January Oru Orma

Plot

Raju (Mohanlal) is an orphan trying to make a living as a tourist guide in Kodaikanal. But he is constantly discouraged from this act by the local police inspector Dinesh(Lalu Alex) nick named ‘Minnal’. He befriends Vishwanatha Menon (M.G. Soman), Padmavathi (Jayabharathi) and Nimmi (Karthika) who starts treating him like family. He soon becomes their constant accompaniment in their temporary stay at the bungalow. It is later revealed that Nimmi is Padmavathi’s neice whose only father deceased 3 years ago. The couple’s son Vinod(Suresh Gopi) soon joins them. Vinod is a spoilt brat and is often seen taunting Myna(Rohini), a local girl who Raju considers his sister. In the course of time, Nimmi falls in love with Raju and Vinod, in an attempt to trap Raju, accuses him of robbing his mother’s jewellery. The charges are soon dropped when the missing jewellery is found in Vinod’s bag. This causes a drift in the relationship between Raju and the family. Myna in an attempt to save herself from Vinod, jumps off a cliff and dies. Appu , Myna’s lover,later reveals to Raju that reason behind her death is Vinod. A distraught Raju, who was until then unaware of Vinod’s behaviour towards Myna, goes in search of him. The two men ends up in a brawl and Vinod is taken to custody by inspector Dinesh who interrupts the fight. A heartbroken Raju decides to leave the town but is stopped by Father Fernandez(Prathapachandran) who runs the orphanage in which Raju was born. Fernandez hands over a letter to Raju and asks him to deliver it saying the person would help him find a job. The Fr.also shows Raju a photograph of the addressee, Dr.Jayadevan(K. P. A. C. Sunny),an old friend of his . Raju instantly recognises the person in the photograph as Nimmi’s father and is intrigued by the words in the letter which he reads without the Fr’s knowledge. He then confronts Fr.Fernandez into saying the truth behind his birth. It is revealed that Raju is Padmavathi’s son from a pre-marital affair she had with Dr.Jayadevan’s friend, Venugopal, who unfortunately dies in an air crash and that she was forced into believing that her child was still-born. A shocked Raju goes on to see his mother one last time. At the same time, Vinod, released on bail,plans a plot to kill Raju inorder to save himself from getting caught for Myna’s murder. In a turn of events, the family also gets to know that Raju is their blood relation and a guilty Vinod goes to save Raju from getting killed. The tale ends on a sad note when Raju is unknowingly murdered by Myna’s father Ponnayyan(Karamana Janardanan Nair) who was aiming for Vinod for killing his own daughter and for trying to kill Raju whom Ponnayyan considered his own son.

Cast

Soundtrack

The music was composed by Ouseppachan and lyrics was written by Shibu Chakravarthy.