Director: Priyadarshan; Writer: T. Damodaran; Cinematographer: S. Kumar; Cast: Mohanlal, Jayaram, Revathi, Thikkurisi Sukumaran Nair, Chitra, Soman, Innocent
Duration: 02:13:17; Aspect Ratio: 1.779:1; Hue: 29.615; Saturation: 0.095; Lightness: 0.231; Volume: 0.120; Cuts per Minute: 19.115
Summary: A Hindu chauvinist film set in contemporary
Kerala. Shivaprasad (Mohanlal), disowned by
his Brahmin Namboodiri father, becomes a
pawn of power-hungry Communists. Having
committed several violent crimes at their
behest, he is jailed but ‘rewarded’ when the
Communists come to power and appoint him
chairman of a rich temple trust. The hero’s
‘redemption’ is prepared by presenting his
efforts at embezzlement - part of his job’s
privileges - as an attempt to finance the
recovery of his feudal rights and to restore his
now-politically sanitised joint family. However,
opposing him are the honest leader of the
temple workers, the good administrator
Lakshmi (Revathi) who is also his estranged
former lover, and Vasu (Jayaram), a reformed
ex-accomplice. When the Communists have
Vasu murdered, Shivaprasad sees the light and
turns into a saffron-clad sanyasi, soon gaining
fame as a peace-preaching godman. In this
role, he is invited to mediate in a religious
dispute over a mosque (a direct reference to
the violent attack on the mosque at Ayodhya).
His honesty now makes him an enemy of all
the political factions in the dispute, who
collectively plot to kill him, but he is rescued
by his now-repentant former girlfriend,
Lakshmi. Shivaprasad then massacres the
corrupt politicians and the film ends with him
addressing Hindu devotees, asking them to
‘judge’ whether slaughtering one’s opponents
is wrong. The film also recalls the heroic and,
in Kerala, controversial figure of the former
Naxalite Ajitha, who, according to legend
would kill landlords and policemen leaving her
bloodied palm print on the wall as a signature.
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