M.T. Vasudevan Nair

According to legend, Aromal Chekavar, a famous warrior of North Kerala, lost his life in a duel when his sword broke off at the hilt during the fight. The metal rivets holding the blade to the hilt had been replaced with wooden ones by his ally and cousin, Chandu. Chandu is said to have betrayed his cousin because he was jealous of Aaromal's popularity and abilities. This movie has Chandu (Mammootty) as the protagonist and portrays him as being misunderstood.

Sunandha (Seema) is a young widow with a 7 year old son Hari (Master Vimal), who struggles to make ends meet in a village in rural Kerala. Right next door, is the family of a bank manager Bhaskaran (Mohanlal), his nagging wife Vijayam (Shobana), & their kid Jayan (Master Prasobh), who is Hari's best friend. With encouragement from her previous teacher & secret admirer Muraleedharan (Mammootty), Sunandha starts a preschool. Just as her life seemed to stabilize, a tragedy complicates everything.

When ailing schoolmaster Madhavan (Balan K. Nair) is said to be sinking, his three kids - eldest daughter Vishalam (Subha), son Rajan (Mammootty) & youngest daughter Seethalakshmi (Sumithra), & their families descend on their ancestral home. There, Rajan finds that everyone is only too interested in getting his dad's death over with. He gets disgusted by their petty contending & materialism & reminisces about his younger days there in his home, with his dad & cousin/girlfriend Ammukutty (Seema).

Karanan (Mammootty), a boater, gets jailed for 5 years for hacking some goons while protecting his pal Kumaran (Vincent). Upon his release, he returns to the harbor to find that Kumaran has taken his girl Madhavi (Menaka) & his boat & is a bigwig now. Karanan takes to boozing & petty smuggling, & later befriends 2 people whom he takes under his wings - a lassie Devayani (Seema) who ran away from her tart sister & pimp brother-in-law & Gopi (Mohanlal), a grad in search of the man who cheated him.

Jayarajan (Mohanlal), the Asst. Manager, Chandran (Rahman), the accountant & Johnny (Nedumudi), the driver, plan to rob from their company 'Thenmallay Plantations'. When Manager A.K. Menon (Janardanan) foils their plan, Jayarajan murders Menon. From then on, Jayarajan picks off one by one, everyone in his path to the top - usurping the company itself. Chandran & Johnny, horrified & repentant, keeps mum, out of fear for Jayarajan, while cop Ravi (Ratheesh) suspects Jayarajan & gets on his tail.

Indira (Geetha), a radical who was on life sentence for killing a rich evil landlord Avarachan (Prathapachandran), gets out on parole but faces ridicule, exploitation & anger from her estranged family & villagers. She seeks refuge & companionship with a struggling journalist Rasheed (Mohanlal), who, with the help of his friend, elderly journalist Raman (Thilakan), tries to get her sentence commuted.

Kunjimalu (Archana Kavi), a young girl belonging to the low 'Veluthedathu' caste comes to the house of Malukuttiyamma (Sreedevi Unni) as a maid. Malukuttiyamma's son, Haridas (Kailash), who returns home after finishing college, takes a fancy to Kunjimalu, & despite her attempts to keep a distance, finally beds her. Kunjimalu, who was under the impression that Haridas loved her, gets a rude shock when Haridas, for whom Kunjimalu was only a time-pass, marries wealthy Ratnam (Samvrutha Sunil).

Struggling artist Satyanathan (Mohanlal) is forced to protect a young woman, Jaya (Mathu), & her two teenage sisters after Jaya's prostitute aunts try to force Jaya also into prostitution. His efforts go to waste however, when Jaya's employer Vijayan (Mahesh) cheats Jaya by impregnating her & leaving her. Forced to abort the pregnancy & without a job, Jaya takes to prostitution. As Jaya's aunts & their pimp Chandran's (Augustine) gazes turn towards Jaya's sisters, Satyanathan is forced to react.

Delhi-based journalist P. Balachandran Nair (Mammootty) investigates the motive behind the unexpected suicide death of his best friend Mathew Joseph's (Sukumaran) wife & poetess Saleena (Suparna Anand).

Dr. P. K. Haridas (Mohanlal), in repentance for inadvertently causing the death of freshman medical student Unnikrishnan (Vineeth) during a hazing routine while in college, takes up the care & protection of Unnikrishnan's impoverished Brahmin family. In the process, Haridas alienates his relatives & his cousin/girlfriend Bhanu (Geetha).

