''Panchatanthiram'' () is a 2002 Indian

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

-language

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

directed by

K. S. Ravikumar K. S. Ravikumar (born 30 May 1958) is an Indian film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, primarily working in Tamil films. Career 1990–1997 Ravikumar worked as co-director on R. B. Choudary's production ''Pudhu Vasantham'' direct ...

and written with Kamal Haasan, with the dialogues by

Crazy Mohan Mohan Rangachari (16 October 1952 – 10 June 2019) known professionally as Crazy Mohan, was an Indian actor, comedian, screenwriter and playwright. An engineer by profession, Mohan started writing plays and established his own drama troupe calle ...

. The film stars Kamal Haasan,

Jayaram Jayaram Subramaniam, (born 10 December 1965) known mononymously as Jayaram, is an Indian actor who predominantly appears in Malayalam,Tamil films, along with a few Telugu films. He is also a chenda percussionist, mimicry artist, and occasional ...

Ramesh Aravind Ramesh Aravind is an Indian actor, director, screenwriter and television presenter who predominantly works in Kannada films and television. In a career of over 34 years, Aravind has been appeared in over 140 films including several Tamil and T ...

Sriman Sriman () is an epithet of the Hindu deity Vishnu. It refers to the deity being the possessor of Sri, both referring to his consort Lakshmi, the goddess of prosperity, as well as the material and non material aspects of fortune. Literature Sri ...

Yugi Sethu Yugi Sethu is an Indian actor, filmmaker, writer, entrepreneur, television presenter, academician, critic and art historian who has worked in the Tamil film industry. An extremely versatile personality, he has been conferred doctorate (PhD) in ...

Simran Simran (Gurmukhi: ਸਿਮਰਨ; hi, सिमरण, सिमरन ; from Sanskrit: , ''smaraṇa'', 'to remember, reminisce, recollect'), in spirituality, is a Sanskrit word referring to the continuous remembrance of the finest aspect of ...

, Ramya Krishnan,

Urvashi Urvashi ( sa, उर्वशी, Urvaśī}) is the most prominent apsara (celestial nymph) in Hindu mythology, considered to be the most beautiful of all the apsaras, and an expert dancer. She is mentioned in both ''Vedic'' and ''Puranic'' scr ...

Aishwarya Aishwarya (Devanagari : ''ऐश्वर्य'') is a Hindu Indian or Nepalese male or feminine given name, which means "prosperity" and "wealth". Notable people named Aishwarya * Aishwariyaa Bhaskaran (born 1971), Indian actress * Aishwar ...

Sanghavi Sanghavi (born Kavya Ramesh) is an Indian actress and a model known for her work predominantly in Telugu and Tamil language films. She was one of the leading actresses in South Indian cinema for a decade from 1993 to 2004. In her career spannin ...

, Vidhya Venkatesh, Devayani and

Nagesh Nagesh (born Cheyur Krishnarao Nageshwaran; (27 September 1933 – 31 January 2009) was an Indian actor, mostly remembered for his roles as a comedian in Tamil films during the 1960s. Nagesh was born in Dharapuram. He acted in over 1,000 fil ...

in supporting roles. The film released on 28 June 2002. It opened to positive reviews from critics. Jayaram won

Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor – Tamil The Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award is given by the ''Filmfare'' magazine as part of its annual Filmfare Awards South for Tamil ( Kollywood) films. The award was introduced and first given at the 50th South Filmfare Awards in 2003, with Jay ...

at the 50th South Filmfare Awards in 2003.

Plot

Ramachandramurthy alias Ram. C. M. is a Canada-based Indian pilot and a

playboy ''Playboy'' is an American men's Lifestyle magazine, lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from H ...

. One day in the course of an

aircraft hijacking Aircraft hijacking (also known as airplane hijacking, skyjacking, plane hijacking, plane jacking, air robbery, air piracy, or aircraft piracy, with the last term used within the special aircraft jurisdiction of the United States) is the unlawfu ...

