| Raavanaprabhu | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Ranjith |
| Written by | Ranjith |
| Produced by | Antony Perumbavoor |
| Starring | Mohanlal Vasundhara Das Siddique Napoleon Innocent Vijayaraghavan Sai Kumar |
| Cinematography | P. Sukumar |
| Edited by | Ranjan Abraham |
| Music by | Music: Suresh Peters Score: Rajamani |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Swargachithra |
Release date |
|
Running time | 178 minutes |
| Country | India |
| Language | Malayalam |
| Box office | ₹19 crore |
Raavanaprabhu (transl. LordRavana) is a 2001 IndianMalayalam-languageaction thriller film written and directed byRanjith in his directorial debut. It is a sequel to the 1993 filmDevaasuram written byRanjith, directed byI.V. Sasi. The film starsMohanlal in the dual role of Mangalassery Neelakandan and M. N. Karthikeyan, father and son.Napoleon reprises the role of Neelakandan'sarchenemy Mundackal Shekharan. It also featuresVasundhara Das,Siddique,Innocent,Vijayaraghavan, andSai Kumar.Revathi reprises the role of Bhanumathi in acameo appearance. The plot follows M. N. Karthikeyan, Neelakandan's son and his attempts to reclaim their ancestral home Mangalasserytharavadu.
The film features original songs composed bySuresh Peters and background score by C. Rajamani.Raavanaprabhu was released on 31 August 2001 during the time ofOnam inKerala. The film become a blockbuster at the box office, becoming thehighest grossing Malayalam movie of the year. It won theKerala State Film Award forBest Film with Popular Appeal and Aesthetic Value andBest Male Playback Singer forK. J. Yesudas, and also wonFilmfare Award for Best Music Director – Malayalam for Peters.
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The story begins with Mangalassery Neelakandan's ('Neelan') son Karthikeyan, as he ventures out to make money which ultimately makes him a wealthy businessman and liquor baron, while Neelakandan - with the passage of time - owns liabilities and has a strained financial position. The relationship between Neelan and Karthikeyan gets fragile, as Neelan disapproves his son's money-making methods.
Mundakkal Shekaran Nambiar - now an established industrialist and the owner of a multispeciality hospital - was imprisoned in the past for killing one of Neelakandan's friends: Kunjananthan, decades ago on Neelakandan's and Bhanumathi's marriage day. He still carries the vengeance against Neelan for severing the former's right-hand years ago. Shekaran decides to demoralise the Mangalassery family by taking over the chairmanship of a debt-ridden bank for confiscating the house which was kept asmortgage to the bank for the educational expenses of Suhara, daughter of one of Neelakandan's aides Hydrose.
Bhanumathi seeks treatment at Shekaran's Hospital. Even though Dr. Janaki: Shekaran's daughter, offers her the treatment she requires, Shekaran denies her treatment and asks her aides to leave the hospital, but Neelan reaches on time and strongly berates Shekaran . Neelan tries to find her treatment elsewhere, but Bhanumathi passes away in her sleep. He is shattered. Karthikeyan is not able to reach on time to set her pyre on fire - Neelan does the funeral rituals of Bhanumathi - and he's now bent on taking revenge on Shekaran. He vandalises the hospital as his revenge.
Neelan loses his home - as Shekaran, his nephew Rajendran and the board of directors of the Bank decides to attach the Mangalassery House - and Karthikeyan ventures out in an attempt to reclaim his ancestral home – where Bhanumathi was cremated and her eternal urn stands on the Mangalassery soil. He tries to acquire the house legally from an auction with the assistance of the State Home Minister and MLA Sivadasan (Kunjananthan's son and Karthikeyan's childhood friend), but Shekaran and his cunning nephew Mundakkal Rajendran, along with Rajendran's evil accomplice Maniyampra Purushothaman acquire it back using a faux concealed tender. As a last resort, Karthikeyan seizes Purushothaman'sMercedes-Benz car and also abducts Janaki in an attempt to blackmail Shekaran, and harbours her in his friend – Sakhtivel Gounder's house inPollachi, where the Gounder family takes great care of her as their own daughter. It is during this period, Karthikeyan and Janaki fall in love with each other.
