Sadayam

Sathyanathan (Mohanlal) is condemned to death for brutally murdering four persons – two adults and two young girls – and is awaiting his final call. He shows no remorse and is just as cheerful as a man who knows he has done no wrong. The prison doctor Dr. Nambiar’s (Thilakan) son Vijayan (Mahesh) is one of Sathyan’s victims; he wants to sign his death certificate and see the fear in his eyes as he is led up the gallows but the doctor is just as puzzled as to why the crime was committed.

There are appeals in lower courts and petitions for pardons by the cops as a matter of routine but Sathyan has no great interest in living. Eventually, when he wishes to start life again on a fresh slate because he now wants to live, in an O Henry-sque moment, he’s denied a pardon and on Sept 29th, 1991, two years after he is originally convicted of the multiple murders, he is hanged to death. In a series of flashbacks, the story unfolds focusing on Sathyan’s past and recreates the chilling crime scene, explaining his actions.

Sathyan is a ‘bastard’ who is bullied and abused in his childhood by the people around him until he is rescued by a priest (Nedumudi Venu) who realizes that the kid is a talented artist. Under the aegis of Father, Sathyan becomes a painter who makes a living by painting sign boards and hoardings. As part of one of his assignments, he takes a rented house in Kozhikode next to a house of ill-virtue where Jaya (Maathu) and her two young sisters live with their aunts. They have no future to look forward to and it is only a matter of time when the aunts get them to carry out prostitution.

He helps the kids in their education and gets Jaya a job in the company in which he’s working. Sathyan likes Jaya and wishes to marry her and settle down in life but destiny has other ideas; circumstances force her to end up as a prostitute and there are signs that her sisters will sink in the same quagmire later. In a moment of extreme paranoia, Sathyan kills the two girls in a bid to save them from prostitution and eventually both the guys responsible for her state.

As a product of a broken household, Sathyan is immensely disturbed when he sees the girls headed into a bottomless pit where there is no escape. There is a sense of extreme helplessness and resignation of the fact that despite his efforts to rescue Jaya, he is unable to do so. He seeks his redemption through an act which represents an angst against society for its attitudes towards human trafficking. He does not regret his actions but later on as the movie progresses to a juncture when there are moments of contemplation and solitude, he is unsure about his act.

The multiple-murder scene is a slightly elaborate but extremely chilling piece that has a frightening feel to it. You know that it will culminate in a murder but the thought still does not prepare you for what you see. It is largely shot in close-up and seeks to transform his character into a wild demonic one, as indicated in his painting. The atmosphere is built gradually with tense background music and the usage of dim lights with a red tinge, magnifying the impact of the gruesomeness of the scene. When Minikutty (Kaveri) comes running to him escaping from the broker Chandran(Augustine), it is a moment of déjà vu for Sathyan. He believes that his actions can only delay the inevitable and there is no escape for the kids and that one day or the other, they will be forced into the flesh trade.

It is not a planned murder but is also not something that happens in the heat of the moment. Eliminating just the perpetrators will not help, he reckons, because in some form of the other, they will eventually make their appearance and destroy the lives of the hitherto innocent kids; the society will never allow them to survive with dignity. A sense of moral uprightness coupled with desperation and extreme paranoia drives him to stab them to death. The film then cuts back to the present as Sathyan wants to live on a fresh slate.

In the ending, Sathyan is awaiting his execution. He is hanged to death. This film ends with Sathyan's funeral.

• Mohanlal as Sathyanathan
• Thilakan as Dr. K. V. G. Nambiar
• Nedumudi Venu as Father Dominic
• Maathu as Jaya
• KPAC Lalitha as Devakiamma
• Janardhanan as Police superintendent
• Sreenivasan as Kunjali
• Murali as Madhavan Jailer (Police Officer)
• Mahesh as Vijayan
• Kaveri as Jaya's sister
• Augustine as Chandran
• T. G. Ravi as Kanaran
• M. G. Sasi as Samuel
• Kozhikode Narayanan as Ramettan

• Art Director: Krishnankutty
• Production Controller: K. Mohanan

• National Film Award for Best Screenplay - M. T. Vasudevan Nair
• Filmfare Award for Best Director – Malayalam - Siby Malayil
• Kerala Film Journalists Award for Best Actor - Mohanlal

Johnson composed the songs, for which the lyrics were written by Kaithapram Damodaran Namboothiri.

• Sadayam at IMDb