Spoilers ahead!
Anweshippin Kandethum (Seek and You Shall Find) is a Malayalam crime drama film written by Jinu V Abraham and directed by Darwin Kuriakose. Tovino Thomas plays the lead role, as sub-inspector Anand, a police officer determined to stay committed to his duty as a policeman and seek justice for the victims.
Anweshippin Kandethum (Seek and You Shall Find) is a Malayalam crime drama film written by Jinu V Abraham and directed by Darwin Kuriakose.
The story involves two different criminal events in different locations in different time periods, showing us how Anand and his teammates work on these and how their actions affect their career.
The first half of Anweshippin Kandethum
A first-year college student, Lovely Mathan is said to have gone missing. Sub-inspector Anand Narayanan starts investigating the case. Initially, he gets some leads, follows the same, but nothing useful pans out. Anand faces some challenges, as he is informed that the family of the missing girl belongs to one community of Christians and the church that she allegedly went to before she went missing is a place for another community of Christians, and that there is some local rivalry between these two groups.
In Anweshippin Kandethum, as suggested by fellow policemen, members of that church group brutally oppose any investigation by the police in and around the church premises, so he begins assaulting them, as he is determined to find out the truth. Soon a senior police officer warns Anand to not behave like this, expressing his disappointment that Anand did not bring such a sensitive case of great importance to his notice first, before taking any measure on his own. But quickly, they come to learn that a dead body is found somewhere nearby. The father confirms that this is his missing daughter, Lovely.
Building and maintaining the suspense
Anand’s senior informs him that he will no longer be handling the case and Mr. Alex will be the one supervising this investigation. The two officers meet and the senior one informs the other that this will become a highly publicised event from a political perspective because of the rivalry between the two groups. Since the media has already made big news of this because of the way Anand had dealt with it so far, he must find some random scapegoat and pin the murder on him.
Anand, unaware of this plan, requests them to listen to his understanding of the case, and why he believes that a pastor, Father Thomas from the Badani monastery nearby must be interrogated at least once. But the senior police officer in Anweshippin Kandethum shuts him off and commands that he should not make one more move, saying that he will handle the case himself. Surprisingly, the police dog also leads the army of police officers to the Badani monastery, and Anand is only more convinced that this case has something to do with someone from the monastery. He suggests that the body could have been hidden here before it was thrown into the well, so they must do a forensic examination.
How local politics corrupts police investigations
In Anweshippin Kandethum, the senior police officer and his men arrest an ex-criminal, Sahadevan who lives in that neighborhood, but he insists that he did nothing wrong, as the police officers beat him up and torture him. Anand is compelled to silently watch. Lovely’s father Mathan privately informs Anand that Sahadevan could not have murdered his daughter because the two have known each other since childhood. Mathan also introduces a witness, one Mr. Siraj, a local transport bus driver, who says he saw Lovely going into the monastery on the day she was murdered at around 1 o’clock. He also begs Anand that they not punish someone for the sake of closing the case and find and punish the real criminal instead.
It is at this point in Anweshippin Kandethum that Anand decides to restart the investigation exactly where he left it, unofficially. He learns that the forensic report details differ from what the forensic investigators have to say and that the investigator was told that the accused had confessed to the crime, so that is where the investigation should happen, at Sahadevan’s home. This second round of forensic investigation reveals shocking information.
Interesting twists in Anweshippin Kandethum
By this time, the audience become curious, wanting to know answers to questions like, who could have murdered Lovely, what could the motive have been, and such. Yes, one doesn’t have to wait long for these answers, but maintaining the viewer’s interest until this point is not an easy task. As soon as we get to know this side of the story, there is suddenly an unexpected twist.
Following this, the second part of the story of Anweshippin Kandethum begins. The suspended sub-inspector Anand and others who were suspended along with him get assigned to an old case in a village in the district, a case that several police officers from the local branch, the crime branch, and the Special Investigations Team couldn’t solve for six years now. Anand’s senior tells him that if he could solve this case or if he could find any new piece of information that can help solve the case, it would change everything about his career.
t is at this point in Anweshippin Kandethum that Anand decides to restart the investigation exactly where he left it, unofficially.
However, this case will be challenging. Accepting the challenge, Anand and his teammates leave for the village. What complicates matters is that the local policemen had severely harassed the people of the village in the name of running an investigation, physically assaulting anyone they considered a suspect. So now, the people, led by the Panchayat President, strongly refuse to co-operate.
These policemen communicate directly with seniors and others who worked on this case six years ago. They are not able to find much, and whatever little they find seems to not take them any closer to solving the case. Accidentally, they stumble across a new piece of the puzzle, so the investigation proceeds.
The director of Anweshippin Kandethum has done a pretty good job and has given crime cinema lovers a treat. There are many characters in the film, and funnily, the acting by those who play side roles seems more natural than the acting by some artists who have played recurring or more important roles. The narration in Anweshippin Kandethum is smooth and to an extent, even gripping, and no part of the story feels like an unnecessary piece of drama. On the whole, this film is a must-watch because of an engaging plot and some stellar acting.
