Indian-Malayalam language sitcom
| Uppum Mulakum |
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| Genre | Sitcom |
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| Created by | R. Unnikrishnan |
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| Written by | Suresh Babu
Sreerag R. Nambiar
Afsal Karunagappally |
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| Directed by | Rajesh Thalachira,
R. Unnikrishnan |
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| Starring | |
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| Country of origin | India |
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| Original language | Malayalam |
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| No. of seasons | 2 |
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| No. of episodes | 1667 |
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| Producer | Flowers TV Production |
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| Cinematography | Anoop Kattakada
Midhun Muraleedharan |
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| Editor | Abhilash Elikkattoor |
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| Camera setup | Multi-camera |
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| Running time | 30 minutes |
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| Network | Flowers |
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| Release | 14 December 2015 (2015-12-14) – 26 February 2024 (2024-02-26) |
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| Erivum Puliyum |
Uppum Mulakum (transl. Salt and Chilli) was an Indian Malayalam-language sitcom, that had been broadcast on Flowers from 14 December 2015 to 26 February 2024. The sitcom was created by R. Unnikrishnan, who also directs it, after he returned to the director role in the second season. Uppum Mulakum depicted the everyday life of Balachandran Thampi, his wife Neelima, and their five children. The main cast included Biju Sopanam, Nisha Sarang, Rishi S. Kumar, Juhi Rustagi, Al Sabith, Shivani Menon, Baby Ameya and Parvathy Ayyappadas. Baby Ameya joined the show as the newborn baby of Balachandran and Neelima in May 2018, when she was four months old and Parvathy Ayyappadas joined the main cast in February 2023, as the wife of elder son Vishnu.[1]
It crossed 1,000 episodes in 2019.[2] The first season of the show aired from 14 December 2015 to 15 January 2021, consisting of 1206 episodes.
The second season of the show aired from 13 June 2022 to 26 February 2024 completing 461 episodes. Juhi Rustagi, who previously had left the show in January 2020 when it reached 1013 episodes came back to the show in the second season.[3]
Uppum Mulakum is one of the most popular and longest running Malayalam sitcoms that has been acclaimed throughout its run.[4][5][6] It won the Kerala State Television Award for Best Comedy Show in 2017.[7]
Plot summary
Season 1
The sitcom revolves around the family of Balu; a self-employed electronics technician, his wife Neelu, who works as an accountant in a private firm, and their five children: Vishnu who's called "Mudiyan" by his family's due to his hair, Lakshmi "Lechu", Keshav "Keshu", Shivani "Shiva" and Parvathi "Parrukutty". The family is usually referred to as Paramada Veedu.
Vishnu is a new-generation, lively dancer. Earlier he was often teased by his siblings for failing in his BSc examinations. He is Neelu's eldest and favorite son. He has a dance troupe. His hairstyle makes him a popular character. He even took care of his baby sister when no one was at home. In episode 803, he passed his BSc, which made the family happy, and thanks to Meenu his friend, Vishnu got a job at an advertisement company with an income. He lost the job and later joined in a private bank.
Lechu is the lazy, beauty-conscious eldest daughter of the family. She often teases her younger siblings. She loves writing poems and singing. She is always seen chatting with her friends. Later she joined for B.Com. She married Sidharth in episode 1011 and was last seen in season 1 during the 1013th episode (This was due to Juhi Rustagi leaving the show).
Keshu and Shiva are the school-going kids of the house. Keshu is a foodie while Shiva doesn't enjoy eating. Both are naughty but they share an unbreakable bond with each other. They make naughty plans together and Lechu always gets threatened by them. All of them love each other even though they keep fighting all day.
They are eventually joined by Parrukutty, the baby of the family. She is an adorable baby who has won the hearts of her family members. She was born in episode 604.
They are occasionally visited by Balu's brother Surendran Thambi, his parents Madhavan Thambi and Sharada, his aunt, his cousin Rema, Rema's husband Jayanthan, Rema's father (Balu's relative) Shankaran Thambi, Neelu's parents Kuttan Pillai and Bhavani Amma. Their neighbors Bhasi, Nawas, Shukoor, newspaper boy Kannan, auto-rickshaw driver Chandran, Chandran's wife Kanakam (who is the daughter of Balu's distant relative) also make appearances. Neelima's brother Sreekkuttan (played by S. P. Sreekumar) also made appearances during the early episodes of the show. Vishnu's friends Jerry, Meenakshi, and Jennah along with Lechu's friend Gayathri also make certain appearances.
