''Rangam'' () is a 1985 Indian

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry ( Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam wa ...

-language

psychological drama Psychological drama or psychodrama is a sub-genre of drama that places emphasis on psychological elements. It often overlaps with other genres such as crime, fantasy, black comedy, and science fiction, and it is closely related with the psychologic ...

film directed by I. V. Sasi and written by M. T. Vasudevan Nair. The film stars

Mohanlal Mohanlal Viswanathan (born 21 May 1960), known mononymously as Mohanlal, is an Indian actor, film producer, playback singer, film distributor, and director who predominantly works in Malayalam cinema besides also having sporadically appe ...

Kathakali Kathakali ( ml, കഥകളി) is a major form of classical Indian dance. It is a "story play" genre of art, but one distinguished by the elaborately colourful make-up and costumes of the traditional male actor-dancers. It is native to the M ...

artist Appunni, along with

Shobana Shobana Chandrakumar Pillai (born 21 March 1970) is an Indian actress and Bharatanatyam dancer. She acts predominantly in Malayalam films along with Telugu and Tamil films with few Hindi, Kannada and English films. She has won two National Fi ...

and

Raveendran Madhavan Raveendran ( ml, മാധവൻ രവീന്ദ്രൻ ), (born Kulathupuzha, Kollam, 9 November 1943 – died Chennai, Tamil Nadu, 3 March 2005), fondly known as ''Raveendran Master'', was a popular South Indian music composer ...

. The film features a musical score composed by K. V. Mahadevan.

Plot

Appunni, a

artist, is the cousin of Chandramathi who is a classical dancer and Appunni is in love with Chandramathi. Madhavan, son of Karunakarapanickker, who is the owner of Sadanam the Kathakali Kalari, returns from Russia and falls for Chandramathi and eventually they get married. Then enters Jayanthi, an artist who wants to learn Kathakali and is the daughter of a rich business man.

Cast

as Appunni *

Shobhana Shobana Chandrakumar Pillai (born 21 March 1970) is an Indian actress and Bharatanatyam dancer. She acts predominantly in Malayalam films along with Telugu and Tamil films with few Hindi, Kannada and English films. She has won two National Fi ...

as Chandrika/Chandramathi *

as Madhavan *

Adoor Bhasi K. Bhaskaran Nair (1 March 1929 – 29 March 1990), known by his stage name Adoor Bhasi, was an Indian actor and film director from Kerala. Adoor Bhasi was almost always cast as the man who stands next to the hero. His hilarious actions and ro ...

as Kunjikrishnan *

Raghavan Raghavan (Tamil: ராகவன்; Malayalam: രാഘവന്‍) is a South Indian name. It derives from the Sanskrit ''raghava'', meaning "derived from Raghu" or "descendant of Raghu" (an epithet of the Hindu god Rama, an incarnation of ...

as Naanu * Sukumari as Chandrika's mother *

Santhakumari Santha Kumari (born Vellaala Subbamma; 17 May 1920 – 16 January 2006) was an Indian musical artist and actress. She was married to the Telugu film director and producer P. Pullayya. Early years Vellaala Subbamma was born in Proddatur town, ...

as Appunni's mother *

Kottayam Santha Kottayam Santha was an Indian actress and dubbing artist best known for her work in Malayalam cinema. She has acted in more than 300 films. She had also acted in several TV serials like Valayam, Krishnakripasagaram etc. She dubbed for almost ...

as Mrs. Sundaram *

Jagannatha Varma K. N. Jagannatha Varma (1 May 1939 – 20 December 2016) was an Indian actor who worked in Malayalam film and television industry. He was also a Kathakali artist. His son Manu Varma is also an artist and his son-in-law Viji Thampi is a film dir ...

as Karunakara Panikker Ashan *Master Suresh as Rajan *

Mahalakshmi Lakshmi (; , sometimes spelled Laxmi, ), also known as Shri (, ), is one of the principal goddesses in Hinduism. She is the goddess of wealth, fortune, power, beauty, fertility and prosperity, and associated with ''Maya'' ("Illusion"). Alo ...

as Jayanthi

Soundtrack

The music was composed by K. V. Mahadevan and the lyrics were written by S. Ramesan Nair.

Responses

In a retrospect review, Neelima Menon of ''

The News Minute ''The News Minute'' is an Indian digital news platform based in Bangalore, Karnataka. It was founded by Dhanya Rajendran, Chitra Subramaniam and Vignesh Vellore in 2014. Apart from Karnataka, it also has bureaus in the states of Telangana, An ...

'' wrote: "Mohanlal aces the role of the unrequited lover who carries a torch for the lady. And the actor’s transition is more internal, letting us buy into his vocation as a

dancer effortlessly". In 2020, while writing about Mohanlal in ''

Mathrubhumi ''Mathrubhumi'' is a Malayalam newspaper that is published from Kerala, India. It was founded by K. P. Kesava Menon, an active volunteer in the Indian freedom struggle against the British. The word "Mathrubhumi" translates to 'mother land'. ...

'', writer M. T. Vasudevan Nair said that, although he loves every roles he enacted in his screenplays, Mohanlal's performance in ''Rangam'' and '' Sadayam'' stays close to his heart the most.

References

External links

* 1985 films 1980s Malayalam-language films Indian psychological drama films Films scored by K. V. Mahadevan Films directed by I. V. Sasi {{1980s-Malayalam-film-stub