, he meets a passenger named Mythili. Ram and Mythili stop the hijacking and save the passengers. Soon after, they fall in love and get married. Ram's four closest friends, Ayyapan Nair, Vedhantham Iyengar alias Vedham, Ganesh Hegde, and Hanumant Reddy attends their wedding reception. After marriage, Ram quits his playboy character and remains faithful to Mythili. One day, when Ram prevents Hegde's ex-girlfriend, Nirmala, from committing suicide, Mythili misinterprets the situation as Ram having an affair with Nirmala. She then leaves him to be with her parents. Further misunderstanding occurs when he sets out to meet Mythili, drunk, in the middle of the night and enters the wrong room. To take his mind off Mythili for a while, Ram's friends drive him down to

Bangalore Bangalore (), List of renamed places in India, officially Bengaluru (), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan area, metropolitan population of a ...

and rent a room to hire a

call girl A call girl or female escort is a sex worker who (unlike a street walker) does not display her profession to the general public, nor does she usually work in an institution like a brothel, although she may be employed by an escort agency.< ...

, Maragathavalli alias Maggie on Ram's birthday. Ram, who is still not able to forget Mythili and does not wish to betray her, gets into a fight with Maggie. To salvage the situation, Vedham hurries back to Maggie's room, only to find Maggie dead. Panicking, Nair, Vedham, Hegde, and Reddy decide to discreetly dispose of the body in spite of Ram's pleas to call the police. They manage to roll the body in a blanket, dispose it in a dry river and drive back to

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

to return to their normal lives. Ram discovers a cache of diamonds inside Maggie's mobile phone. He does not report about it to the police, fearing he would be arrested for murdering Maggie, which he did not commit. A few days after, the friends get very nervous when they learn of a news article regarding the discovery of a corpse in the same area where they disposed Maggie's body. At that time, the wives of Ram's four friends plan to unite Ram and Mythili by holding a party on the traditional festival of

Ugadi Ugadi or Yugadi, also known as Samvatsarādi (), is New Year's Day according to the Hindu calendar and is celebrated in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Karnataka in India. It is festively observed in these regions on the first ...

in Reddy's house. The wives invite Mythili to the party to be reunited with Ram. At the party, Maggie appears, demanding her diamonds back. Maggie then reveals the truth behind her death. The diamonds belong to a smuggler, and that she stole it from him for her own personal gain. She chose to merely fake her death as she realised that the diamonds would be temporarily safe in Ram's possession. She also blackmails Ram that she would reveal the truth about their rendezvous in Bangalore to Mythili and their wives if he does not give the diamonds back. The smuggler then arrives and kidnaps Maggie, Ram, and his friends. Mythili spots Ram and Maggie together. She again believes that Ram has not changed his ways. Mythili, along with an undercover police inspector, follows them. While the smuggler demands his diamonds back, Mythili appears. Upon seeing Ram and Maggie together, she believes that Ram is hugging Maggie along with his friends, when in reality Ram, Maggie and his friends are kidnapped and tied up by the smuggler. She swallows some sleeping pills, which turns out to be where Ram hid the diamonds. Mythili decides to commit suicide and runs away. Ram and his friends save her and help the undercover police inspector arrest Maggie and the smuggler. Mythili, on being informed by Ram of all that happened, promises to reform her suspicious ways. The two then reunite.

Cast

* Kamal Haasan as Ramachandramurthy (Ram C.M.) *

as Ayyappan Nair *

as Mythili Ramachandramurthy (Voice dubbed by

Savitha Reddy Savitha Reddy, also known as Savitha Engula Radhakrishnan in the Tamil films, is a dubbing artist in the southern India film industry. She has lent voice for heroines in the Tamil and Telugu industries. She is a recipient of Tamil Nadu State F ...

