Magalir Mattum

Magalir Mattum
Poster
Directed by Singeetham Srinivasa Rao
Produced by Kamal Hassan
Screenplay by Crazy Mohan
Story by Kamal Haasan
Starring Revathi
Urvashi
Rohini
Nassar
Renuka
Music by Ilaiyaraaja
Cinematography Tirru
Edited by N. P. Satish
Production
company
Distributed by Raaj Kamal Films International
Release date
 25 February 1994
Running time
 132 min
Country India
Language Tamil

Magalir Mattum (English: Ladies Only) is a 1994 Tamil-language satirical film directed by Singeetham Srinivasa Rao, starring Revathi, Urvashi, Rohini and Nassar in lead roles with Nagesh and Kamal Haasan in guest appearance. It is a remake of the American film 9 to 5.

Plot

The story is about three different women who work at a fashion export company. Janaki (Urvashi) works as a typist to earn a living, to support herself, her husband and her baby as her husband lost his job in a factory. Pappamma (Rohini) is a house keeper who lives with her drunkard rickshaw pulling husband and earns for both their living and her husband's drinking expense. Satya (Revathi) is a computer graduate and designer who waits to get married. Her marriage was stopped by her once when the groom's family asked a lot for dowry. She joined the fashion company as a fashion designer and stays in a hostel. All the women in the company face a common threat in the form of manager Pandian (Nassar), who is a womanizer. He harasses his female employees in one way or other, but the women tolerate his torture due to their family circumstances.

Pandian tries to move close with Satya and unaware of Pandian's intention, Satya at first dines with him. This isolates her from other employees. Pandian tries to impress her by presenting a silk saree, but Satya insults him by saying that only a father or husband should present a saree to a woman and what he has done is purely idiotic. This gains her the friendship of Janaki and Pappamma and Satya understands about Pandian. A small daily clash occurs between Pappamma and Janaki whenever Pappamma misplaces rat poison besides sugar and Janaki almost mixes rat poison by mistake in the coffee of Pandian's as both sugar and poison look alike. Due to Satya's friendship, Janaki becomes bold enough to face her supervisor and she insults her in front of everyone. Hence the supervisor tries to take revenge by hiding an important file which is under Janaki's custody. But Pappamma helps her by revealing the truth to Pandian. All the three women are frustrated by Pandian's attitude and are finding some way to stop his misdeeds towards them.

Pandian one day tries to hold Janaki after office hours. But Satya stays back for her help. Janaki mixes rat poison unknowingly in Pandian's coffee and gives it to him and goes to work. Pandian falls from his chair and becomes unconscious. Satya finds his state and admits him in hospital. Janaki finds that she has mixed rat poison in the coffee and Pandian drank it and reveals the truth to her friends, which shocks them. All three rush to hospital and hear that the patient is dead due to strong dosage of poison. But actually they don't know that the dead man is a terrorist who died by drinking cyanide and Pandian has actually fainted due to a minor injury and has recovered. They kidnap the corpse and take it to Satya's room only to find that they have kidnapped corpse of the terrorist. Hence they decide to place it back in the hospital. But Pappamma's husband misunderstands that his wife and the dead man have a relationship and fights with him. Finally police find out the missed corpse and all three leave silently. Pandian returns to the office and this shocks the three women. The supervisor overhears their conversation and informs Pandian.

Pandian blackmails them that he would report the murder attempt to the police if they did not obey what he says. He demands to spend each night with all the three women in his private house. All three come to a decision and pretend to accept his demands. In his private house, they initially act to romance, but finally trap him and tie him. Satya takes charge of acting manager and with the help of Janaki, Pappamma and other employees she brings many changes in the office. In the evening, all the three go to the private house. One day, Satya receives information from the head office about the boss' visit and get tense as they have kidnapped the manager. All three decide to confess about what happened in the office and rush to the airport to receive the boss. The supervisor overhears them and she rescues Pandian. Both Satya and Pandian try to rush to the airport before the other. Satya mistakes an old man to be the boss, instead a young man, (Kamal Hassan) comes and leaves with Pandian. The trio is shocked and chase him to the office.

In the office, the young boss finds differences and Pandian says that he is not responsible for anything that happened here. But the boss looks like he is aware about what happened there and appreciates all three for their innovative ideas. He decides to leave the charge of the office to the trio and transfers Pandian to Andaman. He also gives remedy for Janaki's husband's job in his friend's factory and Pappamma's husband's job as watchman in their school. When he inquires about Satya's marriage, Janaki says that she has a dream boy drawn in the computer. Satya shows her dream boy to him and all are surprised that Satya's dream boy is their boss. The boss asks Satya to marry him and they both fall in the repaired chair revealing that Satya accepted his proposal.

Cast

Production

Rohini was offered to play the role of de-glamorised servant; she recalled that she agreed to do "without a second thought."[1] Producer S. Thanu appeared in a small role as office supervisor, notably it was his only film as an actor.[2] Tirru was recruited as cinematographer.[3] Velraj worked as an assistant cameraman in the film.[4] Kamal Haasan who scripted and produced the film appeared in a small role as office boss towards the climax.[5] Nagesh did a small role as a corpse.[6]

Dubbed versions and remakes

Magalir Mattum was dubbed in Telugu as Aadavaallaku Maatram and Ladies Only in Malayalam. The film was remade in Hindi as Ladies Only in 1997 by Dinesh Shailendra. Seema Biswas, Shilpa Shirodkar and Heera Rajagopal were cast as three working women and Randhir Kapoor was selected to reprise Nassar's character. Kamal Haasan portrayed Nagesh's dead body character. Even though the film has been completed in 1987, it was released in 1994.[7][8]

Soundtrack

Magalir Mattum
Studio album by Ilaiyaraaja
Released 31 January 1994 (India)
Recorded Rajkamal International
Genre Feature film soundtrack
Label AVM Audio
Aditya Music

Soundtrack is composed by Ilaiyaraaja while the lyrics for all the songs were written by Vaali.[9]

  • Karavai Maadu — SPB, S. Janaki
  • Veetai Thaandi — S. Janaki
  • Magalir Mattum — S. Janaki
  • Mottu Mottunu — S. Janaki

References

  1. ↑ Rangan, Baradwaj. "Roles of a lifetime". The Hindu. Retrieved 2017-05-08.
  2. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 6 February 2015. Retrieved 2015-09-30.
  3. ↑ "Realistic frames". The Hindu. Retrieved 2017-05-08.
  4. ↑ "Cinema cinema!". The Hindu. Retrieved 2017-05-08.
  5. ↑ Srinivasan, Meera. "Big stars glitter in small roles". The Hindu. Retrieved 2017-05-08.
  6. ↑ "They mourned with laughter". The Hindu. Retrieved 2017-05-08.
  7. ↑ http://members.tripod.com/s_jagadish/kamal/ladies.html
  8. ↑ http://www.asiangigs.com/ladies.htm
  9. ↑ http://mio.to/album/Magalir+Mattum+(1994)
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