No.20 Madras Mail

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 coach of the train to Madras with his wife Geetha (Jayabharathi) and daughter Devi (Suchitra) from Kollam Junction. Tony Kurishingal (Mohanlal), along with his friends Hitchcock Kanjikkuzhi (Maniyanpilla 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 a young politician. The three of them are going to Madras to see a cricket test match and to make attempts to make Kanjikuzhi's novel Vaazhikuzhiyile Kolapathakam a movie. All 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 coach of Devi, with the help of TTE officer Nadar (Innocent), but with little success. While doing so, Tony gets into heated arguments with R. K. Nair and Sunil (Ashokan), who has a reserved seat in the same coach (from Ernakulam) as that of R. K. Nair. Film 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 coach 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 on Mammootty's intervention the matter is settled.

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 had taken photos of the suspects while in the train. He visits Mammootty and gets the photos. The suspects photos are publicly displayed. 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. Sunil sneaks upon Tony holding a switchblade knife at the lake where Tony, Kumbalam and Kanjikkuzhi were bathing. Sunil had attempted to murder Tony, Kumbalam and Kanjikkuzhi. Sunil and Tony started brawling each other. When the brawl ended, Tony ordered Sunil angrily to spill information about who Devi's killer is. Both Sunil had Devi had actually planned to elope and escape from the train at Erode, but failed as Sunil could not get out off the train in time during the halt. Devi, with the help of the station master had then taken a taxi to the next station (Salem) in order to get back in the train.

Sunil makes amends with Tony, Kumbalam and Kanjikkuzhi and now all four of them are friends. 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, but only a stepfather and that he is the one who killed her father in her childhood. On learning that R. K. Nair might be the possible murderer, Tony calls R. K. 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 informs Mammootty and convinces him to proceed with the play. Mammootty and R. K. Nair meet and agree to fix the deal on the same No 20. Madras Mail on 21 December (Wednesday). Mammootty boards the train at Palakkad on which R. K. 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 overpower R. K. Nair's henchmen. Meanwhile, Nair reenters the train at Salem Jn. and finds that Tony has already entered. Mammootty and Tony attack Nair and make him confess the truth. R. K. Nair revealed that he killed Devi after she caught up the train at Salem, fearing that Devi would inform the police about her father's murder. The next morning, when the train arrives Madras, DySP Murthy, who had already been informed of everything by Kumbalam and Kanjikkuzhi, arrests R. K. 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 only to be stopped by Tony and friends who promises a happy and safe journey back home.

The stars who acted as themselves

• Mammootty as Himself (Main Cast)
• Thiagarajan as Himself
• Cochin Haneefa as Himself
• Captain Raju as Himself
• Priyadarshan as Himself
• Rajeev Nath as Himself
• G. Suresh Kumar as Himself

The film contains only one song ' Pichakappoonkaavukalkkumappuram... 'sung by M. G. Sreekumar.This song was later used in the film Husbands in Goa(2012),Music was composed by Ouseppachan and Background score by S. P. Venkatesh.

• The film was a commercial success, it ran for over 125 days.[4]
• Tony Kurishangal, the character played by Mohanlal in the film is one of the most celebrated ones. The combination scenes of Mammootty and Mohanlal in the film, are still the favourites of Malayalam film audiences.
• No. 20 Madras Mail was also much praised for its making style. Joshiy crafted the product so well that, even the train sequences in the film looked convincing.[5]

• No.20 Madras Mail on IMDb