Director: I.V. Sasi; Writer: T. Damodaran; Cinematographer: V. Jayaram; Cast: Mammootty, Geetha, Nalini, Seema, Captain Raju, Paravoor Bharathan, Thikkurisi Sukumaran Nair, Janardhanan, Jagannath Varma, Sukumaran, Sattar
Duration: 02:26:42; Aspect Ratio: 1.739:1; Hue: 305.200; Saturation: 0.184; Lightness: 0.280; Volume: 0.242; Cuts per Minute: 16.033
Summary: Sasi’s demented melodrama repeating his
theme of corruption in Kerala politics (cf.
Eenadu, 1982; Vartha, 1986), and seminal
text determining Mammootty’s screen persona.
He plays the police inspector Balaram, who is
personally honest but not opposed in principle
to corruption. Framed for the murder of the
student Unni, who died in police custody,
Balaram loses his girlfriend Usha (Nalini) and
faces the enduring hostility of Unni’s sister
Radha (Seema). The film’s key villain is the
businessman and politician Vincent, whose
partner, the corrupt lawyer Jayachandran,
happens to be Usha’s new husband.
Completing the key ensemble is the prostitute
Seeta (Geetha), who was forced by the bad
guys into prostitution and now lives with
Balaram. In a relentless series of brutal
encounters, personal vendettas merge with
political rivalries. In the end, the true killer of
the student turns out to be the politically
influential murderer Sathyaraj (Captain Raju).
Balaram hunts him down, and in the process
becomes responsible for the killing of the
pregnant Seeta. The most notable aspect of the
film is its view of corruption as something that
has seeped into every aspect of Kerala society,
to a point where even the film is unable to
restrict its subject-matter. The hero is presented
throughout as essentially unpleasant, who
warns Usha not to take up a job as university
lecturer, and later refuses to acknowledge
having fathered Seeta’s child. The film’s plot in
both instances vindicates the hero’s stand (e.g.
when Usha is attacked by a student) without
making any effort to render it in any way
morally palatable. Sasi’s usual alternative is an
enormous excess of plot, as the complicated
roles of different characters merge and
interconnect to the point of vertigo. Like his
other films, here too there are no neat endings,
as the hero’s arrest (repeating an enhanced
version of Don Siegel’s Dirty Harry, 1971)
leaves the futures of most of the characters
largely unresolved.
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