Charlie Chaplin (film)

Charlie Chaplin is a 2002 Tamil comedy film directed by Sakthi Chidambaram, starring Prabhu Ganesan and Prabhu Deva.^[1] The film's commercial success led to remakes in Hindi (No Entry), Telugu (Pellam Oorelithe), Malayalam (Happy Husbands), Kannada (Kalla Malla Sulla),^[2][3] Marathi (No Entry Pudhe Dhoka Aahey)^[4] and Bengali (Kelor Kirti). Prabhu won the Tamil Nadu State Film Award Special Prize for his performance in the film.^[5]

The plot of the movie is inspired by the 1975 movie Yarukku Maappillai Yaro. It is the first Indian movie to be officially remade in six Indian languages and is the second highest remade movie amongst Indian films after Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana.^[6] A sequel titled Charlie Chaplin 2 is being filmed.^[7]

Plot

Ramakrishnan (Prabhu) is a rich businessman in Ooty who owns an advertising company and is married to Mythili (Abirami) who is very possessive about her husband. Mythili always suspects her husband fearing that he would end up having an affair with some other girl and this brings frequent quarrels between the couple. But Ramakrishnan is a kind hearter gentleman and he takes care of his wife with great love.

Thirunavukkarasu (Prabhu Deva) is a poor photographer in the same town and initially Ramakrishnan minunderstands Thiru to be a rogue. Later understands his good nature and provides him a job in his own company. Thiru is very loyal to Ramakrishnan and Mythili and respects Ramakrishnan as his brother. Ramakrishnan is also very kind to Thiru. One day, Thiru meets a girl Susi (Gayathri Raghuram) and the both fall in love with each other. Susi is a social activist who voices for women empowerment.

Vishwa (Livingston) is a close friend of Ramakrishnan and is married to Amudha (Vindhya). But Vishwa is a play boy and has affairs with so many girls. One day, a small quarrel erupts between Ramakrishnan and Mythili following which Ramakrishnan worries thinking about his wife’s continuous suspecting behaviour. Vishwa plans to relax Ramakrishnan by engaging a call girl Thilothama (Monal).

Ramakrishnan although not interested in it, finally decides to spend some time with Thiliothama when Mythili is away to Tirupathi. Thilothama comes to Ramakrishnan’s guest house where Thiru lives. Suddenly, Mythili cancels her trip and returns home. On the way, she finds Ramakrishnan’s car in Thiru’s home and she also comes to Thiru’s home. Mythili gets shocked to see Thilothama and Ramakrishnan in Thiru’s home. Ramakrishnan suddenly manages the situation by lying that Thilothama is none other than Thiru’s lover. Mythili believes this while Thiru does not reveal the truth knowing that it would separate Ramakrishnan from Mythili.

Then it is cat and mouse game where Thiru tries to act as Thilothama’s love in front of Mythili, at the same time tries hard not to get caught by Susi as she is short tempered and hates some lying to her. Finally Mythili and Susi get to know about the lies told by Thiru and Ramakrishnan. Ramakrishnan and Thiru try hard to find Thilothama and make her tell all the truth that nothing happened between them. But to their surprise, Thilothama passes away and the two guys have no other proof now.

Susi decides to break up with Thiru while Mythili applies for divorce with Ramakrishnan. Finally in the court, Ramakrishnan expresses how much he loves Mythili and tells all the truth and requests her to believe him. Also Amudha and Vishwa convince Susi and Mythili whereby Amudha says that she very well knows about Vishwa’s affair with so many girls but she still lives with a hope of getting him back as a loyal husband some day. Mythili and Susi understand Ramakrishnan and Thiru’s good nature and they unite in the end.

Cast

• Prabhu Ganesan as Ramakrishnan
• Prabhu Deva as Thirunavukkarasu "Thiru"
• Livingston as Vishva
• Abhirami as Mythili Ramakrishnan
• Gayathri Raghuraman as Susi
• Vindhya as Amudha
• Pyramid Natarajan as susi's father
• Monal as Thilothama
• Chinni Jayanth
• Pyramid Natarajan
• Pandu
• Besant Ravi

Production

Sakthi Chidambaram revealed that the story was based on a real life incident that had happened to his friend, but altered the happenings to present it in a comedy format. The film was initially called Uthama Purushan, but was later changed to Charlie Chaplin.^[8] The initial choices for the two leading female roles had been Gayatri Jayaraman and Sanghavi, but the two were replaced due to date issues.^[9]

Soundtrack

There are the 7 songs in this film composed by Bharani and lyrics written by Kabilan, Snehan, Pa. Vijay and Sakthi Chidambaram.^[10]

• Ava Kannapaatha - S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, Harish Raghavendra
• Kannadi Selai Katti - Krishnaraj, Swarnalatha, Karthik, Harini
• Mammu Mammu - Tippu
• Mudhalaam Sandhippil - Unnikrishnan, Swarnalatha
• Ponnu Oruthi Summa - Tippu, Anuradha Sriram
• Shansha Shalpashaa - Tippu, Harini
• Vaarthai Thavari Ponathanaley - Harish Raghavendra

Remakes

References

External links

• Charlie Chaplin on IMDb