Moonnam Mura

the tried and tested duo of K.Madhu and S.N Swamy combines again for an action thriller that is not usual to Malayalam film audiences.this film deals with a group of drug dealers who hijack a bus,containing a VIP and his family who were on a picnic trip. the hijackers take them to a deserted palace(bungalow) inside a forest. their aim is to pressurize the police and the government to release some of their colleagues in police custody charged with smuggling. with time running out and well trained hijackers starting to show hardly any mercy for the hostages, the government and police have no option but to call on an ex-cop Imran Ali(played by Mohanlal)with special training in commando operation to come up with a miracle. the carefully planned out thrilling commando operation carried out by Imran Ali forms the rest of the film.

the main antagonist in the film is Lalu Alex, the drug lord and his right hand men played by Babu Antony and Vijayaraghavan. Other important roles are played by sukumaran the police chief,revathi the tour guide, presumably the lead heroine if there was one! and also suresh gopi, mukesh, srinath, janardhanan, innocent, prathapchandran and C.I Paul.

Mohanlal as Imran Ali excels, so does lalu Alex as Charles the villain. suresh gopi and mukesh has sort of unimportant roles, as one wud expect with both of them yet to stamp their authority in the industry those days. with modern equipments and martial arts on show this film is a watchable one.

For a movie made in 1988, the movie was pretty good. No silly songs, romance or melodrama. The action scenes are a bit corny. The screenplay is pretty good.

I wish this movie is remade with latest camera techniques and surround technology (preferably by my favourite director, Amal Neerad). This movie was one of of a kind that time. Though it wasn't a huge it, it captured the attention of action lovers. The theme music was excellent and were remembered for a long time. The story was simple. A group of VIPs are kidnapped by some criminals (headed by Lalu Alex) and held for ransom. The smart police officer (Sukumaran) brings down his ex-colleague Ali Imran into scene (Lal) to hunt the criminals and bring the hostages home. What else you need? Our hero starts his game... A must watch for all Lal fans!

No doubt Moonnam Mura (Third Degree) reminded me of Die Hard with its incredible plot where a group of terrorists hijack a bus and take a group of VIPs hostage in an old mansion. The treatment here is different; you see how hostage situations are handled due to political and police pressure and how police sometimes have no option left. Fabulous performances by Lalu Alex and Mohanlal. Watch it.