Kaalapani (1996 Film)

Kaalapani (1996 Film)

Kaalapani (English: Black Water) is a 1996 Indian epic film directed by Priyadarshan, starring Mohanlal, Prabhu Ganesan, Tabu, Nedumudi Venu, Sreenivasan, Tinnu Anand, Annu Kapoor, Alex Draper, Amrish Puri, and Vineeth. Although it is originally a Malayalam film, the film was dubbed into Hindi (Saza-E-Kala Pani), Tamil (Siraichalai) and Telugu (Kaala Pani).

The film is about the lives of prisoners in British India who are brought to Kālā Pānī, the Cellular Jail in Port Blair, Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The name Kalapani is derived from the mode of imprisonment in British India. Ilaiyaraaja composed the film's music, the cinematography was by Santosh Sivan, and the editing by N. Gopalakrishnan. The film introduced Dolby Stereo into Malayalam cinema. It was made on a budget of 3.5 crore. Mohanlal produced the film under his studio Pranavam Arts International.

The film was a commercial failure mainly due to the budget of the film. It was also not particularly well appreciated by the critics but has developed a cult status in the following years. The film won three National Film Awards including the awards for Best Art Direction (Sabu Cyril), Best Special Effects - S. T. Venky and Best Cinematography (Santosh Sivan). Along with that it won six Kerala State Film Awards. It was released in 450 theaters worldwide.