Commissioner (film)

Plot

The movie opens with Kozhikode city police commissioner Bharathchandran (Suresh Gopi ), an honest but brash cop, busting a gold smuggling racket in. Bharath clearly has an issue with authority and breaths fire each time he encounters a political arm bender, such as Kunju Moideen Saahib (K. P. A. C. Sunny), whose gang was involved in the bust. But it his mentor and guardian angel I.G. Balachandran (M.G. Soman), who has been evidently shielding him from the wrath of the political brass.

The story takes a break from Bharath to introduce the main antagonist Mohan Thomas (Ratheesh), a Delhi-based business tycoon, with strong political clout and a clear sociopathic agenda. It is revealed that Mohan Thomas had entrusted Saahib with the gold, which was confiscated by Bharath and is in fact the kingpin heading an unholy nexus of politicians, criminals and various officials including two high ranking cops, Rajan Felix, I.G. Vigilance (Rajan P. Dev) and Menon, A.I.G. (N. F. Varghese), who are involved in criminal activities like instigating communal riots and large scale distribution of counterfeit currency.

Bharathchandran and Mohan Thomas are set on a collision course when Mohan and Co. brutally murder justice Mahendran (Karamana Janardanan Nair), chairperson of the Poovanthura commission, possessing evidence that could potentially incriminate Rajan Felix and Menon, for their direct involvement in communal riots at Poovanthura. Bharatchandran is not only assigned to investigate the homicide but also made police commissioner of Thiruvananthapuram city. Assisted by ASP Prasad Menon (K. B. Ganesh Kumar) and ASP Mohammed Ikbal (Vijayaraghavan), two dynamic but brash officers, Bharath tries to solve the mystery, but soon to hit a dead-end. Until Bharath's fiance Indu, who is also a lawyer, tips him off about the news clip on an assault on a drunk police constable Gopinathan (Maniyanpilla Raju, who also was coincidentally the security for Justice Mahendran. In an attempt to take Sunny in, while he was in college 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 Bharath and crew are based on Vattapara Pithamparan's (Augustine), a trade union leader, tipoff, that Sunny had actually attacked Gopinath because of Gopi's comment on counterfeit currency. With this vital clue Bharat unearths more dirt on Mohan Thomas & Co. Further Bharath arrests Srilatha Varma (Chithra), Mohan's legal advisor and mistress, but is brutally murdered in a hotel elevator by Wilfred Vincent Baston (Bheeman Raghu), a Goan hitman, who had also murdered Justice Mahindra. Bharath is successful in nabbing Antony Ignatius Pemento, Wilfred's right-hand man and zeroes in on Wlfred. Then he stages a coup by arresting both Rajan Felix and Menon, who are brutally tortured to reveal details on their alliance with Mohan Thomas and also sheds light on their agenda. Ikbal is killed brutally in an attempt to arrest Wilfred Vincent Baston. This enrages Bharath Chandran, who later brutally kills Wilfred and then Mohan Thomas at an outhouse by torching the whole house, thus taking law into his own hands

Theatrical response

The film was released as a Vishu release in April, 1994, and was a gargantuan hit in theaters. It established Suresh Gopi as a prominent star in Malayalam cinema. Its audio track, with its dialogues was also high in demand. When dubbed and released in Andhra Pradesh as Police Commissioner, it emerged as success.

A sequel to this film, Bharathchandran I.P.S., was released in 2005, directed by Renji Panicker himself, which was also a mega hit. The film received an A (Restricted to Adults only) certification from the regional censor board for violence and profanity.

Cast