His Highness Abdullah

1990 156’ col Malayalam d Sibi Malayil pc Pranavam Arts p Mohanlal s A.K. Lohitadas lyr Kaithapram c Anandakuttan m Ravindran lp Mohanlal, Nedumudi Venu, Gauthami, Shankaradi, Thikkurisi Sukumaran Nair

The rich nobleman and patron of classical music (Venu) is surrounded by greedy relatives who want to kill him for his wealth. They hire the Bombay-based contract killer Abdullah (Mohanlal), who also happens to be a ghazal singer. Assuming the identity of Ananthan Namboodiri, he befriends the nobleman, but he then changes sides and saves the old man instead of killing him. Following the conventions of classic romances, it turns out that Abdullah merely agreed to the scheme because he wanted money to recover his own ancestral property. The first hit of a series based on classical music by Mohanlal’s own production company (followed by Bharatham, 1991, and Kamalathalam, 1992), the well-shot film makes good use of its major location, the famous Padmanabhapuram palace. The music allows for several singing bouts where the young playback singer M.G. Sreekumar holds his own against the vastly more experienced Yesudas.

Film