''Highway'' is a 1995 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 ...

-language

action Action may refer to: * Action (philosophy), something which is done by a person * Action principles the heart of fundamental physics * Action (narrative), a literary mode * Action fiction, a type of genre fiction * Action game, a genre of video gam ...

spy film The spy film, also known as the spy thriller, is a film genre, genre of film that deals with the subject of fictional espionage, either in a realistic way (such as the adaptations of John le Carré) or as a basis for fantasy (such as many Jame ...

directed by

Jayaraaj Jayarajan Rajasekharan Nair, professionally credited as Jayaraj (born 31 May 1960), is an Indian filmmaker, who predominantly works in the Malayalam film industry. He has won many awards, including Crystal Bear at the Berlin International ...

, produced by

Prem Prakash Cherian Joseph, popularly known as Prem Prakash is an Indian actor who predominantly works in Malayalam television serials and a producer in Malayalam movies. He is mainly known for supporting roles and character roles. He has produced 19 Mala ...

, and written by

Sab John Sab John is an Indian screenwriter and actor who works in Malayalam and Tamil-language films. He is known for his work in the films '' Chanakyan'' (1989), '' Gunaa'' (1991) and ''Soorya Manasam'' (1992) Career Sab John made his debut as a wri ...

. The film stars

Suresh Gopi Suresh Gopi (born 26 June 1958) is an Indian actor, playback singer, television presenter and politician who is currently serving as the Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas and the Minister of Tourism since June 2024. He was ele ...

and

Bhanupriya Bhanupriya (born Manga Bhanu; 15 January 1967) is an Indian actress and dancer. In a four decade old career, she has appeared in 155 feature films, predominantly in Telugu cinema, Telugu and Tamil cinema, Tamil, and a few in Malayalam cinema, M ...

, with

Vijayaraghavan Narayanapillai Vijayaraghavan, known mononymously as Vijayaraghavan, is an Indian actor who predominantly works in Malayalam cinema. He is known for his character roles. He is the son of drama and cinema artist N. N. Pillai. Early life and f ...

, Janardhanan and

Biju Menon Biju Menon (born 9 September 1967) is an Indian actor who predominantly appears in Malayalam films, and also has a few Tamil, Telugu and Kannada film credits. He made his debut in the 1994 Malayalam film ''Puthran''. In a career spanning over ...

in supporting roles. The film's original songs were composed by S. P. Venkatesh, while cinematography was handled by

P. Sukumar P. Sukumar ISC is an Indian cinematographer, director, producer and actor who works predominantly in Malayalam cinema. He is known for directing the film, Swantham Lekhakan, and handling the camera for over 65 films such as ''Twenty:20 (film), ...

. ''Highway'' was released in theatres on 3 May 1995. It was a commercial success at the Kerala box office. The film's dubbed Telugu version was also a box office success in

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (ISO 15919, ISO: , , AP) is a States and union territories of India, state on the East Coast of India, east coast of southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, seventh-largest state and th ...

Plot

Sreedhar Prasad is a RAW

field agent In espionage, a field agent or field operative is an agent who works in the field as opposed to one who operates at the office or headquarters. A field agent can work alone or in a group but usually has a case officer who is in charge. Field agen ...

who is assigned with the task of investigating a bomb blast that killed 30 innocent college students. Sreedhar operates under the name of Mahesh Aravind, a planter from

Udumbanchola Udumbanchola is a taluk in Idukki district of the Indian state of Kerala. This is in the high ranges. Nedumkandam is the major town and capital of Udumbanchola taluk. Mathikettan Shola National Park is located in Udumbanchola. In July 2019, ...

and chooses a township Wintergreen as his temporary residence during the course of the investigation. Mahesh establishes a friendly relation with ACP George Alexander, who was the official in charge of the criminal investigation. As the investigation proceeds, it is understood that the bomb blast was connected with a chain of crimes that happened in the area including the missing of a scientist Guhan Menon from Baddapur Space Research Organization (BSRO), who is later revealed to be killed. It is revealed that Shankar Dev Rana, an established businessman and educationist in the common front, is actually a traitor and drug lord in his parallel life. Sreedhar Prasad and his subordinate Moorthy finally solves the cases after hurdles and arrest Shankar Dev Rana for orchestrating the bomb blast.

Cast

as Sreedhar Prasad IPS/Mahesh Aravind ( RAW officer) *

as Meera *

as Moorthy/Unnithaan ( RAW Officer) * Janardhanan as ACP George Alexander IPS *

as SI Pavithran *

Jose Prakash Kunnel Joseph Joseph, better known by his stage name, Jose Prakash (14 April 1925 – 24 March 2012) was an Indian actor and singer who worked in Malayalam cinema. He was a singer turned actor who had appeared in more than 300 films mostly in a ...

as Kartha (Meera's father) *

Augustine Augustine of Hippo ( , ; ; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430) was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Africa. His writings deeply influenced the development of Western philosop ...

as Sukumaran/Sukhbir (Hanuman) Singh * Kunchan as Vasco *

Sukumari Sukumari Amma (6 October 1940 – 26 March 2013) was an Indian actress best known for her works in Malayalam and Tamil films. In a career spanning more than five decades, She has appeared in more than 2500 films predominantly in Malayalam, T ...

as Vasco's mother * Eliyas Babu as Shankar Dev Rana/Murikkummuri Velayudhan (Real name, revealed in the climax) * Kamal Gaur as 'Cobra' Hamza, Chief Henchman of Shankar Dev Rana *

Spadikam George George Antony, popularly credited as Spadikam George is an Indian actor who primarily works in Malayalam films. He came to the limelight with the 1995 film '' Spadikam'', after which his name was preceded by the name of that film. George's perf ...

as IG Ramamurthy IPS *

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

as Vinod Menon/Apache (One among the students who gets killed in the blast) *

as Sivanandan, Fabrication Engineer, BSRO * Kaduvakkulam Antony as Kallu Vareeth, Checkpost Registrar *

Mohan Jose Mohan Jose is an Indian actor in Malayalam cinema. He has acted in more than 100 films. He came into the movie industry portraying villains and later began acting in different comedy and character roles. He is the son of singer and actor Pappu ...

as Robinson, Motel Manager and Rana's agent *

Silk Smitha Vadlapati Vijayalakshmi (2 December 1960 – 23 September 1996), better known by her stage name Silk Smitha, was an Indian actress and dancer who worked mainly in Tamil (over 200 films)and Telugu (over 100 films) cinema, in addition to some K ...

Dancer Dance is an The arts, art form, consisting of sequences of body movements with aesthetic and often Symbol, symbolic value, either improvised or purposefully selected. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

Music

The soundtrack album was composed by S. P. Venkatesh for the lyrics penned by

Gireesh Puthenchery Girish Puthenchery was a noted Malayalam lyricist, poet, scriptwriter and screenwriter, esteemed for his pivotal role as a lyricist in Malayalam cinema. He was often hailed as the aristocratic lyricist of Malayalam and was admired for his uniqu ...

Box office

The film was a commercial success in Kerala and also in

. According to producer Khader Hassan, it created pre-release hype in Andhra Pradesh due to the successes of Suresh Gopi's previous dubbed films, and after the success of ''Highway'', older Malayalam films in which he appeared in supporting roles too were released in the

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

and the

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of South India ** Telugu literature, is the body of works written in the Telugu language. * Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Tel ...

industries.

Sequel

A sequel to the film titled ''Highway 2'' was announced in 2022.

References

External links

{{Jayaraj 1990s Malayalam-language films Films about the Research and Analysis Wing Indian crime thriller films 1995 films 1995 crime thriller films