''Pranamam'' is a 1986

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

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 ...

film, directed by

Bharathan Bharathan (14 November 1946 – 30 July 1998) was an Indian film maker, artist, and art director. Bharathan is noted for being the founder of a new school of film making in Malayalam cinema, along with Padmarajan and K. G. George, in th ...

and produced by

Joy Thomas Joy Thomas is an Indian politician and currently the President of the Kerala State Co-operative Consumers Federation Limited. Early life Joy Thomas was born in Idukki, Idukki district of Kerala in a Syro-Malabar, Syrian Catholic Christians ...

. The film stars

Mammootty Muhammad Kutty Panaparambil Ismail (; born 7 September 1951), known mononymously by the hypocorism Mammootty (), is an Indian actor and film producer who works predominantly in Malayalam cinema, Malayalam films. He has also appeared in Tamil l ...

Suhasini Mani Ratnam Suhasini Maniratnam (born 15 August 1961) known mononymously as Suhasini, is an Indian actress, director, producer and writer in the Tamil film industry. She has worked as an actress in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada films. She made her ...

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 ...

and Ashokan. The film handles a socially relevant theme and has musical score by

Ouseppachan Mechery Louis Ouseppachan (born 13 September 1955), known mononymously as Ouseppachan, is an Indian film composer and singer who primarily works in Malayalam films. He is a recipient of National Film Award, Filmfare Award and Kerala State Film ...

. This movie was remade in Tamil as ''Puyal Paadum Paattu''

Plot

Usha (

Suhasini Suhasini Maniratnam (born 15 August 1961) known mononymously as Suhasini, is an Indian actress, director, producer and writer in the Tamil film industry. She has worked as an actress in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada films. She made her ...

) is a journalist. She decides to write an article on drug abuse by college students and does a photo feature on the issue. The article gets published and the students who appeared in the photos are suspended from their college. One of them, Georgekutty attempts suicide in shame and gets admitted in the hospital. The college students go into a rebellion against the newspaper and create a lot of problems, which are solved temporarily by a tactful police officer, Prathapan (

). A gang of 4 students lead by Damu ( Ashokan) and Appukkuttan (

Vineeth Vineeth Radhakrishnan (born 23 August 1969) is an Indian actor, classical dancer, voice artist and choreographer who primarily works in Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu language films. He has also starred in a few Kannada and Bollywood films. He h ...

) kidnaps Usha, locks her up inside Damu's banglow, harasses and injects her with drugs. Usha later saves the boys when a fire breaks out at the banglow. The gang takes care of her when she falls ill. Usha get to know the family background of each member of the gang. All except for Damu are from financially struggling families. Damu is from a rich, but dysfunctional family with his mother incarcerated in a mental asylum. Damu attempts suicide on his birthday, but is saved by his friends and Usha. Prathapan visit the banglow searching for Usha. He beats up the boys during interrogation when Usha comes out defending the boys. Prathapan, a family friend of Usha is visibly seen close to Usha. Prathapan settles the issue and depart in friendly terms. They all together visit Usha's house where marriage is fixed between Usha and Prathapan. Meanwhile, George Kutty dies. And an angry mob who sees Usha during the funeral procession attacks her and beats her to death during the clash.

Cast

as DSP Minnal Prathapan *

as Usha Warrier * Ashokan as Damu *

as Appukuttan *

as Warrier *

Babu Antony Babu Antony (born 22 February 1966) is an Indian-American actor and martial artist, who works primarily in Malayalam cinema. He has also acted in several Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Sinhalese, Hindi and English films. He started his career doing ...

as Ajith *

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 ...

as Chackochan *

K.P.A.C. Lalitha Maheshwari Amma, better known by her stage name K. P. A. C. Lalitha, was an Indian film and stage actress who worked primarily in Malyalam. She started her acting career with K. P. A. C., a theatre collective in Kayamkulam, Kerala. In a caree ...

as Appukkuttan's sister *

Achankunju Achankunju ( ml, അച്ചൻകുഞ്ഞ്) (1930 - 16 January 1987) was an Indian actor in Malayalam cinema. He started his career in the 1980s, mainly portraying villainous roles. He acted in more than 50 films in Malayalam. Backgrou ...

as Chandran's father *

Thodupuzha Vasanthi Thodupuzha Vasanthi was an Indian actress who acted mainly in Malayalam films. She appeared in over 450 movies and also in 16 tele-serials and 100 plays. She was a theater artist, before starting with small roles in movies. Her first full length ...

* Valsala Menon as Damu's mother

Soundtrack

The music was composed by

, with lyrics by

. The song "Thaalam Maranna Tharattu" is set in Bharathan's favourite raagam,

Hindolam Hindōḷaṃ is a rāgam in Carnatic music (musical scale of South Indian classical music). It is an ''audava'' rāgam (or ''owdava'' rāgam, meaning pentatonic scale). It is a ''janya'' rāgam (derived scale), as it does not have all the sev ...

References

External links

* 1986 films 1980s Malayalam-language films Films directed by Bharathan Films scored by Ouseppachan {{1980s-Malayalam-film-stub