''Vartha'' () is a 1986 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 film, directed by

I. V. Sasi Irruppam Veedu Sasidaran (28 March 1947 – 24 October 2017), better known as I. V. Sasi, was an Indian film director who made over 110 films predominantly in Malayalam, in addition to Tamil and Hindi languages. In 2015, he was awarded the J. ...

and produced by P. V. Gangadharan. 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 ...

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 ...

Rahman Rahman (Arabic: or ) may refer to: *Rahman, one of the names of God in Islam *Ar-Rahman, the 55th sura of the Qur'an People *Rahman (name), an Arabic male personal name **Short form of Abd al-Rahman *Rahman (actor) (born 1967), Indian actor *Rah ...

, Seema,

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

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 ...

and

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 ...

. The film has musical score by

A. T. Ummer Anjukandy Thalakkal Ummer ( ml, അഞ്ചുകണ്ടി തളയ്ക്കൽ ഉമ്മർ) (10 March 1933 – 18 October 2001) was a Malayalam music composer from Kerala, India. He is known for composing many soft melodies for 174 ...

. The film was successful at the box office. The film was remade in Tamil as ''

Palaivana Rojakkal ''Palaivana Rojakkal'' () is a 1986 Indian Tamil-language political satire film written by M. Karunanidhi and directed by Manivannan. It is a remake of the Malayalam film ''Vartha'', released earlier the same year. The film stars Sathyaraj, Lak ...

'' (1986), and in

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

as ''Jai Shiv Shankar'', which never released.

Plot

Cast

as Madhavan Kutty *

as Parol Vasu *

as Unnikrishnan * Seema as Radha Menon

IAS IAS may refer to: Science * Institute for Advanced Study, in Princeton, New Jersey, United States * Image Analysis & Stereology, the official journal of the International Society for Stereology & Image Analysis. * Iowa Archeological Society, Uni ...

Nalini Nalini (Devanagari: नलिनी) is a female gender Indian given name, which means "lotus", "goddess Gayatri","mother of Vedas", "sweet nectar", "Amrit", Feminine "lily" in Sanskrit.''Baby Names''"Nalini" Retrieved on 9 January 2016. The name ...

as Vasanthi *

as Devan *

as Nambeeshan * Devan as Revenue Minister Philip *

T. G. Ravi T. G. Ravindranathan (born 16 May 1944), popularly known as T. G. Ravi, is an Indian actor, mainly noted for his roles as a villain in Malayalam cinema. He along with Balan K. Nair played most of the negative roles in Malayalam cinema during t ...

as Manikyam Kumar * Janardhanan as James *

as Kunjulakshmi *

Manavalan Joseph Manavalan Joseph was a Malayalam film actor. He is an actor who worked in many movies during the 1950s and 1960s. He died in 1986 Background Manavalan Joseph was born at Fort Kochi then in the Malabar District of the Madras Presidency of Britis ...

as Constable *

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 dire ...

as Kurup *

Babu Namboothiri Babu Namboothiri (born 12 August 1947) is a retired Chemistry Professor and Head Of Department of Deva Mata College Kuravilangad and an Indian film and TV actor who has starred in more than 100 Malayalam films and various serials. He is famou ...

as Venu *

Thikkurissy Sukumaran Nair Thikkurissy Sukumaran Nair (16 October 191611 March 1997) was an Indian poet, playwright, script writer, lyricist, orator, film director and actor, though he is best known as an actor in Malayalam cinema. He is the recipient of Padma Shri from t ...

as Keshavan Nair *

K. P. A. C. Sunny K. P. A. C. Sunny (1934–2006) was an Indian actor in Malayalam movies. He acted in more than 400 Malayalam films. He occupied the movie industry for four decades. Background Sunny was born as Sunny D'Cruz in Chavara, Kollam on 18 April 1934. ...

as Enforcement Officer *

K. P. A. C. Azeez Azeez (27 November 1934 – 16 July 2003) was an Indian actor in Malayalam cinema. He acted in more than 100 films. He came into the movie industry as a villain, later he started doing character roles, such as police officer, jailer, and ministe ...

as City Police Commissioner *

Balan K. Nair Balakrishnan Nair, more popularly known as Balan K. Nair (4 April 1933 26 August 2000) was an Indian actor known for his roles in Malayalam cinema. Although he appeared as a villain in most films, he was also noted for his performances in stron ...

