''Cheppu'' is a 1987 Indian

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of ...

-language

action thriller film The action film is a film genre that predominantly features chase sequences, fights, shootouts, explosions, and stunt work. The specifics of what constitutes an action film has been in scholarly debate since the 1980s. While some scholars such as D ...

directed by

Priyadarshan Priyadarshan Soman Nair (born 30 January 1957) is an Indian film director and screenwriter. He has worked primarily in Malayalam cinema, Malayalam and Hindi cinema, Hindi cinema since 1982, directing over 90 films in multiple Indian languages, ...

and starring

Mohanlal Mohanlal Viswanathan (; born 21 May 1960), known mononymously as Mohanlal, is an Indian actor and filmmaker who predominantly works in Malayalam cinema, Malayalam cinema besides also having sporadically appeared in Tamil cinema, Tamil, Hin ...

. This film was a huge success. First time in Malayalam film Industry an English song used in the movie, "Free and Young" was sung by famous American singer

Brenda Lee Brenda Mae Tarpley (born December 11, 1944), known professionally as Brenda Lee, is an American singer. Primarily performing rockabilly, pop, country and Christmas music, she achieved her first ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' hit aged 12 i ...

. The film is based on the 1982 Canadian film ''

Class of 1984 ''Class of 1984'' is a 1982 crime thriller film directed by Mark Lester, produced by Arthur Kent, and co-written by Tom Holland and John Saxton, based on a story by Holland. The film stars Perry King, Merrie Lynn Ross (who also served as ...

''.

Plot

Ramachandran gets a job as an English lecturer in T. K. P. Memorial College, only to find that many students are involved in drugs and politics, led by young Ranjith Mathews, son of Mathews, who is an MP. Ramachandran helps some students, including a geek named Anandan who was beaten by Ranjith's gang. The halls of the school are covered with

graffiti Graffiti (singular ''graffiti'', or ''graffito'' only in graffiti archeology) is writing or drawings made on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from simple written "monikers" to elabor ...

. As Ramachandran gets to know the school and the area, Ranjith and his gang continue making trouble. One day when Ranjith and his gang are smoking drugs, they hear Ramachandran coming in. They leave the drugs and claim that they had done nothing wrong. Then one of their gang members, in the toxication of drugs climbs the flag pole and falls down and dies. Ram demands investigation on the matter as he knows he was on drugs due to Ranjith. But the police and college staff are corrupt. Then Ranjith and his gang beat up Anandan who is a friend of the dead student and who was also present at the scene. But Ramachandran saves him in the nick of time. As revenge, Ranjith and his gang kill Professor Varkey's animals in his lab, which makes him go mad. Ram and Ranjith wind up in a bathroom alone together. Ranjith throws himself into a mirror and beats himself, claiming that Ram attacked him. Trying to clear things up, Ram visits Ranjith's mother at home. Frustrated when Ranjith still plays the victim and his mother will not hear Ram out, he hotwires Ranjith's car and drives it into a wall. Ramachandran continues fighting against Ranjith until he is murdered by his gang in the end. Ananthan later kills Ranjith for his honour.

Cast

as Prof. Ramachandran/ Choodan Ramachandran *

Ravi Menon Chalappurathu Raveendranatha Menon (1950 – 24 November 2007), popularly known as Ravi Menon, was a veteran Indian film actor who worked in Malayalam cinema. He was born in Sreekrishnapuram, Palakkad in 1950. He graduated from the Film and T ...

Cochin Haneefa Cochin Haneefa (22 April 1951 – 2 February 2010) was an Indian actor, film director, and screenwriter. He started his career in the 1970s mainly portraying villainous roles, before going on to become one of the most popular comedians of Malay ...

as Inspector Santhosh * K. B. Ganesh Kumar as Ranjith * Lizy as Nancy * Roshni as Alice Thomas *

Prathapachandran Prathapachandran (1941–2004) was an Indian actor, who worked predominantly in Malayalam film industry, though he acted in a few Tamil and Telugu movies as well. He is known for the portrayal of villainous and character roles in over 300 mov ...

as Mathews *

Sankaradi Paravoor memana Kanakku Chembakaraman Parameswaran Chandrashekara Menon, better known by his screen name Sankaradi (14 July 1924 – 8 October 2001), was an Indian actor. He was a veteran Malayalam comedian and character artist, who had over 70 ...

as Karunakaran Nair *

M. G. Soman M. G. Soman (28 October 1941 – 12 December 1997) was an Indian actor and former Indian Air Force officer who appeared in Malayalam films. He was one among the leading star actors doing hero roles in Malayalam Cinema during the late 1970s and ...

as Sathyadas, Principal * Sulakshana as Lakshmi *

Nedumudi Venu Kesavan Venugopal (22 May 1948 – 11 October 2021), better known by his stage name Nedumudi Venu, was an Indian actor and screenwriter from Kerala, who predominantly worked in Malayalam cinema. He acted in more than 500 films, primarily in M ...

as Prof. Varkey *

Jagathy Sreekumar Sreekumar Achary (born 5 January 1951), better known by his stage name Jagathy Sreekumar or simply Jagathy, is an Indian actor, director and playback singer, who has appeared in over 1500 Malayalam films in a career spanning almost four deca ...

as Kannan, Canteen Owner

Soundtrack

The music was composed by

Raghu Kumar P. K. Reghukumar (Raghukumar; 13 June 1953 – 20 February 2014) was a noted music composer from Kerala, India. His compositions first achieved prominence in the 1980s. Life and work Born into the prominent Pootheri family at Kozhikode in Ker ...

and the lyrics were written by

Poovachal Khader Poovachal Khader (25 December 1948 – 22 June 2021) was a Malayalam lyricist from Kerala who worked mainly in Malayalam film industry. His first movie as a lyricist was ''Kaattuvithachavan'' (1973) but his first released movie was ''Chuzhi'' (1 ...

References

External links

* 1980s Malayalam-language films 1987 films Indian action thriller films Indian gangster films Films scored by Raghu Kumar Films directed by Priyadarshan {{1980s-Malayalam-film-stub