''Cheppu'' is a 1987 Indian

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was des ...

-language

action thriller film Action film is a film genre in which the protagonist is thrust into a series of events that typically involve violence and physical feats. The genre tends to feature a mostly resourceful hero struggling against incredible odds, which include life ...

directed by

Priyadarshan Priyadarshan (born 30 January 1957) is an Indian film director, screenwriter and producer who works predominantly in Malayalam and Hindi films, while also having done six films in Tamil and two films in Telugu. He has done about 31 films in Hi ...

and starring

Mohanlal Mohanlal Viswanathan (born 21 May 1960), known mononymously as Mohanlal, is an Indian actor, film producer, playback singer, film distributor, and director who predominantly works in Malayalam cinema besides also having sporadically appeare ...

. This film was a huge hit. An English song in the movie, "Free and Young" was sung by famous American singer

Brenda Lee Brenda Mae Tarpley (born December 11, 1944), known professionally as Brenda Lee, is an American singer. Performing rockabilly, pop and country music, she had 47 US chart hits during the 1960s and is ranked fourth in that decade, surpassed only ...

. The film is based on the 1982 Canadian film ''

Class of 1984 ''Class of 1984'' is a 1982 crime action thriller film directed by Mark Lester and co-written by Tom Holland and John Saxton, based on a story by Holland. The film stars Perry King, Merrie Lynn Ross (who also served as co-executive producer), Tim ...

''.

Plot

Ramachandran (

) gets a job as an English lecturer in T. K. P. Memorial College, only to find that many students are involved in drugs and politics, led by young Ranjith Mathews (

Ganesh Kumar Keezhoote Balakrishna Pillai Ganesh Kumar (born 25 May 1966) is an Indian actor, television host, and politician. Ganesh Kumar is a proposed cabinet minister for the last 2.5 years in the ongoing 2nd LDF govt in Kerala and he is also the curre ...

), son of Mathews (

Prathapachandran Prathapachandran (1941–2004) was an Indian actor, who worked predominantly in Malayalam film, Malayalam film industry, though he acted in a few Tamil and Telugu movies as well. He known for the portrayal of villainous and character roles in o ...

), who is an MP. Ramachandran helps some students, including a geek named Anandan who was beaten by Ranjith's gang. The halls of the school are covered with

graffiti Graffiti (plural; singular ''graffiti'' or ''graffito'', the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from s ...

. As Ramachandran gets to know the school and the area, Ranjith and his gang continue making trouble. One day when Ranjith and his gang are smoking drugs, they hear Ramachandran coming in. They leave the drugs and claim that they had done nothing wrong. Then one of their gang members, in the toxication of drugs climbs the flag pole and falls down and dies. Ram demands investigation on the matter as he knows he was on drugs due to Ranjith. But the police and college staff are corrupt. Then Ranjith and his gang beat up Anandan who is a friend of the dead student and who was also present at the scene. But Ramachandran saves him in the nick of time. As revenge, Ranjith and his gang kill Professor Varkey's animals in his lab, which makes him go mad. Ram and Ranjith wind up in a bathroom alone together. Ranjith throws himself into a mirror and beats himself, claiming that Ram attacked him. Trying to clear things up, Ram visits Ranjith's mother at home. Frustrated when Ranjith still plays the victim and his mother will not hear Ram out, he hotwires Ranjith's car and drives it into a wall. Ramachandran continues fighting against Ranjith until he is murdered by his gang in the end. Ananthan later kills Ranjith for his honour.

Cast

as Ramachandran *

Cochin Haneefa Muhammed Haneefa (22 April 1951 – 2 February 2010), better known by his stage name Cochin Haneefa, was an Indian actor, film director, and screenwriter. He started his career in the 1970s mainly portraying villainous roles, before going on to ...

as Inspector *

K. B. Ganesh Kumar Keezhoote Balakrishna Pillai Ganesh Kumar (born 25 May 1966) is an Indian actor, television host, and politician. Ganesh Kumar is a proposed cabinet minister for the last 2.5 years in the ongoing 2nd LDF govt in Kerala and he is also the curre ...

as Ranjith * Lizy as Mini * Roshni as Alice Thomas *

as Mathews *

Sankaradi Chandrashekaran Menon, better known by his screen name Sankaradi (14 July 1924 – 8 October 2001), was an Indian actor. He was a veteran Malayalam comedian and character artist, who had over 700 Malayalam films to his credit. He dominated the ...

as Karunakaran Nair *

M. G. Soman M. G. Soman (28 September 1941 – 12 December 1997) was an Indian actor and former Indian Air Force officer who appeared in Malayalam films. He was one among the leading star actors doing hero roles in Malayalam Cinema during the late 1970s an ...

as Principal * Sulakshana as Lakshmi *

Nedumudi Venu Kesavan Venugopal (22 May 1948 – 11 October 2021), better known by his stage name Nedumudi Venu, was an Indian actor and screenwriter from Kerala, who predominantly worked in Malayalam cinema. He acted in more than 500 films, primarily in Ma ...

as Prof. Varkey *

Jagathy Sreekumar Sreekumar P. K. (born 5 January 1951), better known by his stage name Jagathy Sreekumar or simply Jagathy, is an Indian actor, director and playback singer, who has appeared in over 1500 Malayalam films in a career spanning almost four decad ...

as Canteen Owner

Soundtrack

The music was composed by

Raghu Kumar P. K. Reghukumar (Raghukumar; 13 June 1953 – 20 February 2014) was a noted music composer from Kerala, India. His compositions first achieved prominence in the 1980s. Life and work Born into the prominent Pootheri family at Kozhikode in Ker ...

and the lyrics were written by

Poovachal Khader Poovachal Khader (25 December 1948 – 22 June 2021) was a Malayalam lyricist from Kerala who worked mainly in Malayalam film industry. His first movie as a lyricist was ''Kaattuvithachavan'' (1973) but his first released movie was ''Chuzhi'' ( ...

References

External links

* 1980s Malayalam-language films 1987 films Films scored by Raghu Kumar Films directed by Priyadarshan {{1980s-Malayalam-film-stub