) * Ramya Krishnan as Maragathavalli (Maggie) *

as Ganesh Hegde *

as Hanumant Reddy *

as Vedhantham Iyengar (Vedham) *

as Ammini Ayyappan Nair *

as Janaki Vedhantham Iyengar *

as Chamundi Ganesh Hegde * Vidhya Venkatesh as Reddy's wife * Devayani as Nirmala, Hegde's ex-girlfriend * Vijayakumar as Mythili's Father *

as Parthasarathy, Vedham's father-in-law *

Kaikala Satyanarayana Kaikala Satyanarayana (25 July 1935 – 23 December 2022) was an Indian actor, producer, director, and politician who predominantly worked in Telugu cinema. He appeared in over 750 films and served as the Member of Parliament in the 11th Lok Sa ...

as Sanjeevi Reddy, Reddy's father-in-law *

Dubbing Janaki Dasari Janaki, known professionally as Dubbing Janaki, is an Indian actress and voice artist. She has appeared in several films and television shows in various South Indian languages. Early life Janaki was born in Peddapuram, East Godavari D ...

as Parvatham, Reddy's mother-in-law * Master Bharath as Appukuttan Ayyappan Nair *

Manivannan S. Manivannan Rajagopal (31 July 1953 – 15 June 2013), better known by his mononym Manivannan, was an Indian film director, actor and activist who worked mainly in Tamil cinema and also worked in a few Telugu & Malayalam films. In a car ...

as the diamond-smuggling boss * Alphonsa as Smuggling boss' Mistress *

as Co-Pilot Kumar * Ramesh Khanna as Sardarji/Undercover Police Inspector * Santhana Bharathi as Bharathi, a tenant in Mythili's house *

Kovai Sarala Kovai Sarala is an Indian actress and comedian, who prominently plays supporting roles in Tamil and Telugu films. She has won the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Comedian three times, for her performances in '' Sathi Leelavathi'' (1995), '' ...

as Bharathi's wife *

Vasu Vikram Vasu Vikram is an Indian actor and stage director who has worked on Tamil-language films and in television dramas. Career Vasu Vikram is the son of actor M. R. R. Vasu, and the grandson of M. R. Radha. Several other members of his family are ...

as a Traffic Police *

Neelu R. Neelakantan (20 July 1936 – 10 May 2018), best known by his stage name Neelu, was an Indian actor known for his comedy and supporting role performances in Tamil cinema, television and theatre. He has acted in over 7,000 plays and 160 fil ...

as Ammini's Father * Scissor Manohar as Auto driver

Production

The film marked the debut production of director

's manager P. L. Thenappan, and the team initially planned a film starring Kamal Haasan with music composed by A. R. Rahman. Though recordings had taken place, Thenappan became apprehensive of the budget and chose to make a smaller budget film, meaning Deva replaced Rahman. Hence ''Panchathanthiram'', a comedy about five friends, materialised instead. Originally

Krishnamachari Srikkanth Krishnamachari Srikkanth (born 21 December 1959), also known as Cheeka, is a former captain of the Indian cricket team and former chairman of the selection committee. He played a crucial part in India's team batting line up as opener espec ...

and Maadhu Balaji were considered to portray the role of Vedhantham Iyengar, before

was finalised. Sethu signed on revealing that Kamal Haasan had approached him to be a part of his two previous films, ''

Thenali ''Thenali'' is a 2000 Indian Tamil-language comedy film co-written and directed by K. S. Ravikumar. The film stars Kamal Haasan, Jayaram, Devayani and Jyothika, with Delhi Ganesh, Charle, Ramesh Khanna and Madhan Bob in supporting roles. It ...

'' (2000) and '' Pammal K. Sambandam'' (2002) too, which he did not take up. Simran was signed after appearing alongside Kamal Haasan in ''Pammal K. Sambandam'', with which the latter was impressed. The film started shoot in February 2002 and shot in Canada for seventeen days. In April 2002, Kamal Haasan was prevented from boarding a

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

-bound flight in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

during the making of the film, with the security preventing him from passing due to his Islamic-sounding surname. In June 2002, the five friends in the film along with Deva took part in a promotional tour to publicise the soundtrack in

. The film faced trouble during censorship and parts of a song featuring Ramya Krishnan were subsequently cut.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack of the film was composed by Deva, with lyrics written by

Vairamuthu Vairamuthu Ramasamy (born 13 July 1953) is an Indian lyricist, poet, and novelist working in the Tamil film industry. He is a prominent figure in the Tamil literary world. A master's graduate from the Pachaiyappa's College in Chennai, he first ...

