''Andha Naal'' is a 1996

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nati ...

-language

mystery Mystery, The Mystery, Mysteries or The Mysteries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters *Mystery, a cat character in ''Emily the Strange'' Films * ''Mystery'' (2012 film), a 2012 Chinese drama film * ''Mystery'' ( ...

- thriller film directed by Vishnu Priyan. The film stars

Prem Menon Prem Menon (born 28 July 1952) is a prominent media personality, businessman and philanthropist based in Chennai. Prem was the Vice President of India's first regional television channel Asianet in 1992. He also served as the Business Head of ...

Raja ''Raja'' (; from , IAST ') is a royal title used for South Asian monarchs. The title is equivalent to king or princely ruler in South Asia and Southeast Asia. The title has a long history in South Asia and Southeast Asia, being attested f ...

Anandaraj Anandaraj (born May 15, 1959) is an Indian actor. He has acted in villain roles in several Tamil films and has appeared in over a two hundred films in different languages including Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi. Career Anandaraj was bor ...

and

Mohini Mohini (Sanskrit: मोहिनी, ') is the Hindu goddess of enchantment. She is the only female avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu. She is portrayed as a '' femme fatale'', an enchantress, who maddens lovers and demons, sometimes leading them ...

, with

Vennira Aadai Moorthy Vennira Aadai Moorthy (born 25 July 1936) is an Indian actor and comedian in Tamil cinema. He has starred in many Tamil films and television serials as a comedian and also played supporting roles. He is a lawyer by education, and holds a B.L. ...

Charle Velmurugan Thangasamy Manohar (born 6 March 1960), professionally credited as Charle, is an Indian actor who works in Tamil cinema. He has acted in more than 800 Tamil films as a comedian and supporting actor. He was named after the English co ...

and

Alex Alex is a given name. It can refer to a shortened version of Alexander, Alexandra, Alexis. People Multiple *Alex Brown (disambiguation), multiple people * Alex Gordon (disambiguation), multiple people *Alex Harris (disambiguation), multiple pe ...

playing supporting roles. It was released on 11 October 1996. The film is partially inspired from the 1954 cult film ''

Andha Naal ''Andha Naal'' ( en, italic=yes, That Day, ) is a 1954 Indian Tamil-language mystery-thriller film, produced by A. V. Meiyappan and directed by S. Balachander. It is the first film noir in Tamil cinema, and the first Tamil film to be made wit ...

''.

Plot

The film begins with the church Father James (

) digging up a coffin in the graveyard in the middle of the night. Father James finds inside the coffin, a dead body of Babu (

) stabbed in the heart with a knife, so he immediately calls the police. The police inspector Rangaraj after seeing the dead body decided to hush up the issue and buried the coffin. The news was spread rapidly and it is now on the front pages of every newspaper. Very quickly, the police were being heavily criticised for smothering up the sordid affair. SP Vikramadithyan (

) decides to take up himself in this sordid case. He digs up the coffin and sends the corpse to the post-mortem examination. Vikramadithyan first examines the Church Father James and James tells what happened in the past. Babu (

) was a spoiled student specialist in ragging other students and in annoying the professors. Babu clashed many times with his classmate Mary (

) who was a soft-spoken student and a religious person. Being an orphan, she was brought up by Father James. Babu slowly fell in love with her, he became a good man and he eventually converted to Christianity. Finally, Vincent Babu and Mary got married at the church with the blessings of Father James. At the wedding night, Babu shews his true colours. He was, in fact, a drunkard and a womanizer, he acted as a good man all along only for spending time with Mary one night and he left her the next day. Many years later, Babu reappeared as a melancholic man who lost all his wealth and asked Father James for forgiveness. Mary had a boy called Alex (Master Nadim Khan). Alex forced his mother Mary to live with Babu who had not changed at all. Babu's behaviors became worse : he behaved badly with the school teacher Poornitha ( Raksha) in public, he spent time with a prostitute (

Shakeela C. Shakeela, known mononymously as Shakeela, is an Indian actress and politician who has predominantly acted in Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu language films. She is a member of Indian National Congress. Shakeela debuted in the film ''Playgirls'' ...

), he even tried to seduce Lakshmi ( Kavitha) who resurfaced to see her daughter Mary, he drank a lot of alcohols in a bar owned by (

) and worst that he molested his wife and beat up his son. One night, Father James was informed of Babu's death and they all proceed to his funeral the same evening. When a worker tried to hammer the first nail in the coffin, the hammer fell from the hands and hit Babu's chest. Babu opened his eyes briefly and Father James noticed it. Vikramadithyan is now determined to find the culprit. What transpires next forms the rest of the story.

Cast

as Vikramadithyan *

as Vincent Babu *

as Father James *

as Mary *

as College Professor *

as Vincent Babu's friend *

as Bar Owner *

Jai Ganesh Jai Ganesh (1946 – 11 February 2001) was an Indian Tamil film actor. He had supporting roles in the films ''Aval Oru Thodar Kathai'' and ''Attukara Alamelu'', among others. His most popular roles have been as a supporting actor or as a villa ...

as Vikramadithyan's father *Master Nadim Khan as Alex * CID Shakuntala as Vikramadithyan's mother * Kavitha as Lakshmi * Raksha as Poornitha *

*Manager Cheena *

Thyagu Thozhar Thiyagu (born 30 January 1950), also known as Comrade Thiyagu, is a social activist, politician, writer from Indian state of Tamil Nadu. He is also the General Secretary of Tamil National Liberation Movement and is well known for his ...

as Kandu *

Pandu In the Hindu epic ''Mahabharata'', Pandu ( sa, पाण्डु, Pāṇḍu, pale) was a king of the Kuru Kingdom. He was the foster-father of the five Pandava brothers, who were the boons bestowed upon his wife Kunti by a number of deities ...

as Subbu *

Kumarimuthu Kumarimuthu (20 December 1940 – 28 February 2016) was a Tamil film character actor, comedian and politician of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). He was known for his unique comical laugh. Career Kumarimuthu starred in 728 films in his car ...

as David *Jyothi Meena *

Singamuthu Singamuthu (born 8 December 1958) is an Indian actor who has appeared in Tamil language films as a comedian. Career Singamuthu has primarily appeared in comedy roles in films as a supporting actor debuting in ''Neram Nalla Irukku'' (1987). He ...

as Muthusamy *Bayilvan Ranganathan *Tirupur Ramasamy *

Chandrasekhar Chandrasekhar, Chandrashekhar or Chandra Shekhar is an Indian name and may refer to a number of individuals. The name comes from the name of an incarnation of the Hindu god Shiva. In this form he married the goddess Parvati. Etymologically, the nam ...

Soundtrack

The film score and the soundtrack were composed by

Soundaryan Soundaryan is an Indian music composer. A former ad-jingles composer, he made his debut in the Tamil film ''Cheran Pandiyan'' (1991) and then made a breakthrough with his work in ''Sindhu Nathi Poo'' (1994). Career Soundaryan began his career ...

. The soundtrack, released in 1996, features 6 tracks with lyrics written by

Piraisoodan Piraisoodan (6 February 1956 – 8 October 2021) was a Tamil poet and lyricist. He won the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Lyricist for his songs in movies like ''Thayagam'', '' En Rasavin Manasile'' and ''Neeyum Naanum'' in 1996, 1991 and ...

, Visali Kannadasan and Soundaryan.

References

{{reflist 1996 films 1990s Tamil-language films 1990s mystery thriller films Indian crime thriller films 1996 crime thriller films Indian mystery thriller films