Mappillai Manasu Poopola

Manikkam (Pandiarajan) and Raja (Rajaneesh Kumar) are best friends, they are folk singers and they study a Ph.D. in Naattupurapaattu specialty in the city. The two friends are from the same village. Raja lives with his grandmother (S. N. Lakshmi) whereas Manikkam lives with his father (Thideer Kannaiah) and mother (Srimathi). Overnight, Raja starts to act like a lunatic and his behavior worsens with time. Worried about his mental health, his grandmother and Manikkam admit him in a mental hospital. Raja stays in the hospital for a week. The doctor says that his situation is improving and that Raja can be discharged from the hospital but he is not completely recovered.

Raja seems to be normal now but sooner or later he can react like a wild person. For his study, Raja has a last oral examination to earn a Ph.D. degree. Manikkam knows that Raja will not pass it with his mental health, so during the oral examination, Manikkam does many cheap tricks to help his friend Raja and Raja finally gets his doctorate diploma.

Manikkam has a maternal uncle Ulaganathan (Venniradai Moorthy) in his native village, as per the village custom, Manikkam must marry Ponni (Yuvarani). Aandhi Thevar (Malaysia Vasudevan) is a rich landlord and Ulaganathan's friend, he wants his daughter Vasanthi (Bhagyashree) to marry Raja, who is from distant family.

Raja receives a letter from Aandhi Thevar, he wants him to come to his village to marry his daughter. Thereafter, Raja, his grandmother and Manikkam go to their native village. Soon, the perfectly normal Manikkam is mistaken to be a madman by the villagers whereas the mentally ill Raja is seen as a sane person. What transpires next forms the rest of the story.

The film score and the soundtrack were composed by film composer Deva. The soundtrack, released in 1996, features 5 tracks with lyrics written by Kuruvikkarambai Shanmugam.[5]