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Director: Rafi
Cast: Sharat Kumar, Napoleon, Devayani, Samyukta Varma, Ashwathy, Vivek, Charlie.
 It centres round the rags-to-riches story of two orphans Kannan and
Daasan. The childhood friends come to Thenkasipattanam as paupers and rise to be the most powerful traders of the town. With them is Uma whom the duo have adopted as their sister. Despite all their wealth, they continue to remain uncouth, brash and men of the streets. Marriage is far from their minds, when two damsels enter their lives. Meenakshi, daughter of their arch rival Devaraj, woos Kannan unabashedly, till she gets him to reciprocate. And singer Sangitha, whom the duo give refuge to, catches the fancy of
Daasan.
 Their new manager ‘Maapillai’ who loves Uma, acts the catalyst trying to hasten the marriage of the two men and clear his way. But all his well-laid out plans go haywire, when due to a misunderstanding, confusion reigns as to who is to wed whom. The matter is threatening to break the friendship between the two men. How the situation is resolved forms the rest of the story.
 The film is meant to be a laugh riot, but the laughs are hard to come by. A remake of a Malayalam film, with the same title, it is directed by Rafi of the Rafi-Mecartin duo who had scripted and directed the original version. A big grosser at the box office, the original version’s humour was generated by depicting two Malayalees trying to fit in, and make it big in a town in Tamilnadu. Through scenes like the lead characters wearing loud, gaudy dresses in
contrasting colours, and dark glasses to boot, the script took pot-shots at the Tamils, and generated much amusement among the Kerala audience. But in the 'remake' Tamil version, the lead characters being Tamilians based in Tamilnadu, there is no way the humour of the original could be caught, resulting in the comedy being bland and flat. Attempts by Vivek and Charlie to raise laughs also prove futile, except for a couple of scenes, like the duo covering themselves with cow-skin and pretending to be a cow! The background score is a bit too loud for comfort.
 Samyuktha Varma, Malayalam cinema’s popular
heroine, (She had played the same role in the original), fails to impress, looking quite out of place in the whole scenario. Devayani does a neat job, while Ashwathy, a rising actress of Malayalam films, plays the sister role creditably. Both Sharat and Napoleon have nothing much to offer here.
Malini Mannath
published on 30th June 2002
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