''Rakthasaakshikal Sindabad'' (

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

: Long live the martyrs) is a 1998 Indian

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 2 ...

-language historical

political Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that stud ...

thriller movie directed by

Venu Nagavalli Venu Nagavally (16 April 1949 – 10 September 2010) was an Indian actor, screenwriter and director best known for his work in Malayalam film industry. He has directed 12 films. Son of writer, commentator, and broadcaster Nagavally R. S. Kurup, ...

, featuring

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 app ...

Suresh Gopi Suresh Gopi (born 26 June 1958) is an Indian actor, politician, playback singer and television presenter. He works predominantly in Malayalam cinema and has also appeared in some Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Bollywood films. Suresh made his acti ...

and Sukanya in the lead roles. The revolt scenes in the film were 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 ...

. The film released on 30 October 1998 coinciding with the thirtieth anniversary of Punnapra-Valayar.

Plot

A political story set in the pre-independent India when

Communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a ...

came into the picture.

Cast

as Siva Subrahmanya Iyer *

as Urmees Tharakan Mappilassery * Nassar as Divan Sir

C. P. Ramaswami Iyer Sir Chetput Pattabhiraman Ramaswami Iyer (12 November 1879 – 26 September 1966), popularly known as Sir C. P., was an Indian lawyer, administrator and politician who served as the Advocate-General of Madras Presidency from 1920 to 1923, Law m ...

* Murali as E. Sreedharan *

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 Iyer's elder brother * Zainuddin as comrade *

Karamana Janardanan Nair Karamana Janardanan Nair (25 July 1936 – 24 April 2000) was a Malayalam film actor, who was active during the 1980s and 1990s. He was especially known for his character roles. He won wide acclaim especially for the role of the protagonis ...

as Raman Thirumulpadu *

Rajan P. Dev Rajan P. Dev (20 May 1951 – 29 July 2009) was an Indian film and stage actor. He was born in Cherthala in the Alappuzha district of the former state Thiru-Kochi (present day Kerala). He had acted in over 500 films in Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu ...

as Mappilassery Tharakan *

Mala Aravindan Mala Aravindan (15 January 1939 – 28 January 2015) was an Indian actor. He was best known for his work as a comedian and character artist in Malayalam films. He has acted in over 500 films. Early life He was born in Vadavucode, Ernakulam d ...

* Zainuddin *

Jagannatha Varma K. N. Jagannatha Varma (1 May 1939 – 20 December 2016) was an Indian actor who worked in Malayalam film and television industry. He was also a Kathakali artist. His son Manu Varma is also an artist and his son-in-law Viji Thampi is a film di ...

* Sukanya as Sivakami Ammal *

Ranjitha Ranjitha (born Sri Valli) is an Indian actress. She has acted in a number of Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu and Kannada films. Career In 1991, Ranjita, did her first Telugu film, under the screen name Madhu Bala ''Kadapa Reddemma''. It was written ...

* Maathu * Sukumari as Subbulaxmi Ammal, Iyer's mother * Kalamandalam Sreejaya as Ammini

Production

The film is based on the Punnapra-Vayalar agitation and was criticised for not doing justice to the history.

Soundtrack

The film's soundtrack contains 9 songs, all composed by M. G. Radhakrishnan. Lyrics were by P. Bhaskaran, O. N. V. Kurup,

Gireesh Puthenchery Girish Puthenchery (1961–2010) was a noted Malayalam Lyricist, Poet, Scriptwriter and Screenwriter. He was always referred to as the aristocratic lyricist of Malayalam who had a distinctive writing style of his own. He also served as the dire ...

and Ezhacheri Ramachandran.

References

External links

* 1998 films 1990s Malayalam-language films Films about communism 1990s political thriller films Indian political thriller films Films directed by Venu Nagavally Films set in the 20th century Films scored by M. G. Radhakrishnan Films set in Kerala History of India on film History of Kerala on film Films shot in Alappuzha {{1990s-Malayalam-film-stub