Kala Pani (1996)

The film is set in British India. The story is about a young doctor, Govardhan (Mohanlal), who is wrongly accused of bombing a train carrying 55 people including British officials... See full synopsis »

Director:

Priyadarshan

Writers:

T. Damodaran (screenplay), Priyadarshan (story)

Stars:

Mohanlal, Amrish Puri, Prabhu

5 wins.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Mohanlal	...	Govardhan Menon
Amrish Puri	...	Mirza Khan
Prabhu	...	Mukund Iyengar
Tabu	...	Parvathi
Sreenivasan	...	Moosa (as Sreenivasen)
Vineeth	...	G.S. Sethu
Tinnu Anand	...	Ram Lakhan
Cochin Hanifa	...	Ahmed Kutty
Annu Kapoor	...	Veera Savarkar
Alex Draper	...	David Berry
Nedumudi Venu	...	Sreekandan Nair
Manian Pillai Raju	...	Nair
Sankaradi
Tom Alter
Christina

Storyline

The film is set in British India. The story is about a young doctor, Govardhan (Mohanlal), who is wrongly accused of bombing a train carrying 55 people including British officials... See full synopsis »

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Plot Keywords:

train | prison | imprisonment | british india | prisoner

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Genres:

Action | Drama

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Details

Country:

India

Language:

Malayalam Tamil Hindi Telugu

Also Known As:

Kalaa Paani

Company Credits

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Quotes

British Prison Official: How do you pronounce this name?
Parmanand: Paramanand
British Prison Official: What does that mean?
Parmanand: Height of happiness
British Prison Official: [laughing] Are you happy?
Parmanand: I will be, when the Britishers are out of my country

User Reviews

Skip the DVD - Watch in the theatre.

I wish that I could agree with the viewers below about the cinematography, sound, and overall quality of the film but the Eros DVD completely failed to capture any of that. The picture quality was somewhat grainy like an old 70s film and, halfway through the film, I had to reduce the sound substantially because of all the static and distortion. Finally, I had to spend close to 45 minutes to finish the last chapter since it kept stopping and, at times, had to see it frame by frame.

Aside from the technical aspects, I felt that the acting by the British actors was either stilted, poorly acted or over acted. I also wish that the two main actors did not look so much alike -- same moustache and body type. In one scene, when they were fighting, it was frequently difficult to tell them apart. Had the same problem with some of the leads in LA Confidential. Teen Deewarein was much better at giving three very distinct characters in every way. I also wished that the director would not have borrowed a scene from Schindler's List -- where all the prisoner's are registering on the island. For anyone who has seen Schindler's List, this scene lessens the impact of the film from then on since, in the back of your mind, you start to wonder what else has been taken from what movies and how much of the overall film can really be believed.

Despite all my misgivings above, I felt the story was well-written and all the Indian actors performed exceptionally well. I only wish that I had seen the same film that everyone else saw.