''Mounam Sammadham'' () is a 1990 Indian

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

-language

legal thriller The legal thriller genre is a type of crime fiction genre that focuses on the proceedings of the Criminal investigation, investigation, with particular reference to the impacts on courtroom proceedings and the lives of characters. The genre came ...

film written by S. N. Swamy, directed by K. Madhu and produced by

Kovai Chezhiyan Kovai Chezhiyan was an Indian senior leader of the Dravidian movement in the Kongu Nadu region and film producer who worked in the 1950s up to late 1990s. He was also the vice-chairman of the Tamil Nadu Planning Commission when M. G. Ramachandr ...

. The film stars

Mammootty Muhammad Kutty Panaparambil Ismail (born 7 September 1951), known mononymously by the hypocorism Mammootty (), is an Indian actor and film producer who works predominantly in Malayalam-language films. He has also appeared in Tamil, Telugu, ...

(in his Tamil film debut) and Amala. It revolves around a lawyer representing a wrongfully convicted man. The film was released on 15 June 1990, and went on to become a commercial and critical success.

Plot

The plot revolves around the wrongful conviction of Sundaram, a businessman, and the efforts taken by his lawyer Raja to find the truth.

Cast

Production

''Mounam Sammadham'' was the first Tamil film of

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 ...

actor

. It took inspiration from his own film '' Oru CBI Diary Kurippu''.

Soundtrack

The music was composed by

Ilaiyaraaja Ilaiyaraaja (born R. Gnanathesikan) is an Indian musician, composer, arranger, conductor, orchestrator, multi-instrumentalist, lyricist and playback singer popular for his works in Indian cinema, predominately in Tamil cinema, Tamil in addition ...

. The song "Kalyaana Thaen Nilaa" is set in

Darbari Kanada Darbari Kanada, or simply Raga Darbari (pronounced darbāri kānada), is a raga in Carnatic music. It is a janya ragam (derived scale) of 20th Melakarta raga Natabhairavi. It is believed to be borrowed into Hindustani classical music by M ...

raga, while "Chik Chik Chaa" is a

synth-pop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a music genre that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s b ...

number. ;Telugu version Lyrics for the dubbed Telugu version ''Lawyer The Great'' were written by Rajasri.

Reception

N. Krishnaswamy of ''

The Indian Express ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932 by P. Varadarajulu Naidu. It is headquartered in Noida, owned by the ''Indian Express Group''. It was later taken over by Ramnath Goenka. In 1999, eight y ...

'' praised the film for the cast performances (particularly Mammootty), Ilaiyaraaja's music, the cinematography and Shivaji's comedy. C. R. K. of ''

Kalki Kalki (), also called Kalkin, is the prophesied tenth and final incarnation of the Hinduism, Hindu god Vishnu. According to Vaishnavism, Vaishnava cosmology, Kalki is destined to appear at the end of the Kali Yuga, the last of the four ages i ...

'', however, was less positive, saying the film was like an ordinary novel. The film was both a critical and commercial success.

References

External links

* * {{S. N. Swamy 1990 films 1990s Indian films 1990s legal thriller films 1990s Tamil-language films Films about capital punishment Films about miscarriage of justice Films directed by K. Madhu Films scored by Ilaiyaraaja Indian courtroom films Indian legal thriller films Tamil-language Indian films