. The song "Vai Raja Vai" incorporates lyrics from the Hindi song "Aana Meri Jaan" from ''

Shehnai The ''shehnai'' is a musical instrument, originating from the Indian subcontinent. It is made of wood, with a double reed at one end and a metal or wooden flared bell at the other end.Linkin Park's "

Points of Authority "Points of Authority" is a song by American rock band Linkin Park. It is the fourth track on their first studio album, ''Hybrid Theory''. Mike Shinoda's verses originally had different lyrics, and Chester Bennington's parts became no different f ...

Release and reception

The film released on 28 June 2002. Malathi Rangarajan from

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the secon ...

said that

's dialogue was "the mainstay", describing the film as "completely entertaining". She also praised the film's performances claiming that "with suitable slapstick, apt body language and timing and modulation that tickle, the veteran (Kamal Haasan) makes a mark yet again." Furthermore, reviewers from ''Screen'' magazine dubbed the film as a "clean comic-entertainer", adding that "director KS Ravikumar deserves a pat for weaving out a good screenplay based on Kamal Haasan's story idea and creating a laugh riot". Tulika of

Rediff Rediff.com (stylized as ''rediff.com'') is an Indian news, information, entertainment and shopping web portal. It was founded in 1996. It is headquartered in Mumbai, with offices in Bangalore, New Delhi and New York City. , it had more than 300 e ...

labelled the film as "a barrel of laughs". Visual Dasan of ''

Kalki Kalki ( sa, कल्कि), also called Kalkin or Karki, is the prophesied tenth and final incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu. He is described to appear in order to end the Kali Yuga, one of the four periods in the endless cycle of exist ...

'' felt Jayaram's talent was underused, and gave the film an "average" verdict. The film was blockbuster and remained a cult classic in the comedy genre. Kamal Haasan distributed the film himself in the Karnataka region. A sequel to the film was planned and Ravikumar had hoped to film scenes on a cruise liner, but the project failed to take off. Ravikumar instead set his 2010 film ''

Manmadan Ambu ''Manmadan Ambu'' () is a 2010 Indian Tamil-language romantic comedy film directed by K. S. Ravikumar. Written by Kamal Haasan, it stars himself alongside Trisha, Sangeetha and R. Madhavan, while featuring Oviya, Ramesh Aravind, Usha Uthup, M ...

'', which also featured Haasan, on a cruise liner.

Lokesh Kanagaraj Lokesh Kanagaraj (born 14 March 1986) is an Indian film director and screenwriter who works in Tamil films. He started his careers with a short film in the 2016 anthology '' Aviyal.'' He later directed his first feature film '' Maanagaram'' (201 ...

also considered making a sequel, but dropped the idea and instead collaborated with Haasan on '' Vikram'' (2022). The core plot of the movie was reported to be inspired by the 1998

black comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the old ...

Very Bad Things ''Very Bad Things'' is a 1998 American black comedy film written and directed by Peter Berg in his feature film directorial debut and starring Cameron Diaz, Jon Favreau, Daniel Stern, Jeremy Piven, Christian Slater, Leland Orser, Kobe Tai and J ...

''.https://m.timesofindia.com/entertainment/telugu/movies/news/14-hollywood-inspired-kamal-haasan-movies/amp_etphotostory/92260775.cms

References

External links

* * {{Kamal Haasan 2000s Tamil-language films 2002 films Films directed by K. S. Ravikumar Films scored by Deva (composer) Films set in Bangalore Films set in Canada Films shot in Bangalore Films shot in Canada Films with screenplays by Crazy Mohan Films with screenplays by Kamal Haasan Indian black comedy films Indian comedy films Tamil films remade in other languages