Rudraksham

This article is about the movie. For the plant, see Elaeocarpus ganitrus.

Rudraksham
File:Rudraksham.gif
Directed by	Shaji Kailas
Produced by	M. Mani
Written by	Ranjith
Starring	Suresh Gopi Annie Vijayaraghavan Rajan P. Dev
Music by	Rajamani Sharreth
Cinematography	S. Kumar
Edited by	L.Bhoominathan
Production company	Sunitha Productions
Distributed by	Aroma Release
Release date	1994 (1994)
Running time	170 minutes
Country	India
Language	Malayalam

Rudraksham (Malayalam: രുദ്രാക്ഷം) is a 1994 action Malayalam film starring Suresh Gopi, Annie and Devan. Written by Ranjith and directed by Shaji Kailas.

Plot

Vishwanathan (Suresh Gopi), due to his passion for farming and agriculture, gave up his job in an MNC and has been settled in his village. One day he gets a call from Hyderabad that Revathi (Maathu), his sister, who is studying medicine at a medical college has been missing for the past couple of days. Vishwanathan sets out to Hyderabad on the same day in a tourist bus. The bus, which is on a trip to Tirupati, is packed with a set of religious Tamil-speaking Hindu pilgrims. Gowri (Annie), a beautiful girl among them grabs his attention for her singing abilities. The next day morning, on reaching Hyderabad, Vishwanathan reaches the college, and from her friends comes to know that Revathi had received threats from one Sudhakar Reddy (K. B. Ganesh Kumar), son of an underworld don, Govinda Reddy. Revathi, who had witnessed a murder committed by Sudhakar, had planned to appear at an identification parade at the police station. Sudhkar in fury, rapes her, and in an effort to save herself, she falls down from the top of a building and dies. Vishwanathan visits the nearby police station to file a complaint, but gets a cold response from the local inspector. He even threatens to arrest Vishwanathan, if he decides to move ahead with the complaint. Vishwanathan, who goes crazy of anger, gets into a scuffle with Sudhakar, and kills him, which causes his father Reddy, who is now ruling the city, to hunt for Vishwanathan. He is saved by the rival mafia don Patel (Devan). Vishwanathan is made to stay at a brothel run by Patel, where he meets Appu (Maniyanpilla Raju), a good hearted chap. At the brothel, he is shocked to see Gowri, with whom he had a crush on the bus on the road to Hyderabad. From Appu, he comes to know that she was trapped and kidnapped at Tirupathi and has been sold to Patel by a lady pimp (Lalithasree). On meeting Vishwanathan, Gowri pleads with him to save her. At night, she hits the CI Rao with a liquor bottle, causing him injury. Vishwanathan decides to save her and is helped by Appu in finding a route outside. Appu introduces him to Jose (Vijayaraghavan), a truck driver from Kerala and his sidekick Kunjahammed (Augustine). But Appu is killed by the goons of Patel. Vishwanathan flees out from the brothel with Gowri and is followed by Patel and his goons. On another side, Reddy is also after him. Their chase turns more violent as they face several hardships on the path, including many local criminals. But Vishwanathan, after a bloody, long chase, succeeds in saving her by killing both Patel and Reddy.

Cast

• Suresh Gopi as Vishwanathan
• Annie as Gouri
• Maathu as Revathi
• Geetha as Rathnam
• Vijayaraghavan as Jose
• Devan as Patel
• R. N. Sudarshan as Reddy
• K. B. Ganesh Kumar as Sudhakar Reddy
• Rajan P. Dev as Nair
• Chithra as Doctor
• Augustine as Kunjahammad
• Bheeman Raghu as Thankachan
• Maniyanpilla Raju as Appu
• Bobby Kottarakkara as Hospital Attandant
• T. P. Madhavan as Appunni Nair
• Sadiq as CI
• Vinu Chakravarthy as CI Rao
• Abu Salim
• T.S. Krishnan
• Tony

Trivia

• This film had just one song, which was penned by Renji Panicker.
• It was on the sets of this film that director Shaji Kailas fell in love with Annie. They got married a year later.
• This was the second film of Annie. She made a stunning come back and became the most popular heroine of her time. She went on to act in more than a dozen films during the next year.
• This was the first film by Shaji Kailas with Ranjith. Later they did Asuravamsam, Aaram Thamburan, Narasimham and Valliettan.
• This film was criticized for extreme violence.
• The camera work was done by S. Kumar. This is the only film that Kumar did with Shaji Kailas.

External links

• Rudraksham at IMDb