''Sangliana'' is a 1988 Indian

Kannada Kannada () is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly in the state of Karnataka in southwestern India, and spoken by a minority of the population in all neighbouring states. It has 44 million native speakers, and is additionally a ...

-language

action drama 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 ...

directed, co-produced and written by P. Nanjundappa. The film, loosely inspired by the life story of H. T. Sangliana, stars

Shankar Nag Shankar Nagarakatte (9 November 1954 – 30 September 1990) was an Indian actor, screenwriter, director, and producer known for his work in Kannada-language films and television. A popular cultural icon of Karnataka, Nag is often referred to as ...

, alongside

Bhavya Bhavya is an Indian actress who predominately works in Kannada films apart from a few Tamil and Telugu films. She was a top heroine of Kannada cinema during 1985–1992. She switched over to key supporting roles post 2000. She is settled in Mu ...

, Tara,

Lohithaswa Lohithaswa T. S. (5 August 1942 – 8 November 2022) was an Indian Kannada film actor and playwright and an English professor. He acted in more than five hundred Kannada movies, stage plays, and television serials. He was popularly known for ...

Vajramuni Sadananda Sagar (10 May 1944 – 5 January 2006), better known by his stage name Vajramuni, was an Indian actor who appeared in Kannada films. He portrayed negative characters during most of his career and was considered one of Kannada cinema's ...

Devaraj Devaraj (born 20 September 1953) is an Indian Film actor, actor and theatre actor who works in Indian film industry. He has largely featured in Kannada cinema, Kannada films performing various roles as a lead character, supporting character and ...

Sudheer Sudheer is an Indian given name. People *Sudheer (Kannada actor) *Sudheer (Malayalam actor) *Sudheer Babu Posani Naga Sudheer Babu (born 11 May 1980) is an Indian actor and former professional badminton player. He works primarily in Telugu lang ...

, with actor

Ambareesh Malavalli Huchchegowda Amarnath (29 May 1952 – 24 November 2018), known by his screen name Ambareesh, was an Indian actor, media personality, politician from the state of Karnataka. Alongside Rajkumar and Vishnuvardhan, he is counted ...

making a special appearance. The music was composed by

Hamsalekha Gangaraju (born June 23, 1951), professionally known as Hamsalekha, is an Indian film composer and songwriter who works in South Indian cinema, predominantly in the Kannada film industry since the late 1980s. He is also a screenplay writer, d ...

, while cinematography and editing were handled by Mallikarjun and K. Balu.

A. R. Rahman Allah Rakha Rahman (; born A. S. Dileep Kumar; 6 January 1967), also known by the initialism ARR, is an Indian music composer, record producer, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and philanthropist known for his works in Indian cinem ...

had worked as an assistant in the film. A sequel of the film was made with the same cast and crew and was titled as '' S. P. Sangliyana Part 2'' which released in 1990. After Shankar Nag's demise, a third installment titled ''Sangliyana Part-3'' released in 1997 starring Devaraj (who was the antagonist of the first two parts) - thereby becoming the second character-based trilogy in Kannada after '' CID 999''. Nag's portrayal of cop was noted by critics to have offered grit and realism in his role - albeit in the commercial space - which can be seen as a template to many follow-up films.

Plot

Ram, a notorious thug, saves some people from getting killed by Vikram, the son of MLA Nagappa and his henchmen, who wants to construct a

powerplant Propulsion is the generation of force by any combination of pushing or pulling to modify the translational motion of an object, which is typically a rigid body (or an articulated rigid body) but may also concern a fluid. The term is derived from ...

. Vikram gets impressed and appoints Ram as one of his henchmen. Ram meets Kanchana, the daughter of Mahesh, an

investigating reporter Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, such as serious crimes, racial injustice, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend ...