Karthikeyan gets the Mangalassery House (Tharavadu) back when Shekaran strikes a compromise without the knowledge of Rajendran and Janaki's fiancé, Sreenivasan Nambiar IPS. Janaki is subsequently released. As a result of arguments between Janaki and Sreenivasan about her chastity while being in the custody of Karthikeyan, and she not giving a written statement to the police against him because of her liking towards Karthikeyan, the fixed marriage is called off by Janaki.
Rajendran makes a last attempt to kill Karthikeyan, but instead kills Neelakandan by lighting him on fire. Rajendran in turn gets killed by Neelan after a perfect knife throw, piercing through his throat. Karthikeyan, now infuriated on his father's murder, goes to kill Shekaran by burning him. But an elderly Warrier stops him and brings him back. Shekaran realizes his mistakes, as well as the influence of the kind Warrier on both Neelan and Karthikeyan (Warrier's intervention prevented Neelakandan from killing Shekaran decades ago: inDevasuram).
In the end, the eternal urns of Bhanumathi and Neelakandan are shown; Karthikeyan becomes the head of the Mangalassery house, and Sreenivasan gives Janaki back to him, thus parting ways with the would-be couple on a happy note. Karthikeyan and Janaki are happily married with everyone's blessings.
| Mangalassery Madhava Menon | Yasodha | Unknown | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bhanumathi | Mangalassery Neelakandan | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Karthikeyan | Janaki Nambiar | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mundakkal Ramakrishnan Nambiar | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Kunjikrishnan Nambiar | Parameswaran | Karthiyani | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Subhadra | Krishnan | Mundakkal Shekharan Nambiar | Sreedevi | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rajendran | Janaki Nambiar | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Raavanaprabhu marks the directorial debut ofRanjith and acts as a sequel to the 1993 filmDevaasuram written by Ranjith. The plot follows M. N. Karthikeyan, a new character, the son of Mangalasserry Neelakandan.[1]Vasundhara Das played the female lead role, who debuted in Malayalam with the film. She started by filming the song "Pottukuthedi" which was shot in five days.[2]Kanal Kannan was the action choreographer of the film.[3] The Karthikeyan vs. SP Sreenivasan fight scene featuringMohanlal andSiddique was choreographed byKanal Kannan, who then worked in the film.Raavanaprabhu marks the debut work of Hein inMalayalam cinema.[4]
The film's soundtrack includes five songs composed bySuresh Peters and written byGireesh Puthenchery. "Vandemukunda Hare" was taken from the prequelDevaasuram originally sung and composed byM. G. Radhakrishnan. The soundtrack album was released on 31 December 2000 by the label East Coast Audio Entertainments.[5] The film'sbackground score was composed by C. Rajamani.
| No. | Title | Singer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Ariyathe Ariyathe" (Duet) | P. Jayachandran,K. S. Chithra | 5:32 |
| 2. | "Pottukuthedi" | Palakkad Sreeram,Swarnalatha | 4:29 |
| 3. | "Aakashadheepangal Sakshi" (Male Vocals) | K. J. Yesudas | 4:07 |
| 4. | "Aattoram Azhakoram" | Sujatha Mohan | 4:46 |
| 5. | "Aakashadheepangal Sakshi" (Female Vocals) | K. S. Chithra | 4:07 |
| 6. | "Vande Mukundahare" | Nikhil | 2:08 |
| 7. | "Ariyathe Ariyathe" (Female Vocals) | K. S. Chithra | 5:32 |
| 8. | "Thakilu Pukilu" | M. G. Sreekumar, Prabhakaran,Mohanlal,Sujatha Mohan,Radhika Thilak | 5:42 |
Raavanaprabhu was released as anOnam festival release on 31 August 2001. The film was a commercial success at the box office and went on to become the highest-grossing Malayalam film of the year 2001. Mohanlal's frequently used punchlineSavari Giri Giri became a popular catchphrase.[6]