Friends

 

Friends is a 2001 Indian Tamil-language comedy-drama film, directed by Siddique and produced by Appachan. It is a remake of Siddique's own 1999 Malayalam film of the same name. The film stars Vijay, Suriya, and Ramesh Khanna, while Devayani, Vijayalakshmi, Abhinayashree, Vadivelu, and Radha Ravi played the supporting roles. The music was composed by Ilaiyaraaja, while Anandakuttan handled cinematography. It was released on 14 January 2001 and completed a 175-day theatrical run at the box office. This film also marks the second collaboration of Vijay and Suriya after Nerrukku Ner.

 

Plot

Aravindan, Chandru and Krishnamoorthy are best friends since childhood. They consider their friendship above everything, including family. Thus, Chandru resists the romantic overtures of Aravindan's younger sister Amutha. Chandru, an orphan, stays with Aravindan and is considered by Aravindan's parents as a second son. Some brushes with the law force Aravindan and Chandru to lie low in Chennai for a couple of days, where they and Krishnamoorthy take up jobs as painters in a mansion under contractor Nesamani, who is Krishnamoorthy's paternal uncle. Aravindan falls in love with Padmini, who lives in the mansion, though Padmini only considers him as a friend; nevertheless she is grateful to him when he saves her from an accidental electrocution. But Padmini's cousin Abhirami, who has a crush on Aravindan and is enraged when she realises that he loves Padmini, sends letters to him in Padmini's name and makes him believe that his love is reciprocated. When Padmini gets engaged to another man, Chandru stands up for Aravindan and insults her in front of her entire family, forcing her engagement to get cancelled. This makes Padmini decide to marry Aravindan, with the intention to take revenge on Chandru by breaking his and Aravindan's friendship. But after marriage, Aravindan and Padmini realise that Abhirami is behind all the mishaps which had taken place, and that Chandru is innocent. Padmini reconciles with Chandru and Chandru's and Amutha's wedding is fixed.

Gowtham is Aravindan's cousin who lusts for Amutha. He plans to separate Aravindan and Chandru so that he can marry Amutha. He first sets Amutha's sari on fire while she is cooking in the kitchen. Chandru blames Padmini for the mishap as she was in the kitchen with Amutha at the time, even though Padmini is innocent, but no one, including Aravindan, believes him. Gowtham then turns his eye on the annual bullock race in which Chandru is taking part, by loosening the wheels on Chandru's cart with the intention to cause a serious accident and blame Padmini for it, thus creating a wedge between Chandru and Aravindan. Unfortunately for Gowtham, Aravindan decides to take part in the race in Chandru's place since Chandru is to be married, and manages to win despite using the broken bullock cart. Chandru accuses Padmini of trying to kill him. Padmini threatens to leave the house if Aravindan remains friends with Chandru and does not throw him out of the house. Aravindan then reveals to her that he had accidentally killed Chandru's deaf-and-dumb younger brother when they were children, which traumatised him so much that he never told anyone about it, and since then, he has been looking out for Chandru as he has no one else in his life. Gowtham overhears their conversation and tells Chandru about it. Chandru fights with Aravindan, breaks their friendship and leaves the house. Aravindan tries to convince Chandru to return and marry Amutha, even if he cannot repair their friendship. However, in the process, he falls from a cliff and seemingly dies.

Five years later, Chandru is a major in the Indian Army and has never returned to Aravindan's home since his supposed death. He receives a letter from Krishnamoorthy stating that Aravindan is not dead, but in a vegetative state, not responding to anyone and only sitting in a corner. He immediately leaves for Aravindan's house, where he also learns that Aravindan and Padmini have a young son whose name is Chandru, in tribute to their friendship. Meanwhile, Gowtham, who has been torturing Padmini and Amutha since Aravindan went into the vegetative state, finds out that Chandru has returned, and beats him up. On hearing Chandru's cries, Aravindan wakes up from his vegetative state and subdues Gowtham and his goons. In the end, Aravindan, Chandru and Krishnamoorthy, as well as Chandru and Amutha, are reunited happily.

 

Cast

·         Vijay as Aravindan

·         Suriya as Chandru

·         Ramesh Khanna as Krishnamoorthy

·         Devayani as Padmini

·         Vijayalakshmi as Amutha

·         Abhinayashree as Abhirami

·         Vadivelu as Nesamani

·         Radha Ravi as Ramanathan

·         Rajeev as Raghuraman

·         Charle as Gopal

·         Sriman as Gowtham

·         Madhan Bob as Manager Sundaresan

·         Pyramid Natarajan as Varatharajan

·         Saritha as Savithri

·         Sathyapriya as Rajalakshmi

·         S. N. Lakshmi as Maragatham