. Mahesh is against Nagappa and Vikram's atrocities. Ram falls for Kanchana and pursues her to accept him, and Kanchana reciprocates his love despite reluctance. Ram meets Avinash, a young boy, and his mentally disabled mother Lakshmi. Lakshmi's husband is a forest officer, who discovers that Vikram is actually involved in smuggling

Sandalwood Sandalwood is a class of woods from trees in the genus ''Santalum''. The woods are heavy, yellow, and fine-grained, and, unlike many other aromatic woods, they retain their fragrance for decades. Sandalwood oil is extracted from the woods. Sanda ...

and tries to arrest them, but is killed by Vikram and his henchmen which makes Lakshmi lose her mental balance after witnessing her husband's death. The DGP, who gets fed up by the atrocities committed by Vikram and Nagappa, appoints

Inspector Inspector, also police inspector or inspector of police, is a police rank. The rank or position varies in seniority depending on the organization that uses it. Australia The rank of Inspector is present in all Australian police forces excep ...

Sangliyana to gather evidence against Vikram and Nagappa and arrest them. Vikram arrives at Mahesh's

printing press A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a printing, print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in whi ...

to warn him and attempts to break Kanchana's hand, but is stopped by Ram, who thrashes Vikram. Enraged, Vikram places false charges against Ram and is brought to the station, where they learn that Ram is actually Sangliyana and the cop who took Sangliyana's place is Inspector Amar as they planned a

covert operation A covert operation or undercover operation is a military or police operation involving a covert agent or troops acting under an assumed cover to conceal the identity of the party responsible. US law Under US law, the Central Intelligence A ...

against Vikram and Nagappa. Sangliyana takes charge and closes gambling dens and other operations. Kalle Gowda, the Nagpatna constituency tries to bribe Sangliyana, but Sangliyana arrest Kalle Gowda in charges of his wife's death. Nagappa fakes Kalle Gowda's death to help him escape, but is thwarted by Sangliyana, who catches Kalle Gowda and takes him to prison. Lakshmi recovers and reunites with Avinash. Sangliyana arrests Vikram in a case and also requests Mahesh to participate in

election An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold Public administration, public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative d ...

s. Mahesh accepts and wins the election against Nagappa. Nagappa tries to kill Mahesh, with the help of his second son Kumbi, but is outsmarted by Sangliyana. Nagappa kidnaps Mahesh, Kanchana and Lakshmi. Sangliyana arrives, along with Amar and rescues them, but Lakshmi is killed in the process by Nagendra. Nagendra, Vikram and Kumbi are arrested, and Sangliyana is appreciated by the DGP and is transferred to another city. Sangliyana leaves with Kanchana and Avinash.

Cast

as Ram/

Sangliyana *

as Inspector Amar * Srinath as DGP *

as Kanchana, Mahesh's daughter *

as Vikram "Vikki" * Tara as Lakshmi, forest officer's wife *

Master Manjunath Manjunath Nayaker is a former Indian actor and public relations professional. He is better known by his screen name, Master Manjunath and "Swamy" for his lead role in the television series '' Malgudi Days'' (1987) directed by Shankar Nag and i ...

as Avinash *

as Nagappa, Vikki's father *

Doddanna Doddanna is an Indian actor in the Kannada film industry who has acted in about 800 films. He started his career as a theatre actor. During this time, he entered the Kannada film industry as a character actor. Early life The youngest son in t ...

as Kalle Gowda *

as Mahesh, Kanchana's father * Sudhir as Kumbi * Gayatri Prabhakar as Kalle Gowda's wife * Prathiba as a call girl * Ramesh Kamath as a forest officer, Lakshmi's husband *

Roger Narayan Raj Narayan is an actor who works in predominantly Kannada and English-language films. He is known for playing the titular role in '' Hola Venky!'' and starring in '' U Turn'' (2016). Career Roger Narayan studied engineering at BITS Pilani befo ...

as Kumar *

Disco Shanti Santha Kumari (born 16 April 1965),
Web.archi ...

as a pub dancer

Soundtrack

The music was composed by

, with lyrics written by V. Manohar and Doddarangegowda.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sangliyana 1988 films 1980s Kannada-language films 1980s Indian films Indian action drama films Indian biographical drama films Films scored by Hamsalekha Fictional portrayals of the Karnataka Police 1980s action drama films 1980s biographical drama films 1988 drama films Indian film series