''Penpattanam'' is a 2010 Malayalam film by V. M. Vinu. This films takes a look at the struggle for survival of four women who are Kudumbasree workers portrayed by

Revathi Asha Kelunni Nair (born 8 July 1966), better known by her stage name Revathi, is an Indian actress and director, known for her works predominantly in Tamil & Malayalam cinema - in addition to Telugu, Hindi & Kannada films. She has won several ...

KPAC Lalitha Maheshwari Amma, better known by her stage name K. P. A. C. Lalitha, was an Indian film and stage actress who worked primarily in Malyalam. She started her acting career with K. P. A. C., a theatre collective in Kayamkulam, Kerala. In a care ...

Shwetha Menon Shwetha Menon is an Indian actress, model and television anchor. She won '' Femina Miss India Asia Pacific 1994''. She has predominantly acted in Malayalam and Hindi language films, besides appearing in a number of Telugu and Tamil Language Fi ...

and

Vishnupriya Vishnupriya Devi ( bn, বিষ্ণুপ্রিয়া) , was the daughter of Raj Pandit Sanatan Mishra and second wife of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. She is believed to be the reincarnation of the Goddess Satyabhama, the third consort of Krish ...

. This film is based on 2008 Korean film ''

Girl Scout Girl Guides (known as Girl Scouts in the United States and some other countries) is a worldwide movement, originally and largely still designed for girls and women only. The movement began in 1909 when girls requested to join the then-grassroot ...

''.

Plot

Girija is a widow with two school-age girls. Suhara has her husband bed-ridden after an accident and his operation requires a huge amount. Santha aka ''Santhedatthi'' has to work even in her old age to support her drunkard son and family. Raji lost her parents and lives at the mercy of her sister and sister's husband. Raji is in love with Mani who is now a plumber but was connected to the underworld before. Raji's brother-in-law is a policeman opposed to her relationship with Mani. The four make a living as city cleaners with Kudumbasree in

Kozhikode Kozhikode (), also known in English as Calicut, is a city along the Malabar Coast in the state of Kerala in India. It has a corporation limit population of 609,224 and a metropolitan population of more than 2 million, making it the second l ...

Corporation. Girija and Santhedatthi take money from the money lender Unnithan Muthalali. One day, the four find 3,000,000 rupees left in a waste bin. Initially, they went to hand over the money to police but later decided against it, due to their necessity for money, and gave it to Unnithan Muthalali who agrees to pay them a good rate of interest every month. Meanwhile, police find a corpse in the city and find out that the person who was murdered was a

hawala Hawala or hewala ( ar, حِوالة , meaning ''transfer'' or sometimes ''trust''), also known as in Persian, and or in Somali, is a popular and informal value transfer system based on the performance and honour of a huge network of money ...

(black money) agent. Police, led by Circle Inspector Ayyappadaas, start investigating the missing money and the clues lead to the four women. Meanwhile, Raji becomes engaged to Mani. The four are interrogated by the police. They deny any involvement and are remanded and sent to sub-jail where Raji is attacked by three women with immoral intentions. Suhara fights them all and saves Raji. They are released on bail with the help of Adv. Maheswari Iyer. Later, Girija asks for the return of the money from Unnithan, who initially refuses and asks Girija to share his bed for the money. Girija informs the others and they together fight Unnithan and trick him to retrieve the money. Finally, they receive news that a charity will sponsor the operation for Suhara's husband. They hand over the money to the widow of the hawala agent who was murdered. Inspector Ayyappadaas understands the whole story but finally lets all four go free, since they did not take the money for themselves but handed it over to the ones who really deserve it.

Cast

Production

Actress Shwetha Menon was injured on 20 May 2010 while shooting for ''Penpattanam'' at

. She was injured on her right arm, hacked accidentally in a scene. Following this injury which resulted in a nerve being cut off, the actress underwent minor surgery.

References

External links

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* https://web.archive.org/web/20120606143956/http://popcorn.oneindia.in/title/9186/penpattanam.html {{Ranjith 2010 films 2010s Malayalam-language films Films shot in Kozhikode Films directed by V. M. Vinu