Kanathaya Penkutty (1985)
“The Missing Girl” – (Lit. Translation)Kanathaya Penkutty was KN Sasidharan’s second feature film, repeating Bharat Gopy in the leading role just like his seminal Akkare from 1984. Kanathaya Penkutty is a tight and dark movie about a murdered daughter and the unraveling of personal pasts that slowly put the jigsaw puzzle in place, as the police officer meticulously sifts and deduces through the scant evidence. This was the second and last movie that Bharat Gopy was paired against Jaya Bharathy, the earlier one being the highly stylised and dark Sandhya Mayangum Neram in 1983.
| Bharat Gopy |
| Jaya Bharathy |
| Mammootty |
| Jagathy Sreekumar |
| Thilakan |
| “Manavalan” Joseph |
| Achankunju |
| Ramachandran |
| Alummoodan |
| VK Sreeraman |
| Sandhya |
| Director | KN Sasidharan |
| Banner | Kuleena Movie Makers |
| Story | Babu Mathews |
| Screenplay | Babu Mathews |
| Dialogue | Babu Mathews |
| Lyrics | Sebastian Paul |
| Music | Jerry Amaldev |
| Singers | KB Sujatha, Preethi, Renuka, Elizabeth, Molly, Nadin |
| Cinematography | V Aravindakshan |
| Editing | Venugopal |
| Art Direction | Jo Paul |
| Design | Kitho |
| Distribution | Dinny Films Release |
Mini, the only child of the Menons’ goes missing after a class outing and the same evening, her body is found next to the railway tracks. Devdas Menon and his wife are devastated. Based on the scant leads that offer a range of possibilities and probables for the murder suspects, the police are at their wits’ end. What seems like a puzzling murder investigation soon gathers enough momentum as the two-man investigation team unravels connected events and use some plain old and proven detective work to connect the dots.
And the conclusion is in line with what perhaps one of the greatest fictional crime investigators famously quoted to his associate, “How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?”
A Clipping from Kanatha Penkutty (1985)
Chellam Chellam
Courtesy : Malayalam Biscoot
Bharat Gopy as Devdas Menon : An Overview.
As the father of Mini, the “missing girl” in the movie, Bharat Gopy executes a power-packed performance as Devdas Menon, the business man with a lot of bitterness and skeletons in his closet. Right from the beginning, one can’t help but discern an aura of mistrust that hangs like a hazy miasma over him, like the itch that is too far out on one’s back that it is impossible to reach, but you know it’s there.
As the investigation progresses, one finds a gradual change in his demeanor that confirms what you have been suspecting all along; but then, the surprises keep coming, as your best intuitive surmises are turned on their heads.
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