''Santhanagopalam'' is a 1994 Malayalam film, starring

Thilakan Palappurathu Kesavan Surendranatha Thilakan (15 July 1935 – 24 September 2012) was an Indian film and stage actor who appeared in over 200 Malayalam films. Thilakan was known for his elaborate method acting, realistic and spontaneous appearan ...

Jagadheesh P. V. Jagadish Kumar (born 12 June 1955) known mononymously as Jagadish, is an Indian actor, screenwriter, television presenter and former politician. He has starred in over 375 Malayalam films and 2 Hindi films. He is best known for his c ...

Balachandra Menon Balachandra Menon ( ml, ബാലചന്ദ്ര മേനോൻ) (born 11 January 1954) is an Indian actor, director and script writer. He made a number of films in the 1980s and 1990s. He has directed 40 films and has acted in over 100. ...

, and

Kaviyoor Ponnamma Kaviyoor Ponnamma is an Indian actress who appears in Malayalam films and television. She began her career performing in theatre dramas before foraying into cinema. She has also acted in TV serials and commercials and has playback singing cred ...

in the lead roles. Thilakan won the 1994

Kerala State Film Award The Kerala State Film Awards are the film awards for a motion picture made in Kerala. The awards started in 1969 by the Department of Cultural Affairs, Government of Kerala and since 1998 the awards have been bestowed by Kerala State Ch ...

for Best Actor for his roles in ''Gamanam'' and this film. It is the remake of telugu movie ''Kali kaalam(1991).''

Plot

Thilakan is a worker at a factory and his family consists of his wife (Kaviyoor Ponnamma), his dad (Krishnan Kutty Nair) and 4 children (2 sons and 2 daughters). Elder son (Balachandramenon) is trying hard to establish himself in Kerala after having had strong will to stay in Kerala rather than going abroad. Second son (Jagadeesh) is looking for a Government job. Balachandramenon finally starts a telephone booth and is inaugurated by Circle Inspector (Jagathi Sreekumar, which turns out to be an evergreen comedy scene in Malayalam. Thilakan however wants Jagadeesh to look out for better prospects in the interim of his test results. Jagadeesh also shows some plans to start a business of his own. Once he and Thilakan travelling to Mangalore for a job need of Jagadish, meets up with an accident when the lorry they were travelling fell into a river. Jagadeesh escapes and Thilakan is not found. He is believed to be killed in the accident. Thilakan, is an insurance holder for a huge amount and his sons make arrangements to claim it stating that their father is killed in the accident. Thilakan's boss (Shankaradi), knowing that Thilakan's family is getting a huge amount, tries to interfere with a fraud story. With the papers being arranged for insurance claim, Thilakan surprisingly returns home alive after being in an Ayurvedic Heritage home under treatment nursing his injuries of accident. His return, however does not please his sons, Jagadeesh in special, who by then had laid some business plans eyeing at his father's insurance money. They force Thilakan to stay home enclosed in a room without roaming outside so as to claim the insurance amount. Thilakan's return is witnessed by his neighbor (Innocent) who believes that it is his ghost and he turns psychiotc. Thilakan, unable to bear the humiliation of being locked up in the house and seeing that his sons care money more than him, finally decides to leave home one night. He is accompanied by Kaviyoor Ponnamma who asks him whether he is leaving her alone behind. The climax scene shows Thilakan and Kaviyoor Ponnamma accompanied by Krishnan Kutty Nair also and the 3 travelling away from their children to lead a new life.

Cast

as Krishna Kurup *

as Sudhakaran *

as Vinayachandran *

* Krishnan Kutty Nair as Krishna Kurup's father *

Innocent Innocence is a lack of guilt, with respect to any kind of crime, or wrongdoing. In a legal context, innocence is to the lack of legal guilt of an individual, with respect to a crime. In other contexts, it is a lack of experience. In relation ...

as Adiyodi * Sankaradi *

Jagathy Sreekumar Sreekumar P. K. (born 5 January 1951), better known by his stage name Jagathy Sreekumar or simply Jagathy, is an Indian actor, director and playback singer, who has appeared in over 1500 Malayalam films in a career spanning almost four decades ...

* Chippy * Prem Kumar *

K. B. Ganesh Kumar Keezhoote Balakrishna Pillai Ganesh Kumar (born 25 May 1966) is an Indian actor, television host, and politician. Ganesh Kumar is a proposed cabinet minister for the last 2.5 years in the ongoing 2nd LDF govt in Kerala and he is also the curre ...

Indrans Indrans is an Indian actor and former costume designer, who appears in Malayalam films.His mentor was Shiyas M S, a law college student. He started his film career as a costume designer and actor in 1981 and got a breakthrough in 1994 with the ...

as Unnivasu * C. I. Paul *Meena Ganesh as Adiyodi's wife *Ragini (New) *

Jose Pellissery Jose Pellissery (1950 – 5 December 2004) was an Indian film and theatre actor. Biography As an actor in Malayalam cinema, he played supporting roles in about 100 films. His 15-year film career included roles in such movies as ''Aadhaaram'', ...

Soundtrack

The film features songs composed by

Johnson Johnson is a surname of Anglo-Norman origin meaning "Son of John". It is the second most common in the United States and 154th most common in the world. As a common family name in Scotland, Johnson is occasionally a variation of ''Johnston'', a ...

and written by

V. Madhusoodanan Nair V. Madhusoodanan Nair is an Indian poet and critic of Malayalam literature, who is credited with contributions in popularizing poetry through recitation. He is best known for ''Naranathu Bhranthan'', the poem with the most editions in Malayalam ...

. The song ''Pradosha Kumkumam'' is composed in raga

Mohanam Mohanam is a rāga in Carnatic music (musical scale of South Indian classical music). It is an ''audava'' rāga (or ''owdava'' rāga, meaning pentatonic scale). It is usually described as a '' janya'' rāga of Harikamboji (28th Melakartha Raga) ...

References

{{reflist 1990s Malayalam-language films 1994 films