Kaalapani

"Kalaa Paani" is one of those films that the Indian film industry churns out from time to time to convince the rest of the world that Indian film-makers are perfectly capable of making great films, films that will have a powerful impact on the viewer, films that you cannot easily forget (if at all you can). It rises above established conventions and is of the same class as films such as "Gandhi" and others.

Be warned that, below, although I have tried not to give too much away, I am including a summary of the plot.

The film features a good cast, although not a perfect one: Mohanlal and Prabhu play the leading roles, those of Govardhan Nair and Mukund Iyengar respectively, Tabu is Paarvathi, Govardhan's wife, Alex Draper is David Barry, the tyrannical jailor, Amrish Puri is Mirza Khan, his sub-ordinate officer, and other actors such as "Delhi" Ganesh, Sreeni, "Cochin" Hanifa, and several others. We are basically told a story about the lives of prisoners in a prison in British India and their relationships. This is where the film shows originality. We are not being told about the Indian Freedom Struggle itself, we are told about what it was like to be in prison in British India, that is all. A point to be noted here is that the lives of prisoners in FREE India, and indeed, perhaps almost everywhere else in the world, is just as horrifically sad as we see in this movie.

Govardhan Nair (as already mentioned, played by Mohanlal), a doctor, intending to help some friends of an old aquaintance of his, unwittingly helps a group of terrorists plant an explosive on the path of a train carrying a few British officials. Despite his desperate efforts to avert the tragedy when he realises what he has done, misfortune strikes him, the bomb explodes, killing fifty-five people and he is sent to prison on charges of murder. Here, he meets other people who have actually committed crimes involving participation in terrorist activity and "revenge" attacks (and he also meets other people, who are actually innocent of committing any crime, just as he is). He forms relationships with these people, partly in the hope that he will have a positive influence on their lives, i.e., intending to turn them away from violence. We also see that sometimes, beneath their hardened, disturbing exteriors, criminals can have human sides, too. After all, as they say, sometimes criminals are made, not born. The rest of the film tells the heart-rending story that can sometimes be nastily play out in innocent people's lives. I think I have to mention that there is one scene in this film that is really saddening. It's probably the saddest scene in any film ever made. But strangely enough, while I could feel a lump in my throat, I wasn't really moved to tears.

The cinematography is excellent. The sound was stunning when I watched the movie in the theatre, the film being one of the earliest films made in India to utilise the "dts" sound system. The makers of the film did not make a gimmick of this fact, but it got noticed anyway - the way a film should gain praise. The art directors and the set decorators are the people who, in my opinion, have let the rest of the crew down slightly. There are several occasions when you can clearly see that you're actually being shown a set, but there certainly are several other occasions when this is in a way, made up for. And of course, you can sometimes see that you are being shown showers from hose pipes in place of rain. The music by Ilayaraja, one of India's finest musicians, is excellent, except for one song, which isn't too bad, but still not as good as the rest of his work in this film. The make-up crew have worked really hard and have done a good job, at least by Indian standards. It is unfortunate that these few flaws are present in an otherwise great film.

To sum up, if you've never watched Indian films and you want to watch one, this is the one.

Normally the director of this movie used to make comedy oriented movie. In fact this was his first movie in a non-comic fashion. This movie depicts the lives of fellow Indian prisoners in a jail situated in Andaman Islands in the time where Britishers were ruling India.The tortures and humiliations they faced during their imprisonment. This also shows how patriotic they were.

There are lot of such movies(which sells patriotism) released in India till now . But this movie is somewhat differently made from all the other makes. The main reason can be that this movie is mostly made using the real facts that happened during that time in Andaman.

This movie used all new technologies of that time to build sch a gem kind of visual experience. This was in fact the most expensive movie of Malayalam Industry at that time. But as it lacked the commercial elements which were essential for a movie to be hit , this registered as a flop movie in Malayalam movie industry. But till date, I can easily say that this is the first movie which is deserved to be in the list of top rated patriotic movies made in India . This even dubbed into several other regional languages of India.

Coming to technology side , this movie was perfect in this case too .Priyadarshan was too keen on skills as a director. The cinematography by Santhosh Sivan was applauded by several Indian movie legends. Ilayaraja proved once more that he is a maestro in his area as the songs were simply superb. Then there comes the actors. One of the finest actor that India has ever produced , the great Mohanlal . He led the main character with his impeccable acting skills which supported by esteemed presence of Prabhu Ganeshan . This movie features other acting gems of India as Amrish Puri,Tabu,Nedumudi Venu,Kochin Haneefa,Shankaradi,Delhi Ganesan,Sreenivasan,Annu Kapoor,etc.

Overall, my fellow movie lovers, You're not going to regret about the movie if you spend 3 hours for it. Its my word,believe it!

Priyadarshan's magnum-opus is one of the finest depictions of pre-independence India that i have ever seen. In this moving cinematic spectacle, Mohanlal essays the role of Govardhan with elan, while Prabhu acts as a perfect foil, with the supporting cast also doing a commendable job. The cinematography is breath-taking, and the screenplay and editing are top-class. Being one of the first Indian movies to use DTS technology, it has been used very effectively in the movie. The plot is brilliantly crafted, and the ending is superb. An absolute must-see.

Its an asset to the industry. Movie greatly crafted

A very good movie acted superbly by the leading actors. The movies story revolves around the lives of Indian prisoners during British India. Some says its inspires from Schindler's list but i don't think there is a single scene to scene copy. though there is some similarity in the story like 1) one bad jailer who kills prisoners without reason and both dies in the end. 2) A white guy trying to help prisoners(in this movie a doctor and in SL- schindler).

But overall I believe the movie is original and there is no frame to frame to frame copy like now-a-days. The dedication of actors for the movie was unbelievable. Mohanlal goes to the extent of licking Amrish Puri's shoes! The movie is very violent and has lot of blood and gore. Though the movie cannot be watched with family, it is probably one of the finest south Indian movie showing freedom fighting of India. The direction of priyan is very good. Most of the scenes are original and some scenes are really good too. Priyan is wasting his real talents by copying other movies. Overall a very good movie with good acting and good direction. 4.5 out of 5