''Vasuke'' (or ''Vasuki''; ) is a 1997 Indian

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

-language

comedy drama Comedy drama (also known by the portmanteau dramedy) is a hybrid genre of works that combine elements of comedy and Drama (film and television), drama. In film, as well as scripted television series, serious dramatic subjects (such as death, il ...

film written and directed by Kasthuri Raja. The film stars

Rajendra Prasad Rajendra Prasad (3 December 1884 – 28 February 1963) was an Indian politician, lawyer, journalist and scholar who served as the first president of India from 1950 to 1962. He joined the Indian National Congress during the Indian independen ...

and

Urvashi Urvashi (, ) is the most prominent apsara mentioned in the Hindu scriptures like the ''Vedas'', the epics ''Ramayana'' and ''Mahabharata'', as well as the ''Puranas''. She is regarded as the most beautiful of all the apsaras, and an expert danc ...

. It was released on 30 October 1997.

Plot

Vasuki (

) lives with her milkman brother Kabali (

Janagaraj Janagaraj is an Indian actor who has appeared in over 240 films predominantly in Tamil cinema as a comedian or in supporting roles. He also starred in few Malayalam, Telugu and Hindi films. Early life Janagaraj was born to Vadivelu and Muth ...

) and her sister-in-law Pachaiamma (

Jayachitra Jayachitra (born 5 September 1957) is an Indian actress films who works mostly in Tamil, Telugu and Kannada films. Early life Her father Mahea was a veterinary doctor, who had earlier worked as a lawyer. Her mother Ammaji (a.k.a. Jayasree) ...

) in a slum. One day, their relative Ramasamy (

Visu Meenakshisundaram Ramasamy Viswanathan (1 July 1945 – 22 March 2020), best known by his stage name Visu, was an Indian screenwriter, film director, stage, film and television actor and talk-show host. Visu initially worked as an assistant to ...

) comes to their home with a huge amount of money and asks them for a favor. In the past, Ramasamy's daughter married the wealthy ( Thalaivasal Vijay). Ramasamy was supposed to give a large

dowry A dowry is a payment such as land, property, money, livestock, or a commercial asset that is paid by the bride's (woman's) family to the groom (man) or his family at the time of marriage. Dowry contrasts with the related concepts of bride price ...

to the miser mother-in-law Parvatham ( Latha), but he could not collect the money in time. So after the marriage, Parvatham started to torture his daughter, going so far as killing Ramasamy's pregnant daughter. Parvatham then arranged a second marriage for her son. Ramasamy finally got the money they asked but it was too late. Ramasamy wants to take revenge on the cruel Parvatham with Vasuki's help. Vasuki and her family accept, Vasuki takes the name of Kodeeswari and they start to act as a rich family in front of Parvatham. Parvatham has a younger son Balu (

) and she wants him to marry rich bride, and Kodeeswari seems to be the perfect bride. Kodeeswari and Balu finally get married, thus Kodeeswari and her family turn Parvatham's life into hell on earth. What transpires next forms the rest of the story.

Cast

Production

The production studio Anand Movie Land, which produced the very successful ''

Poomani Poomani (born 1947) is an Indian writer and novelist. He won the Sahitya Akademi award in 2014 in the List of Sahitya Akademi Award winners for Tamil, Tamil language category for his novel Agnaadi. Life and works Poomani was born in 1947 into ...

'' in 1996, had taken up the serious issue of the

problem in their new production ''Vasuke''. One of the leading stars in

Telugu cinema Telugu cinema, also known as Tollywood, is the segment of Cinema of India, Indian cinema dedicated to the production of Film, motion pictures in the Telugu language, widely spoken in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Based in Film N ...

signed to play the lead role for the first time in

Tamil cinema Tamil cinema is the segment of Indian cinema dedicated to the production of motion pictures in the Tamil language, the main spoken language in the state of Tamil Nadu. It is nicknamed Kollywood, a portmanteau of the names Kodambakkam, a Ch ...

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was composed by

Ilaiyaraaja Ilaiyaraaja (born R. Gnanathesikan) is an Indian musician, composer, arranger, conductor, orchestrator, multi-instrumentalist, lyricist and playback singer popular for his works in Indian cinema, predominately in Tamil cinema, Tamil in addition ...

, with lyrics written by Kasthuri Raja.

References

External links

* {{Kasthuri Raja 1990s Indian films 1990s Tamil-language films 1997 comedy-drama films 1997 films Films directed by Kasthuri Raja Films scored by Ilaiyaraaja Films set in slums Indian comedy-drama films Tamil-language Indian films