THE CHIYAAN CONNECTION IN KURUTHIPUNAL

Produced by Raaj Kamal Films International, Kuruthipunal hit the screens in 1995 and was a trendsetting action-drama directed by cinematographer PC Sreeram. The film based on terrorism was an intriguing one and strictly not for the light-hearted.

Adhi Narayanan (Kamal) and Abbas (Arjun) take up ‘Operation Dhanush’ to curtail and excavate the terrorist activities plaguing the society. Nasser in the role of Badri, the head of the organization pulled off a great performance of a horrifying villain. The film was praised for its dialogues, explicit content, action sequences, suspense elements and of course the ending. Written by Kamal himself, Mahesh composed the music and the story was by Govind Nihalani who originally directed it in Hindi titled Drohkaal.

Kuruthipunal had the legendary director Viswanath playing an important role along with cameraman Arvind Krishna who was then the assistant of PC Sreeram doing a cameo. The even more interesting trivia is, Chiyaan Vikram dubbed for John Edathattil who did a role of Narasimhan, Nasser’s assistant commander.

Kuruthipunal had its successful run at box-office and also earned a number of awards with the most prestigious being the official entry into 68^th Academy Awards for the ‘Best Foreign Language Film’ category. This was also the first film to use the Dolby surround SR technology.

PC Sreeram says, “It is enriching to understand that audiences remember the film even after 20 years. This is the victory to art more than to an individual. We were very confident while making this film, but I am quite surprised with the kind of response it is garnering amidst audience even now. Kuruthipunal is not a movie but a record of iconic performances of Kamal, Arjun, Nasser, Gautami and Arvind Krishna in close proximity of lens”.

So let’s take the time to celebrate 20 years of Kuruthipunal, a true classic that’ll remain to be our favourite.