No.20 Madras Mail

No.20 Madras Mail
Poster designed by Gayathri Ashokan
Directed by	Joshiy
Produced by	Tharangini Films
Written by	Dennis Joseph
Story by	Hari Kumar
Starring	Mohanlal M. G. Soman Manianpilla Raju Jagadish Mammootty
Music by	Background Score: S.P. Venkatesh Song: Ouseppachan
Cinematography	Jayanan Vincent Santosh Sivan(second unit)
Edited by	K. Sankunny
Production company	AVM
Distributed by	Tharangini Films
Release dates	16 February 1990
Running time	177 minutes
Country	India
Language	Malayalam

No.20 Madras Mail is a 1990 Malayalam action-comedy film directed by Joshiy, starring Mohanlal in lead role along with Jagadish, Manianpilla Raju, Mammootty, M. G. Soman, and Ashokan in supporting roles.^[1]This film was remade in Hindi as Teesra Kaun by Partho Ghosh with Mithun Chakraborty.^[2]The film follows the mystery behind the murder of a young woman in a train journey between Thiruvananthapuram to Madras. Almost half of the film is shot inside the train.

Plot

The train No.20 Madras Mail to Madras starts from Trivandrum Central. R.K. Nair (M.G. Soman), a Kollam-based businessman takes the first class coupe of the train to Madras with his wife Geetha (Jayabharathi) and daughter Devi (Suchitra) from Kollam Junction. Tony Kurushingal (Mohanlal), along with his friends Hitchcock Kanjikuzhi (Manianpilla Raju) and Kumbalam Hari (Jagadish) boards the same coach from Kottayam. Tony is the son of a wealthy businessman, Kurishinkal Kariyachan (Jagannatha Varma), Kanjikuzhi is a detective novelist and Hari is an young politician. The three of them are going to Madras for seeing a cricket match and to make attempts to make Kanjikuzhi's novel Vaazhikuzhiyile Kolapathakam a film. All the three are heavily drunken while boarding the train. After entering the train and seeing Devi, Tony and friends make several attempts in getting a seat for Tony in the same coupe of Devi, with the help of TTE officer Nadar (Innocent) but with little success. While doing so Tony gets into heated arguments with RK Nair and Sunil (Ashokan), who has a reserved seat in the same coupe (from Ernakulam) as that of R.K. Nair. Actor Mammootty boards the train from Thrissur and gets into the same coach. Nadar leaves the train at Palakkad after giving company with Tony and gang and the new TTE Chokalingam a.k.a. Choki (Jagathy Sreekumar) enters the train. Tony and his friends visit Mammootty in his coupe and soon become friends with him. Meanwhile Tony tries to flirt with Devi while she returns from the toilet, which causes Tony to land in trouble with R.K Nair but Mammootty cools the scene. All goes to sleep late night.

In the morning, as the train reaches Madras, Devi is found murdered in the toilet. Suspicion lands on Tony and friends and they run away from the spot in fear. The investigation is carried out by the Police led by DySP Murthy (V.K.Sriraman) who comes to know via TTE Chokalingam that Mammootty has taken photos of the suspects while in the train. He visits Mammootty and gets the photos. Tony and friends seek Mammootty's help and he helps them to return to Kerala secretly. Back in Kerala, they are confronted by Sunil, who was actually the lover of Devi. Both had actually planned to escape from the train at Erode, but was failed as Sunil could not get out off the train in time during the halt . Devi, with the help of station master had then taken a taxi to the next station (Salem) in order to get back in the train. Also, from Sunil, they learn about Sr. Gloria (Sumalatha), who tells that Devi gave her diary before leaving for Madras. After acquiring the diary from the convent, they come to know that R.K Nair is not Devi's father and that he is the one who killed her father in her childhood. On learning that RK Nair might be the possible murderer, Tony calls RK Nair by phone impersonating Mammootty's voice and says that he has got the diary with him and blackmails him to give Rs 20 Lakhs in return for the diary. Tony tells this to Mammootty and convinces him to proceed with the play. Mammootty and RK Nair meets and agrees to fix the deal on the same No 20. Madras Mail on 21 December. Mammootty boards the train at Palakkad on which RK Nair has already booked an entire bogie. Mammootty says that the diary is not present with him and he would hand it over at Salem when Tony joins the train. Nair leaves the train at Erode Junction railway station and goes to Salem station via taxi to find Tony but Tony enters the train in between and with Mammootty's help they power down RK Nair's henchmen. Meanwhile Nair renters the train at Salem Jn and finds that Tony has already entered. Mammootty and Tony attacks Nair and make him confess the truth that he killed Devi after she caught up the train at Salem. The next morning, when the train arrives Madras, DySP Murthy, who had already been informed of everything by Hari and Kanjikuzhi, arrests RK Nair. On 1 January while boarding the No 19 Trivandrum Mail to return home, they find Mammootty again in the same train. Mammootty tries to leave the train in disguise only to be stopped by Tony and friends who promises a happy and safe journey back home.

Cast

• Mohanlal as Tony Kurushingal
• M. G. Soman as R. K. Nair (Devi's stepfather).
• Jagadeesh as Kumbalam Hari.
• Manianpilla Raju as Hitchcock Kanjikkuzhi.
• Mammootty as Himself.
• Suchitra (actress) as Devi.
• Sumalatha as Sister Gloria.
• Siddique (actor)
• Ashokan as Sunil/Suresh.
• V. K. Sreeraman as Murthy (Deputy Superintendent of Police).
• Jayabharathi as Geetha (Devi's mother).
• Innocent as Nadar (TTE).
• Jagathy Sreekumar as Choka lingam/Choki (TTE).
• Janardhanan as Adv. Thomas Matthew
• Janakaraj as Murukesan.
• Jagannatha Varma as Kurishingal Kariachan, Tony's father.
• Valsala Menon as Tony's Stepmother.
• Santha Devi as Mother Superior of the convent.
• K. P. A. C. Sunny as Sridhara Menon.
• Ajith Kollam

Cameos

• Thiagarajan as himself.
• Cochin Haneefa as himself.
• Captain Raju as himself.
• Priyadarshan as himself.
• Suresh Kumar as himself.
• Rajeev Nath as himself.

References

External links

• No.20 Madras Mail at the Internet Movie Database