''Thandavam'' is a 2002 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 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

Shaji Kailas Shaji Kailas (born 8 February 1965) is an Indian film director and screenwriter known for his works in Malayalam cinema. Shaji got a breakthrough with the comedy film ''Dr. Pasupathy'' (1990). He is best known for his action films with mainl ...

, written by S. Suresh Babu, and produced by Johny Sagariga. It stars

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 ...

Kiran Rathod Kiran Rathod (born 11 January 1981) is an Indian actress. She has acted in Tamil, Hindi, Malayalam, Telugu and Kannada films. Early life Rathod was born on 11 January 1981 in Jaipur. She is a cousin of actress Raveena Tandon. Rathod graduated ...

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 ...

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 ...

, Sai Kumar, Manoj K. Jayan, and

Jagadish P. V. Jagadish Kumar (born 12 June 1955) known mononymously as Jagadish, is an Indian actor, screenwriter, television presenter and former politician. He has starred in over 375 Malayalam films and 2 Hindi films. He is best known for his comi ...

. Released in 86 centers, ''Thandavam'' had the highest opening-day collection at the box office in the history of Malayalam cinema as it was after Industry hit from Mohanlal-Shaji Kailas's Narasimham, although it failed to maintain it further. The film was dubbed into

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 ...

and released as ''Erumugam''.

Plot

The story centers on Kasinathan, a pragmatic but playful businessman keen on general welfare of his men, and also running a resort and massage parlour as a side business. Kasinathan is the younger brother of Swaminathan, the heir to Valiyamangalam Malika and the head of erstwhile feudal Midhilapuri. Midhilapuri is an idyllic village prospered through judicious use of agriculture as the path to good life. Kasinathan is powerful in his own right and is tipped to succeed influential politician Menon in

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...

politics. Kasinathan has a secret admirer in the form of a mysterious girl who drops messages and love hints every day. But Kasinathan has still better issues to worry about!. The burning issue of providing drinking water supply to Udayankara colony is time and again sabotaged by Cherpunkal Shankar Das, a wily and unscrupulous politician of crassest morals who is intent on teaching a lesson to the alleged loyalty of the people who continue to support righteous politicians. The reciprocal justice is carried out by Kasinathan who in a strategic move corners Shankar Das in a compromising position with a serial actress and blackmails him to release permission for water supply in the village. Shankar Das is forced to resign from the cabinet. Ensuing celebration is amply enjoyed in a rain dance song by Kasinathan with all and sundry of his devoted satellites including characters Murugan, Vellapulli Mathachan, Tomi, Basheer, Pushpakumaran etc. Kasinathan's secret lover turns out to be Meenakshi the only sister of his good friend

Commissioner A commissioner (commonly abbreviated as Comm'r) is, in principle, a member of a commission or an individual who has been given a commission (official charge or authority to do something). In practice, the title of commissioner has evolved to in ...

Rajeevan. The upcoming business man Dasappan Gounder and his henchmen smells an opportunity to market

Cola Cola is a carbonated soft drink flavored with vanilla, cinnamon, citrus oils and other flavorings. Cola became popular worldwide after the American pharmacist John Stith Pemberton invented Coca-Cola, a trademarked brand, in 1886, which was imita ...

drinks in Midhilapuri and approaches Swaminathan to start a mutually profitable business deal. Swaminathan in his idealist moral sense is staunchly against the endeavour. Disappointed Gounder joins force with Shankar Das and craftily plots death of Swaminathan in a planned operation. The disappearance of Swaminthan moderates Kasinathan to an extent. He decides to don the garb of saviour of Midhilapauri and returns to his Valiyamangalam Malika. In a chance encounter, Kasinathan learns of the cause of death of his elder brother as planned murder perpetrated by Gounder, DYSP and Shankar Das. This unleashes the beast within him and true to his name, Kasinathan trounces on the hapless Gounder and Shankar Das to a vegetative life death end. Dasappan Gounder is lured to a barn and is thrashed to senselessness by Kasinathan. Meanwhile, Shankar Das is on a self-imposed pilgrimage to gather strength for a showdown with Kasinathan. He is eventually caught in the middle of the ''Kayakalpa'' treatment at an

ashram An ashram ( sa, आश्रम, ) is a spiritual hermitage or a monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or a ...

and goes mad in the end, a just retribution to a life full of sins and debauched deeds. After sorting out the evil issues, Kasinathan is still troubled by the "gap" and decides to solve this issue once and for all by marrying his sweet heart.

