack in Malayalam cinema up to that point. The song "Ente Khalbile" further propelled Sreenivasan's playback singing career in Malayalam cinema, becoming his biggest hit. The song "Ente Khalbile" reached number one on the charts on 19 October 2006, while the songs "Kattadi Thanalum" and "Kathuirna" reached the second and fourth spot respectively. Writing for The Hindu, music critic T. P. Sasthamangalam wrote, "The songs in Classmates recalls memories of the golden age of Malayalam music." Like Aniyathipravu and Niram, Lal Jose's Classmates is proving to be a trendsetter." Paresh C. Palicha of Now Running wrote, "Classmates is a rare phenomenon in recent times where music plays an integral part of the narrative, and that is the reason for its success." ==Release==
Release
Produced by Arya Films and distributed by Lal Creations, Classmates was released to low expectations, on 25 August 2006, during the Onam holiday period. It faced competition from other releases such as the Mohanlal-starrer Mahasamudram. The film opened to a wide audience, with 47 screens across Kerala. The DVD of the film with 5.1 surround sound was distributed by Central Home Entertainments. It was made available for streaming on Disney+ Hotstar since 2020. == Reception ==
Reception
Critical reception Classmates received mixed reviews, with critics praising its direction, story and cinematography. Paresh C. Palicha of Rediff wrote, "Classmates tells a campus story with a difference, and it is a well-narrated tale." Unni Nair of Now Running wrote, "Director Lal Jose's Onam offering, sends very positive signals as far as the Malayalam film industry is concerned. The refreshingly different film proves that with the back-up of a well-written script and good direction, the younger generation stars too can also work miracles." They also praise Indrajith's performance writing, "Prithviraj and Kavya lead the show with their regular strengths in emoting, but the pick of the mates is definitely, Indrajith, who shows great timing and flexibility in renditions. He definitely proves once again that he is to go distances in the Malayalam film industry." In October 2021, The Times of India wrote, "The movie keeps the suspense going till the end but most importantly leaves a perfect campus memory." It remained the top earning film in Kerala for a period of three months, till the release of Chakkaramuthu. The film completed 150 days run in Thiruvananthapuram and 100 days in Kottayam and Ernakulam as well. The film thus emerged as the highest-grossing Malayalam film of the year. According to film-trade website Sify, it was touted to collect ₹10 crores in distributors share by the end of its theatrical run. == Accolades ==
Remakes
Classmates has been remade in Tamil as Ninaithale Inikkum, with Prithviraj reprising his role. Narain is replaced by Shakthi Vasu and Kavya is replaced by Priyamani. The Telugu rights for the film were purchased by Shravanthi Ravikishore. The Telugu remake titled Classmates, with Sumanth and Sadha playing the lead roles, released in 2007. In 2015 it was remade in Marathi as Classmates with Ankush Chaudhary, Sai Tamhankar and Siddharth Chandekar. ==References==
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