Sandhesam

Sandhesam
File:Sandhesham.gif DVD Cover
Directed by	Sathyan Anthikkad
Produced by	S. S. T. Subrahmaniam
Written by	Sreenivasan
Starring	Sreenivasan Jayaram Thilakan Siddique Kaviyoor Ponnamma Maathu Biyon
Music by	Johnson
Cinematography	Vipin Mohan
Edited by	K. Rajagopal
Production company	Evershine Productions
Distributed by	Evershine Release
Release dates	1991 (1991)
Country	India
Language	Malayalam

Sandhesam (English: The Message) is a 1991 Malayalam black comedy-political satire film written by Sreenivasan and directed by Sathyan Anthikkad, starring Sreenivasan, Jayaram, Thilakan, Siddique, Kaviyoor Ponnamma and Maathu in pivotal roles. The film deals with unreal political activism existing in Kerala and takes major digs on the political parties in Kerala. A massive commercial success upon release, Sandesham is regarded as a classic in Malayalam cinema history. The film was included in IBN Live's list of 100 greatest Indian films of all time.

The film was remade in Tamil language as Veettai Paar Naattai Paar by director Thulasidas in 1994.

Plot

After his retirement from Indian Railways, as station master, Raghavan Nair (Thilakan) is back at his home. His long cherished dream to spend his retired life along with his family consisting of wife (Kaviyoor Ponnamma), three sons and two daughters gets a blow after seeing his two sons brawling each other over their political differences. Prabhakaran (Sreenivasan), the elder one is a staunch leftist, and an active worker of the Revolutionary Democratic Party (RDP) (Making fun of the CPI (M)) which has just lost the Kerala state Assembly elections and relinquished office. Prakashan (Jayaram), popularly known as KRP, his younger brother is involved with the Indian National Secular Party (INSP) (Making fun of the Indian National Congress) which has now come to power. Though they are both educated, neither has any plans to earn a living on their own and are fully immersed in petty politics, sponging off their parents for their needs. Raghavan Nair becomes deeply worried about their future, and tries to advise his sons, but of his admonitions fall on deaf ears. Anandan (Mala Aravindan), his son-in-law is a police sub-inspector but is now on suspension. When the RDP was in power, he arrested and beat up several of the opposition party workers on instruction from the ruling party officials. Now that the previous opposition is in power, they exact their revenge, first by transferring him repeatedly to stations as far away from civilisation as is possible, and then by suspending him. As part of his retired life, Raghavan Nair decides to focus his attention on his agricultural activities and meets the new young agricultural officer (Siddique) and, with his wife's approval, wants their younger daughter to get married to him, but his elder sons oppose it on flimsy and petty reasons. Prakashan, whose party is in power, pulls strings and get him transferred immediately to a remote location in order to prevent the marriage but Nair gets them married at the registrar's office. In the meantime, Anandan and his wife, Raghavan Nair's eldest daughter, demand partition of the property and their share, which Raghavan Nair objects to. The last straw is when their mother falls ill and is hospitalised for a day or so, and none of her children bother to show up at the hospital - in particular, the two older sons. Raghavan Nair, when he sees all of them milling around his house on returning from the hospital, loses his temper. He throws out all his children and orders them never to enter his house again. But to his surprise he finds both Prakasan and Prabhakaran at the gate, fully repented. He calls them in and they begin a new life. The film ends by showing Prabhakaran going to court as a lawyer and Prakashan for a job interview.

Cast

• Sreenivasan as Prabhakaran Kottappalli
• Jayaram as Prakasan Kottappalli
• Thilakan as Raghavan Nair (Father of Prabhakaran & Prakasan)
• Kaviyoor Ponnamma as Bhanumathi (Raghavan Nair's wife)
• Maathu as Lathika (Raghavan Nair's daughter)
• Oduvil Unnikrishnan as Achuthan Nair (Friend of Raghavan Nair)
• Siddique as Udayabhanu (Lathika's husband)
• Mala Aravindan as Anandan, SI of Police
• K. P. A. C. Lalitha as Anandan's wife and Raghavan Nair's Eldest Daughter
• Mamukkoya as K.G. Pothuval
• Sankaradi as Kumarapillai the leftist idealogist
• Innocent as Yashwant Sahai
• Bobby Kottarakkara as Uthaman
• Biyon as S.I Anandan's Son
• T. P. Madhavan as Police Inspector
• Master Rahul Laxman as Prasanthan (Raghavan Nair's youngest son)
• james

External links

• Sandhesam at IMDb
• Sandhesam at the Malayalam Movie Database