as Forest Minister *

Kuthiravattam Pappu Padmadalakshan, better known by his stage name Kuthiravattam Pappu (24 December 1936 – 25 February 2000), was a popular Indian stage and film actor. His repertoire of acting was based on his unique style and use of the ''Kozhikodan'' dialect, i ...

as Hamsa *

Kundara Johny Johny Joseph with the stage name Kundara Johny is an Indian actor in Malayalam cinema. He has acted in more than 100 films. He has also done Cinema of Tamil Nadu, Tamil films like ''Vaazhkai Chakram'' and ''Nadigan''. He surprised everyone wit ...

as Francis *

Paravoor Bharathan Vadakkekarayil Koran Bharathan (16 January 1929- 19 August 2015), better known as Paravoor Bharatan was an Indian actor who acted in Malayalam films. He started his career in movies during the 1950s. Bharathan is known as a versatile actor and h ...

as Bharathan *

Kunjandi Kunjandi ( ml, കുഞ്ഞാണ്ടി; 1919–2002) was an Indian actor in Malayalam cinema. He has acted in more than 50 films. He handled character roles as well as supporting roles. Background Kunjandi was born at Calicut. His first ...

as Pachu Pillai *

Nellikode Bhaskaran Nellikode Bhaskaran (21 April 1924 – 11 August 1988) was an Indian actor in Malayalam movies. His real name was Bhaskara Menon. He mostly played character roles and supporting roles. Awards Kerala State Film Awards: * Second Best Actor ...

as Radha's Relative *

Sonia Sonia, Sonja or Sonya, a name of Greek origin meaning wisdom, may refer to: People * Sonia (name), a feminine given name (lists people named, Sonia, Sonja and Sonya) :* Sonia (actress), Indian film actress in Malayalam and Tamil films :* Sonia ...

as Young Radha *

Santhakumari Santha Kumari (born Vellaala Subbamma; 17 May 1920 – 16 January 2006) was an Indian musical artist and actress. She was married to the Telugu film director and producer P. Pullayya. Early years Vellaala Subbamma was born in Proddatur town, ...

as Ammukutty *

K. T. C. Abdullah K.T.C. Abdullah or Abdullah hails from Palayam, Kozhikode, Kerala, British India. Born in 1936. He was a veteran actor on stage and performed in a few notable Malayalam films. He died on 17 November 2018 at Kozhikode, Kerala, India. He made h ...

uncredited roll * Baskara Kurup as Hajyar * V. Ramachandran as Engineer Sahadevan

Themes

''Vartha'' is about the

freedom of the press Freedom of the press or freedom of the media is the fundamental principle that communication and expression through various media, including printed and electronic News media, media, especially publication, published materials, should be conside ...

, and the "struggle between corrupt politicians and angry heroes". Sreedhar Pillai of ''

India Today ''India Today'' is a weekly Indian English-language news magazine published by Living Media India Limited. It is the most widely circulated magazine in India, with a readership of close to 8 million. In 2014, ''India Today'' launched a new onl ...

'' wrote, "''Vartha'' had overtly political themes, parodying events and politicians in a manner that left little to the imagination. I. V. Sasi in an interview stated that: "I always have a rough commercial framework for my political films, Then I look around and talk to a lot of people about current political happenings. These, when mixed in the right proportion can give you an instant hit."

Release

The film was released on 12 February 1986.

Box office

The film was a commercial success. The film was the third highest grossing Malayalam film of the year 1986.

Soundtrack

The music was composed by

and the lyrics were written by

Bichu Thirumala B. Sivasankaran Nair, popularly known as Bichu Thirumala (13 February 1942 – 26 November 2021), was an Indian lyricist and poet. He is known for creating the style of arranging beautiful words in Malayalam film songs. In Malayalam cinema, Bich ...

Awards

Filmfare Award for Best Film - Malayalam ''Filmfare'' is an Indian English-language fortnightly magazine published by Worldwide Media. Acknowledged as one of Indian most popular entertainment magazines, it publishes pieces involving news, interviews, photos, videos, reviews, events, an ...

won by

P. V. Gangadharan Parayarukandi Vettath Gangadharan is an Indian film producer and businessman from Kerala. He has produced 22 Malayalam films under his production company Grihalakshmi Productions. As a producer, he has won two National Film Awards, five Kera ...

(1986)https://archive.org/download/34th-filmfare-south-winners/34th%20Filmfare%20South%20winners.jpg

References

External links

* 1986 films 1980s Malayalam-language films Indian political films Indian political thriller films Malayalam films remade in other languages Films directed by I. V. Sasi {{1980s-Malayalam-film-stub