They visit Paramada Veedu and sometimes stay there. Some episodes are even taking place at their places called Shoolamkudi house at Neyyattinkara in Thiruvananthapuram and Padavalam Veedu at Piravom in Ernakulam. This too highlights Trivandrum vs Kochi in a comic manner as it is seen in common disputes between Balu and Neelu
Balu's brother Surendran who runs a grocery shop in Neyyattinkara is a soft person and Balu often ridicules him.
Shankaran (Shankara Annan)is a drunkard who is loved by everyone in the family. His daughter Rema is Balu's cousin and is married to Jayanthan who is a jobless politician. Both of them have silly fights which are often resolved by Balu and Neelu.
In episode number 368, the character of Autodriver Chandran was introduced. He later becomes a close friend of the Paramada family. Eventually, in episode 850, he marries Kanakam, a distant relative of Balu who hails from Tamil Nadu.
In episode 1164, the character Sreeraj who has been mentioned since the beginning of the show was introduced. Sreeraj is the eldest brother of Neelu who is settled in Chennai with his family.
Season 2
In season 2, it was revealed that Balu is no more working as a full-time electrician. Instead, he is now working as supervisor in a construction firm. Neelu is now promoted as the manager of the private firm. Lechu came back in season 2 and it was revealed that Lechu's husband now works abroad so that she can stay with her parents. Shiva and Keshu have further grown up with Keshu started taking private tuition for students. Paru has started going to nursery for her primary education.
During the 180th episode in season 2, a major development occurred in the plot involving Vishnu. He eloped with his girlfriend Diya and married her without telling both of their family and brought her home while his family was looking for a marriage alliance. Eventually, Vishnu's father-in-law Ram Kumar (Diya's father), who is a businessman reached Paramada Veedu in search of his daughter. In episode 197, Vishu's mother-in-law Haimavathy "Haima" Ram Kumar (Diya's mother) was introduced. Both Ram and Haima didn't like Vishnu's family and planned many unsuccessful ways to take Diya away from Balu's family. Later, the reason for taking Diya was because in Ram's company had Singhbai and his son, Ranna, who boosted the company to success and Ranna liked Diya since childhood and wanted to see her in Mumbai. After telling this to Balu's family though convinced them with some lies, they permitted Diya to go with her parents to Mumbai. Though Diya believed that it was her parents new idea to take her away from them after she eavesdropped when she went to Ram's house. But luckily, within 3 days they came back but still kept the secret about what happened there though the kids knew she was lying, Diya said other convincing lies which sometimes didn't work. Inspired by Diya's lies, Lechu who once took a break from writing, started to write about a story about an underworld "Balubhai" and uses Diya's lies in her story. Haima then gave an offer to Lechu saying that after writing her story, she can publish it through VH Publications(Valiyaveettil Haimavathy Publications). This made Lechu ecstatic and continued to write her stroy.
The plot then shifts later showing that Haima has a very unusual connection with the house they live in and further it was proven that she was possessed by a ghost who once mysteriously died in the house that they currently resides. Whenever someone says that they need to move from this house to Haima, she gets angry as it is the ghost's reactions, but Haima is not aware to the fact that she is possessed. Even Balu's kids were also the ones who witnessed it in some situations and told to Balu but as he himself checked to see Haima, he found her completely normal. One day, thanks to Paru's idea, Ram decided to record Haima to she show that she is possessed and he once showed it to Haima, however, the video was actually seen by the ghost in her and from a few episodes, Ram unexpectedly went missing for a few days.Though Haima said he went for a business trip, Diya was not convinced and Balu thought that either Haima or the ghost has done something to Ram but in episode 281, Balu saw Ram alive and ram admitted that he really went to a business trip and his phone was damaged. Later on, after showing the video to Haima(although the ghost saw it), it seems that the ghost is gone from her and Haima is now a calm person. Ram and Haima were more relieved when they got the news that Ranna died at a car accident and was sure that He will no longer threaten Diya or her in-law family again.
The rest of the episodes then shows the day-to-day lives of the family and the in-law family. In one episode, it was shown that Ram and Haima decided that Diya would be the director of their business company. Lechu, who gave the story to Haima and their VH Publications team to check and they said that it was not good. Through unsuccessful attempts to write a story, she shifted her literary genre from story and back to poetry. In episode 382, it was seen that Lechu won second prize in the state-level poetry competition as she wrote a poem about how a mother and father is in a household and upon reaching the poem in the hands of Ram and Haima, they decided to give her name through VH Publications, which led to her winning second prize. The season ends by showing Diya left to Bangalore where Vishnu works.