Cast

as Kashinathan *

as Swaminathan, Kasinathan elder brother *

as Meenakshi * Sai Kumar as Cherpunkal Shankar Das * Janardhanan as Menon * Manoj K. Jayan as Dasappan Gounder *

as Murugan *

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 Vellapulli Mathachan *

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 a ...

as Sufi * Vijayakumar as Tomy *

Bhavani Bhavānī (also known as Bhāvya, Tulajā, Turajā, Tvarita, Aṃbā, Jagadambā and Aṃbē) is manifestation of Adi Shakti (Durga). Bhavani translates to "giver of life", meaning the power of nature or the source of creative energy. She is co ...

as Swaminathan's wife *

Salim Kumar Salim Kumar (born 10 October 1969) is an Indian actor, comedian, director and writer in Malayalam cinema. Mostly known for his comic and comedy roles, Salim Kumar is considered one of the best and most prominent comedians in the history of Mala ...

as Basheer *

T. P. Madhavan T. P. Madhavan (born 7 November 1935) is an Indian actor who appeared in Malayalam films. He started acting at the age of 40. He has acted in more than 600 films. He came into the film industry playing villain roles; later he started doing com ...

as Warrier *

Maniyanpilla Raju Sudheer Kumar (born 20 April 1955), better known by his stage name Maniyanpilla Raju (Malayalam:മണിയൻപിള്ള രാജു), is an Indian actor and producer who works in Malayalam film industry.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 Commissioner Rajeevan, Meenakshi's elder brother *

Spadikam George George Antony, popularly credited as Spadikam George is an Indian actor and former Kerala state Police officer who primarily works in Malayalam films. He came to the limelight with the 1995 film ''Spadikam'', after which his name was preceded b ...

as Kuruvila Alex *

Sadiq Sadiq is a male name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Ja'far al-Sadiq, the 8th-century Muslim scholar and scientist, considered as an Imam and founder of the Ja'fari school of jurisprudence by Twelver and Isma'ili Shi’as, and a major fi ...

as MLA Jayasingam * C. I. Paul as Raghavan Pillai *Suma Jayaram as Meenakshi's sister-in-law *Krishna and Arun as Children of Swaminathan *

Rajendran A. Rajendran,(born 1 June 1957) credited as Motta Rajendran or ''Naan Kadavul'' Rajendran, is an Indian stunt double and actor working mainly in Tamil cinema. He debuted in 2003 with the Tamil film '' Pithamagan'' and has worked as a stunt doub ...

as Shankar Das's henchman *

Abhinayashree Abhinayashree is an evicted contestant on ''Bigg Boss (Telugu season 6)''. Career Her first major role came in Siddique's 2001 Tamil comedy '' Friends'', which featured her alongside Vijay and Suriya. She received a breakthrough in her car ...

Item girl In Indian cinema, an item number or item song is a musical number inserted into a film that may or may not have any relevance to the plot. The term is commonly used within Indian films (Malayalam, Telugu, Tamil, Hindi, Kannada, Punjabi, and B ...

in the song "Kombedu kuzhaledu"

Music

The film contains five songs composed by

M. G. Sreekumar Malabar Gopalan Sreekumar (born 25 May 1957), better known as M.G. Sreekumar is an Indian playback singer, composer, music producer, television presenter and film producer, who works predominantly in Malayalam cinema. He has sung more than 2000 ...

and one by

Perumbavoor G. Raveendranath Perumbavoor G. Raveendranath () is an Indian musician from Kerala. He is well known as a carnatic musician as well as a composer. He lives in Thiruvananthapuram now, though hails from Perumbavoor, Ernakulam. His works always have the deep-roote ...

("Himagiri Nirakal"), with lyrics by

Kaithapram Damodaran Padma Shri Kaithapram Damodaran Namboothiri, popularly known as Kaithapram, is a Malayalam lyricist, poet, music director, actor, singer, screenwriter, music therapist and performer of Carnatic music. He debuted with the movie Ennennum Kannet ...

. The soundtrack album was released by J. S. Audio. The

background score A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film. The score comprises a number of orchestral, instrumental, or choral pieces called cues, which are timed to begin and end at specific points during the film in order to e ...

was composed by C. Rajamani.

Box office

Released in 86 centers, ''Thandavam'' had the highest opening-day collection at the box office in the history of Malayalam cinema, although it failed to maintain it further and ended up as box office disaster as reviews were negative due to repetitive template.

References

External links

*
Thaandavam songs
{{Shaji Kailas 2002 films Films scored by Perumbavoor G. Raveendranath Films scored by M. G. Sreekumar 2000s Malayalam-language films Indian action films Indian gangster films 2000s masala films 2002 action films Films directed by Shaji Kailas