In the pre-independence Brahmin community in rural Kerala, Unni Maya (Mohini), a 17 year old is married off to a 64 year old man, who dies soon after, leaving her to lead a life of confinement & ostracism. She gets a ray of hope in the form of Madhavan (Vineeth), a Kathakali artiste, who woos her, but later refuses to accept her out of fear for being banished from the community himself, after she becomes pregnant from their relationship. A trial involving the community elders gets underway.

The story of the life & death of Kerala Varma Pazhassi Raja (Mammootty), the valiant prince of the royal dynasty of Pazhassi Kottayam, who rebelled against the occupying forces of the British East India Company who imposed heavy taxes on the people.

Karunakaran (Jayaram) & Vinodini (Suhasini), in their younger days while Karunakaran used to teach at the school where Vinodini was a student, used to love each other, but their love never materialized due to their difference in societal status. Now, 36 years later, they meet again at the famous Mookambika Devi Temple, take a road trip to the nearby Kodachadri peak for a day & reminisce about their younger years.

A famous character of Kerala folklore, Raman (Thilakan), respectfully called 'Perumthachan' (the master carpenter) was a master carpenter, sculptor & architect. Raman begets a son, Kannan (Prashanth), who later becomes more famous than him, decreasing Raman's importance & causing subtle feelings of animus & one-upmanship between them. When Kannan falls in love with Kunjikkavu (Monisha), daughter of Maambatta Unni (Nedumudi Venu), who was Raman's patron, Raman tries in vain to discourage Kannan.

Journalist Ravishankar (Mammootty), diagnosed with terminal cancer, moves to his ancestral home to die in peace. There, seeing that he was sinking, Ravishankar reminisces about life & makes some decisions, which included for his wife Malini (Gautami) to marry their pal Rajendran (Manoj K. Jayan) after his death. However, in a twist of fate, Ravishankar is cured by a maverick doctor (Narendra Prasad) & returns back to life, but realizes with dismay that no one was ready to deal with him alive.

In the patrician Mangalath family, the patriarch (Thilakan) rules over with an iron hand, with his daughter Bhargavi (K.P.A.C. Lalitha) & her family impatiently waiting for his death to lay their hands on the family wealth. Into this walks in Miranda (Shobana), the patriarch's estranged son's daughter, born & raised in Mumbai, after leaving her promiscuous mother & lecherous stepfather behind. Miranda finds a home at the Mangalath mansion, but her mother & stepfather follow suit to get her back.

'Vaisali' is based on a sub-story told by Vedavyasa to King Yudhishtira in the epic 'Mahabharatha'. Vaisali, the daughter of a prostitute in the drought-stricken land of Chambapuri, is assigned a mission to seduce Rishyashrungan (Sanjay Mitra), the son of sage Vibhandakan (V.K. Sriraman) & bring him to Chambapuri to perform a ritual to cause rain.

Balan (Mohanlal), a loner, comes to a remote mountainous village in search of his friend, Raju (Salim Ghouse), who had killed his wife Raji (Anju) & stolen his life savings.

A portmanteau movie of three different couples - Khadar (Manoj K.Jayan) & his wife Jameela (Mallika), Major Frederic Mukundan (Lal) & his wife Reetha (Rituparna Sengupta), Balachandran (Biju Menon) & his wife Indulekha (Swapna Menon), & their relationships, whilst the filmmaker Raj Karthik (Kunchacko Boban) himself struggles with the idea of popping the question to his girlfriend Jeena (Bhama).

Archeologist K.V. Prasad (Vineeth) comes to the forests of Wayanad for an excavation project, where he meets his old girlfriend from college, Bhanu (Bhavana), now the wife of a rich planter & hunter Gopinatha Menon (Indrajith). Shortly after Prasad's arrival, a man-eating tiger goes on the prowl in the forest, claiming several victims. Gopinath decides to hunt down the tiger, while stuck in an unhappy marriage, Bhanu reminisces about their past with Prasad.

A lonely 14-year old, Janakikutty (Kumari Joemol), befriends the friendly ghost of a woman, Kunjathol (Chanchal), who was killed by her unfaithful husband. But Janakikutty's interactions with Kunjathol, whom the others can't see, is interpreted by her family as her being possessed by a ghost & they try to exorcise her.