Production
Season 1
Nisha Sarang was offered the role of Neelima when she was doing the cookery show Kuttikkalavara on Flowers.[8] Except for Sarang, all other principal actors were beginners in television. Theatre actor Biju Sopanam had earlier acted under R. Unnikrishnan's directorial in Back Benchers, a comedy serial on Amrita TV. He was offered the role of Balachandran Thampi. Biju was keen on working with Unnikrishnan ever since he watched his directorial sitcom Marimayam on Mazhavil Manorama, he wanted to do such roles that are close to reality. Uppum Mulakum was his second television appearance and the first leading role.[9] Unnikrishnan called Rishi S. Kumar for the role of Vishnu after seeing him in the reality TV show D 4 Dance on Mazhavil Manorama, in which he was a contestant. It was Unnikrishnan's son who recommended him.[10] Al Sabith and Shivani Menon were also picked from reality TV show, they were both contestants on the show Kuttikkalavara on Flowers. Shivani is one month elder than Al Sabith, but it is the other way in the show. Juhi Rustagi was Unnikrishnan's son's friend, they first met on his son's birthday party and few days later she was offered the role of Lachu.[11]
Biju's real-life brother, Binoj, who is five years younger than him, portrays his brother Surendran Thambi on the show. Biju's real-life daughter Gouri Lakshmi portrays his niece Kanmani, Surendran's daughter.[12] The show was filmed at a house named Paramada Veedu in Vazhakkala, Kochi.[13] In July 2018, R. Unnikrishnan was replaced by cinematographer S.J Sinu as the show's director. Later Pradheep Madhav was chosen as the director of the show.
Final episodes
Uppum Mulakum's rating began to drop slightly when Juhi Rustagi left the show in January 2020.[14] When the show started back its production after several months of lockdown due to COVID-19 pandemic, a new character called Pooja Jayaram was introduced. Still the show did not managed to get back the rating like that of in its earlier days. Around the same time, Flowers TV launched another sitcom called Chakkappazham in August 2020.[15] After airing the last episode on 15 January 2021, Uppum Mulakum stopped its broadcast.[16] Flowers TV managing director Sreekandan Nair later announced that the show would undergo a hiatus for an extended period of time.[17] But in February 2021, it was unofficially confirmed by the fans that the show is not on hiatus and has been cancelled.[18] Later in March 2021, Biju Sopanam and Nisha Sarang finally revealed through social media that the show has been officially cancelled by the channel thus making the 1206th episode aired on 15 January as its final episode.[19]
Season 2
During the 1 June 2022 episode of "Flowers Oru Kodi", Nair announced that the second season of Uppum Mulakum is under development and will start broadcast on 13 June 2022.[20] They also released a teaser of the second season on the channel and social media announcing the same. The show's creator and initial director R. Unnikrishnan was bought back in the director role. Juhi Rustagi, who left the show in January 2020 also made a comeback.[21] The first episode of the second season was premiered on 13 June 2022 and it became number one trending topic on YouTube.[22] Rishi Kumar who portrays the character of Mudiyan left the show unexpectedly after an episode where its shown that he is married and the show went snail-paced for the next 4 months with several new characters being introduced including Mudiayan's wife, her father, mother etc. The sitcom went through a cultural change during this period when the makers and the director made a drastic shift in treatment from a sitcom to a horror/thriller genre which looked awkward and forced. This was termed the dark phase of Uppum Mulakum with even the main characters seemed uninterested in the proceedings and with child actors going overboard. Rishi gave an interview in which he revealed the truth about his absence, majorly because of its director R. Unnikrishnan's dictator like methods.[23]
Final episodes
The second season went off- air on 26 February 2024 due to unavailability of actors citing date issues.[24] The show is expected to start a third season very soon.
Reception
Uppum Mulakum is one of the most popular sitcoms in Malayalam.[25] The show has one of the biggest fan base for a Malayalam TV show and is acclaimed by the audience for its realistic touch.[26]
Critical response
Indian express stated; "Uppum Mulakum presents the simple things in daily life without losing its originality. Behind the show's popularity is that the audience can feel that the house and its family members may have been living somewhere else in the real life".[27]
Controversy
In July 2018, Nisha Sarang raised allegations of sexual harassment against the serial director R. Unnikrishnan, after which the Kerala Women's Commission registered a case against him.[32][33] Later, she decided to continue in the serial after the channel assured that the director will be replaced.[34]
In February 2020, the main cast actors had some issues in the set against the scriptwriter due to which they all walked away, much to the disappointment of the fans. Sooner than later, all the issues were solved by the changing of the scriptwriter and the crew was back in action.[35]
