Premada Kanike (transl. A Token of Love) is a 1976 Indian Kannada-language crime thriller film directed by V. Somashekhar and written by the duo Salim–Javed. It was produced by Jayadevi under the banner of Jayadevi films. The film starred Rajkumar, Aarathi and Jayamala in lead roles with Vajramuni and Rajashankar in supporting roles. The plot follows a teacher hired by rich man to home-school his daughter. En route, she witnesses a murder and discovers that the murderer is the father of her student.[1]
The story of the film was written by the acclaimed duo Salim–Javed who made their debut in South Indian cinema as original story writers [2] for which they rehashed the story of the 1969 film Do Bhai, by retaining only the core plotline which was originally credited only to Salim Khan under the name of Prince Salim. This was Salim–Javed's first release after Sholay.[3] The film also marked the onscreen debuts of Rajkumar's children — Lohith and Poornima Rajkumar.[4] It was remade in Tamil in 1980 as Polladhavan and in Hindi in 1981 as Raaz.[5]
Premada Kanike saw a theatrical run of 25 weeks[6] upon release and was declared a blockbuster at the box-office. The film has since attained cult status for redefining the thriller genre in Kannada cinema.[5] The songs composed by Upendra Kumar were received extremely well and considered evergreen hits. The film went on to win multiple awards and accolades including the Karnataka State Film Award for Best Film.
Plot
Seetha, a young woman, is travelling via train with her nephew Raju to attend a job interview as a nanny to the estate merchant Manohar's daughter, Shobha. Her co-passenger is shot dead by unidentified man. Seetha sees the murderer and clearly remembers his face and reports the murder to police inspector Ashok. She is appointed Shobha's nanny and the two grow fond of each other even before Manohar, who has gone off on a trip, has returned to his mansion. Upon seeing him, Seetha realizes that he is the murderer she saw on the train. Manohar threatens Seetha not to tell anyone and makes sure to prevent her from leaving his estate as she is keen on reporting him to the police.
Seetha tries many times to escape but is always caught. She does not even tell the police when she meets them as Manohar threatens to kill Raju if she did. Later, Seetha somehow sees beneath the rough and mean Manohar and grows fond of him, but is confused why such a nice man would behave in an arrogant manner. In flashbacks, Manohar and Kumudha fell in love and married, shortly thereafter their daughter Shobha was born. Kumudha's uncle Chandru, who was eager to marry Kumudha was sent to jail by Manohar as he tried to kill both Manohar and Kumudha. He was released from jail as his term had finished. When Manohar was out of house, Kumudha is killed by Chandru, she commits suicide and Manohar wants to die with her but she makes him vow that he will get revenge on Chandru for separating them and to take care of Shoba well. Manohar also reveals that the man killed on the train was Chandru.
Seetha now understands his acts and vows not to tell anyone. Moorthy's colleague is curious about Seetha; she said that she remembered the face and was eager to find the murderer, but now she had told him she has forgotten the face, hence he suspects Seetha to be the murderer, and Moorthy agrees with his belief. On Shoba's birthday, Manohar is to announce that he is to hand over all his wealth to Seetha and surrender to the police, but before this the police arrive and try to arrest Seetha. Manohar saves her by confessing to the murder and went to trail explained his actions but a crippled assassin arrives at the court and tells the truth about Chandru's death and reveals himself as Kumudha's brother. He says goodbye to Shobha and Manohar as Seetha and Manohar lived together as family, along with Shobha and Raju
Large portions of the film were extensively shot in the Kashmir valley. This was rare for a Kannada film of 1970s due to the elevation of production costs which such a location could have caused then.[7]
