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Commissioner (film)

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Commissioner
Poster
Directed byShaji Kailas
Written byRanji Panicker
Produced byM. Mani
StarringSuresh Gopi
Ratheesh
Shobana
Vijayaraghavan
M. G. Soman
CinematographyDinesh Baboo
Edited byL. Bhoominathan
Music byRajamani
Production
company
Sunitha Productions
Distributed byAroma Release
Release date
  • 14 April 1994 (1994-04-14)
Running time
175 minutes
CountryIndia
LanguageMalayalam

Commissioner is a 1994 Indian Malayalam-language action thriller film directed by Shaji Kailas, written by Ranji Panicker, and produced by M. Mani under Sunitha Productions. It stars Suresh Gopi, alongside Ratheesh, Shobana, Vijayaraghavan, M. G. Soman, Rajan P. Dev, K. B. Ganesh Kumar, N. F. Varghese, Karamana Janardanan Nair and Maniyanpilla Raju. The musical score was composed by Rajamani, while the cinematography and editing were handled by Dinesh Baboo and L. Bhoominathan respectively.

Commissioner became a major commercial success at the box office, with dialogues of Gopi becoming catchphrase among Malayali audience. The film was significant in making Gopi a prominent star in Malayalam cinema.[1] The Telugu dubbed version Police Commissioner was also a major commercial success.

The sequel titled Bharath Chandran I.P.S. was released in 2005, with Ranji Panicker replacing Shaji Kailas as the director. In 2012, a crossover film titled The King & the Commissioner, with the characters from The King (which was released in 1995) and Commissioner was released in 2012.

Plot

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Bharathchandran, an honest and brash police commissioner of Kozhikode, bust down a gold smuggling racket at the Calicut docks and clearly has an issue with authority and breaths fire each time when he encounters a political arm bender like Kunju Moideen Sahib, whose gang was involved in the bust, but his mentor IG Balachandran evidently shields him from the wrath of the political brass.

Mohan Thomas is a Delhi-based business tycoon with a strong political clout and a clear sociopathic agenda. He had entrusted Sahib with the gold, which was confiscated by Bharathchandran. Along with gold smuggling, Mohan Thomas is also the leading kingpin of an unholy nexus of politicians, assassins and various officials, including two high ranking cops, IG Rajan Felix, Vigilance and AIG Menon, who are involved in instigating communal riots, money laundering, illegal drug trade and large scale distribution of counterfeit money. Bharathchandran and Mohan Thomas are set on a collision course when Mohan and Co. brutally murder Justice Mahendran, the chairman of the Poovanthura commission, who possess evidence that could potentially incriminate Rajan Felix and Menon for their direct involvement in communal riots at Poovanthura.

Bharathchandran is not only assigned to investigate the homicide, but also posted as the police commissioner of Thiruvananthapuram. Assisted by two dynamic and brash ASPs Prasad Menon and Mohammed Iqbal, Bharathchandran tries to solve the mystery, but soon to hit a dead-end. Bharathchandran's fiancée Indu, a lawyer, tips him off about the news clip on an assault on a drunk police constable Gopinathan, who also was coincidentally the security for Justice Mahendran. In an attempt to take Sunny, Mohan's younger brother, who had assaulted the constable within the college premises, results in a massive riot as well as a standoff with Rajan Felix, who tries to save Sunny by trying to take him into his custody, claiming previous charges. The only clue that is left with Bharathchandran and crew are based on Vattapara Pithamparan, a trade union leader who tips-off that Sunny had actually attacked Gopinath because of Gopinath's comment on counterfeit currency.

With this vital clue, Bharathchandran unearths more dirt on Mohan Thomas & Co. Bharathchandran arrests Srilatha Varma, Mohan's legal advisor and mistress, but is brutally murdered in a hotel elevator by Wilfred Vincent Baston, a Goa-based assassin, who had also murdered Justice Mahendran. Bharathchandran is successful in nabbing Antony Ignatius Pimento, Wilfred's right-hand man, and zeroes in on Wilfred. Bharathchandran stages a coup by arresting Rajan Felix and Menon, who are brutally tortured to reveal details on their alliance with Mohan Thomas and also sheds light on their agenda. Iqbal is killed brutally in an attempt to arrest Wilfred. This enrages Bharathchandran, who later brutally kills Wilfred and Mohan Thomas at an outhouse by torching the whole house, thus taking the law into his own hands.

Cast

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Production

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Most of the film was shot extensively in and around Kozhikode and its outskirts. Most of the scenes were shot in the same locations as that of Ekalavyan (1993).[2]

Release

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Commissioner was released in April 1994 coinciding the Vishu festivals.[3][4][5]

Reception

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The film became a major commercial success in Kerala box office. The film was also dubbed into Tamil and Telugu, both versions were box office success. The Telugu version, Police Commissioner, the most successful among the two, ran for more than 100 days in Andhra Pradesh, which was also a success in Karnataka.[6][7]

Ashish Rajadhyaksha and Paul Willemen in the book Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema wrote "Suresh Gopi’s performance, embodying the fascist machismo of the honest and committed police officer, made him a Malayalam superstar."[8]

Legacy and sequels

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The characters Bharathchandran IPS and Mohan Thomas portrayed by Suresh Gopi and Ratheesh are considered to be the most iconic characters in Malayalam film industry. A sequel to this film, Bharathchandran I.P.S., was released in 2005, directed by Renji Panicker himself, which was also a commercial success. A crossover film titled The King & the Commissioner was released in 2012, but became a box office failure.[9]

References

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  1. ^ "10 Suresh Gopi films to watch before you die". The Times of India. Retrieved 27 June 2021.
  2. ^ കമ്മീഷണർ & ഏകലവ്യൻ സിനിമ ലൊക്കേഷൻ | Commissioner and Eakalavyan film location | Suresh Gopi hit film, 3 October 2020, retrieved 16 February 2023
  3. ^ Anjana George (29 July 2020). "Renji Panicker: I never named Joseph Alex in The King; it was he who guided me while writing". The Times of India.
  4. ^ Nirmal Narayanan (8 February 2021). "This Mollywood director reshaped masculinity of Mohanlal, Mammootty, and Suresh Gopi: HBD Shaji Kailas". International Business Times.
  5. ^ "Dileep's stroke of luck". Rediff.com. 1 November 2003.
  6. ^ Anjana George (29 July 2020). "Renji Panicker: I never named Joseph Alex in The King; it was he who guided me while writing". The Times of India.
  7. ^ "Here is how Suresh Gopi became the 'Supreme Star' of Telugu cinema". Malayala Manorama. 28 June 2020.
  8. ^ PDF
  9. ^ "Shocking ! Great Mollywood films that flopped at the box - office". The Times of India.
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