''Soora Samhaaram'' () is a 1988 Indian

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, nativ ...

-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

Chitra Lakshmanan Lakshmanan Ramasamy (born 23 January 1948), known professionally as Chitra Lakshmanan, is an Indian journalist, filmmaker and actor. He produced and directed several Tamil language films starring some of Tamil cinema's major stars during the 19 ...

and written by Vietnam Veedu Sundaram. The film stars

Kamal Haasan Kamal Haasan (born 7 November 1954) is an Indian actor, filmmaker, screenwriter, playback singer, television presenter and politician who works mainly in Tamil cinema and has also appeared in some Telugu, Malayalam, Hindi, Kannada and Bengali l ...

in the role of police officer, ACP Athi Veerapandiyan. The film was later dubbed in

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

as ''Police Diary'' and released on 16 September 1988. Both the Tamil and Telugu versions were box office hits.

Plot

Athi Veerapandiyan and Arun are police officers. Divya is a drug addict who cannot stop her habit even though her brother Arun pleads. One day Arun locks her up, but she dies from withdrawal. Devastated, Arun decides to take revenge on Mohandas, the kingpin of the drug mafia, but Mohandas kills him in an airport restroom. Sudha's young brother happens to watch this murder but is terrified to make this public. Pandian, who is in-charge of this case, zeroes in Sudha and her brother as witnesses, but she refuses. But when Madhuri pleads for her help, she decides to help Pandian, but now Pandian is abducted by Mohandas's men and forcefully turn him into a drug addict. The climax reveals whether Pandian nabs the drug lord and complete the revenge of his friend Arun.

Cast

as ACP Athi Veerapandiyan *

Nirosha Nirosha is an Indian film and television actress. She is known for her works predominantly in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada films. After her debut in Tamil in the film ''Agni Natchathiram'' (1988, directed by Mani Ratnam), Nirosha went ...

as Sudha *

Nizhalgal Ravi Ravichandran Samanna (born 16 April 1956), known professionally as Nizhalgal Ravi, is an Indian film, television and voice actor who works mainly in Tamil cinema. He has performed in Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu films and television series. He st ...

as Arun *

Pallavi A pallavi has multiple connotations in carnatic music. It is the first part of any formal composition (Krithi) which has three segments - Pallavi, Anupallavi and Charanam (which can be one or more). Pallavi is usually also an abbreviation of R ...

as Divya * Madhuri as Arun's wife * Kitty as Mohandas *

Janagaraj Janagaraj is an Indian actor who has appeared in over 200 films predominantly in Tamil cinema as a comedian or in supporting roles. He also starred in few Malayalam, Telugu and Hindi films. Early life Janagaraj was born to Vadivelu and Muthul ...

as Jana *

Captain Raju Raju Daniel (27 June 1950 – 17 September 2018), better known by his stage name Captain Raju, was an Indian army officer and Indian actor. He acted in more than 600 films in various languages, including Malayalam, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannad ...

as Chakkaravarthy (Voice Dubbed by

Delhi Ganesh Delhi Ganesh is an Indian actor who mostly acts in supporting roles in Tamil cinema and serials. He has acted in more than 400 films from 1976 to present. Before films, he was a member of the Delhi-based theatre troupe, ''Dakshina Bharata Natak ...

) *

Rajyalakshmi Rajyalakshmi Chandu, better known by her stage name Sankarabharanam Rajyalakshmi (born 18 December 1964) is an Indian actress. She was a prominent lead actress during the 1980s in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam films. She was well noted fo ...

as Chakkaravarthy's Daughter *

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. ...

as Mohandas's Labour *Veeraraghavan *

Thakkali Srinivasan Thakkali Srinivasan is an Indian film director, musician and producer who has worked on Tamil films, often involving horror or murder mystery plotlines. Career Thakkali Srinivasan began his career off as a producer and made the science fiction ...

as Dileep *Master Meenuraj as Sudha's Brother * Kuyli (Special Appearance in the song 'Vedhalam Vanthiruku')

Soundtrack

The music was composed by

Ilaiyaraaja Ilaiyaraaja (born R. Gnanathesikan, 3 June 1943) is an Indian musician, composer, arranger, conductor, orchestrator, instrumentalist, lyricist and singer, popular for his works in Indian Cinema, prominently in Tamil films. Reputed to be one of ...

Reception

N. Krishnaswamy of ''

The Indian Express ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932. It is published in Mumbai by the Indian Express Group. In 1999, eight years after the group's founder Ramnath Goenka's death in 1991, the group was split betw ...

'' wrote, "''Soora Samharam'' is destined to be somewhat muffled in its explosive impact with the entertaining vein and progressively thinning". The film ran over 100 days in many centres.

Sivaji Ganesan Villupuram Chinnaiya Manrayar Ganesamoorthy, better known by his stage name Sivaji Ganesan, (1 October 1928 – 21 July 2001) was an Indian actor and producer. He was active in Tamil cinema during the latter half of the 20th century. Sivaji Ga ...

presided over the 100-day success celebration which was held on Haasan's birthday Ilaiyaraaja won the Cinema Express Award for Best Music Director. On 6 December 2021, in his YouTube channel, Touring Talkies, Chitra Lakshmanan said the Telugu-dubbed version ''Police Diary'', which had one additional song, ran for 185 days in Andhra Pradesh.

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 0314706 1980s Tamil-language films 1988 action thriller films 1988 films Fictional portrayals of the Tamil Nadu Police Films scored by Ilaiyaraaja Indian action thriller films Police detective films