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Director Shafi making films that entertain, that suits the festival mood in the fullest sense, trying to make the best of the packaging with all those ingredients that are needed to make my films full-fledged entertainers - songs, dances, humor, sentiments, a bit of action, and drama. That is exactly my recipe for successes’, director Shafi said in an interview a couple of months back.
The plot of Chocolate is set in the background of St Mary’s women’s college, where the P T A is reluctant to go back to days of co education. Every parents in the college have their share of anxiousness on how their wards will behave if their appear male students, in the premises. The Principal Alina John (Shari), a broad minded teacher tries her ways to support the majority of students who likes to have their studies in the company of male counterparts.
Prithviraj is Shyam Balagopal in the film, a tough all-rounder who has been shown the door from a couple of colleges before as he is well versed in everything other than studying and keeping discipline. He is a guy who has faced 9 suspensions in his academic career and 7 police cases. Since their is a clause in university bylaws which permits a male student to secure admissions in the PG's of women colleges, Vanaja, (Vanitha) the mother of Shyam and a lecturer in the college makes a special request to admit his son for a PG course. She surmise that under her direct custodianship and with 3000 odd female students in the campus, Shyam will not engage in more causalities and fisticuffs that he had regularly been to in other colleges. She also thereby, wants him to learn to respect women and view them as intelligent beings.
Shyam is at first reluctant to take admissions, but when forced by his friends and advisers like the middle aged Pappan ( Salim Kumar) and Fashion designer Ranjith (Jaya Surya) about its prospects, he sets his foot into the women' paradise, with the idea to secure an dismissal at the earliest. Although Shyam is quite happy about the state of affairs and overnight celebrity status, he soon finds out his dreams can take a bitter turn as a group of tomboyish students headed by Anna (Roma), Nandana (Samvrutha) and Susan (Ramya), is hell bound to create his life miserable from the day one, even when he is introduced at a meeting .
But Shyam is also politically incorrect as they come. He insults the gang, tells offensive chauvinistic jokes, and generally goes out of his way to offend their leader Anna. In order to survive, he schemes to outshine and outwit Anna, hoping to make her inferior. It’s a usual war that ends in love as always, but things change for the carefree hunk when he falls in love with the more intelligent Anna. As is the case with most first loves, nothing between the two comes easy. And for the ecstasy that comes with a first love, there's bound to be large doses of agony. The film captures those moments of happiness and regret without applying a jaundiced eye with a certain degree of sweetness and charm about it .The highlights of the film is that the female is not treated in traditional misogynistic terms where the usual female lover confess before the hero of her misdoings, and strong messages are given on the illogical norms and prejudices that the elder generations holds when dealing with the problems of the younger lot.
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