Madhava Menon, a corrupt politician, destroys the family of Johnson as he was in love with his daughter. With the help of a mimicry artist, Johnson takes revenge on Madhava Menon.
Acting
Haasan's chameleon transformations between personas—uncanny and unsettling.
Direction
Rajeev Kumar builds dread through silence, not spectacle.
Writing
Screenplay treats mimicry as genuine threat, not comic gimmick.
Director
T. K. Rajeev Kumar
Kamal Haasan
Johnson
Thilakan
Madhava Menon
Madhu
DIG K. Gopalakrishna Pillai
Urmila Matondkar
Renu
Jayaram
Jayaram
Sithara
Geethu
Sabitha Anand
Jessy
Santha Devi
Johnson's Mother
Jagadish
Jaganathan
Madhava Menon's Aide
Zainuddin
Mimicry Artist
M S Thrippunithura
Geethu's Father
Kollam Thulasi
Poojappura Radhakrishnan
Security guard
P C George
Police Inspector
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
One of Kamal Haasan's rare Malayalam leads during his pan-Indian peak; Thilakan's Menon became template for corrupt patriarchs in South Indian cinema.
The mimicry scenes were performed without dubbing—Haasan learned each character's speech patterns from real politicians of the era.
IN
