Kalikallam

 Action packed Malayalam movie “Kalikkalam” (1990) directed by Sathyan Anthikad and starring Mammootty, Murali, Shobana, Sreenivasan among others.

Its a classic robinhood story as Mammootty is a robber who robs from the rich and corrupt and spends that money for the poor & disadvantaged. He assumes various roles and identities to dupe the police as well.

Murali is a new police officer and honest one at that. Its a cat and mouse between Murali and Mammootty and try as he might, no clues lead the police to the robber.

One too many murders take place and Murali being a suspended police officer on the spot is arrested and tried for murder. Mammootty is moved by that prospect of an innocent police inspector going to jail and makes amends towards that end.

There are many other character actors in the movie including Shobana who is reduced to a side role as somebody who is pining for the robber. Innocent, Mamukoya, Shankarady, Sreenivasan, Sukumari, Philomena all play useful little roles in their inimitable manner.

This is more action oriented than the earlier movies of Sathyan Anthikad. There is an underlying subtext to the movie in the form of subtle messaging towards corrupt persons and innocent guys getting caught instead. Fine acting by Murali — he was such a fantastic actor in the Malayalam cinema. IMDB 5/10