''Kasethan Kadavulada'' () is a 1972 Indian

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

-language

caper ''Capparis spinosa'', the caper bush, also called Flinders rose, is a perennial plant that bears rounded, fleshy leaves and large white to pinkish-white flowers. The plant is best known for the edible flower buds (capers), used as a seasoning ...

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

written and directed by

Chitralaya Gopu Sadagopan (better known as Chitralaya Gopu) is an Indian screenwriter and director who works in the Tamil cinema. He has written nearly 60 films, and directed 27 of them. He scripted dramatic films such as ''Moondru Dheivangal'' and ''Shanti Nil ...

. The film stars Muthuraman and

Lakshmi Lakshmi (; , sometimes spelled Laxmi, ), also known as Shri (, ), is one of the principal goddesses in Hinduism. She is the goddess of wealth, fortune, power, beauty, fertility and prosperity, and associated with ''Maya'' ("Illusion"). Alo ...

, with

M. R. R. Vasu Madras Rajagopalan Radhakrishnan Vasudevan was an Indian actor who was active in Tamil cinema and theatre during the latter half of the 20th century. He was known for playing negative roles, but he was also a successful character actor. He acte ...

Thengai Srinivasan Thengai Srinivasan (21 October 1937 – 9 November 1987) was an Indian actor who appeared in Tamil language, Tamil-language films and plays from the 1960s to the 1980s. He was given the prefix ''Thengai'' (coconut) after his role as a coco ...

, Srikanth, Moorthy, Manorama,

Rama Prabha Rama Prabha is an Indian actress who performs in Telugu, Tamil and Hindi films. She has acted in more than 1,400 films and is credited as a character artist who shared screen space with superstars across all generation of South Indian Cinema ...

and

Jayakumari Jayakumari is an Indian actress in South Indian films. She was born in 1952 and was a prominent lead actress during the 1960s and 1970s in Tamil and Malayalam films. She was noted for her glamorous roles. She has acted around 50 Malayalam movies ...

in supporting roles. It focuses on a young man (Muthuraman) collaborating with his cousin (Sreekanth) and friend (Srinivasan) to steal money from his stingy stepmother (Manorama). ''Kasethan Kadavulada'', based on Gopu's play of the same name is the directorial debut of Gopu, and was produced by

AVM Productions AVM Productions is an Indian film production studio founded by A. V. Meiyappan. It is the final oldest survived studio in India. The filming studios are located in Vadapalani, Chennai. It has produced over 300 films in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, ...

. Muthuraman and Moorthy reprise their roles from the play. The music was composed by

M. S. Viswanathan Manayangath Subramanian Viswanathan (24 June 1928 – 14 July 2015), also known as M.S.V., was an Indian music director, singer and actor who predominantly worked in Tamil film industry. He was popularly known as ''Mellisai Mannar''. He compose ...

, cinematography was handled by K. S. Bhaskar, and editing by R. G. Gopu. ''Kasethan Kadavulada'' was released on 19 May 1972. The film became a commercial success, with Srinivasan's role as a fake godman becoming immensely popular. A remake with the same name is scheduled for release in 2022.

Plot

Lakshmi, a domineering woman, controls all her husband Sivaswamy's money, treating him with scorn and disdain. When Ramu, Sivaswamy's son from his first wife, requires a sum of for his sister's husband, the stingy Lakshmi instantly refuses. Ramu and his cousin Mali hatch a plot with their tea vendor friend Appaswamy, who pretends to be a godman named Badrinath Swamy Sukranada to get to her money safe and steal a sum of 50,000. Meanwhile, Rama is an orphan whose only friend is Iruthayam, the doctor of a mental institution. When Rama wants a conduct certificate, Iruthayam bungles and hands over the certificate of an insane girl also named Rama.

DSP DSP may refer to: Computing * Digital signal processing, the mathematical manipulation of an information signal * Digital signal processor, a microprocessor designed for digital signal processing * Yamaha DSP-1, a proprietary digital signal ...

Paramantham, who previously arrested Appaswamy, comes to see the godman. Appaswamy tells Paramantham to not handle any cases at this time. An incident occurs when Rama encounters Appaswamy without a beard, but to his surprise she does not recognise the difference. The house receives a telegram saying that the real Badrinath Swamy Sukranada is arriving in two days, meaning Appaswamy has to loot his sum within that time frame. Lakshmi's brother Mani wants to buy jewellery for his girlfriend, Latha, and needs money after being exposed by his girlfriend's brother. Mani steals Appaswamy's money 5,001 that he received as a donation from Lakshmi (the extra 1 came from Chettiar), but Rama catches him red-handed. The sane Rama arrives at Lakshmi's house to work as a secretary. Lakshmi sees the certificate, but decides to keep her at her house since the certificate mentions that Rama becomes violent when somebody refuses to give her what she wants. Rama falls in love with Ramu. The insane Rama and her father also come there to work coincidentally. More complications arise (the insane Rama's father overhears Ramu and Appaswamy's heist plan and subsequently the insane Rama lets her anger out on Appaswamy, leading to a deal in which Ramu and Appaswamy will not tell anybody that the sane Rama is insane as nobody knows and that the insane Rama's father will not tell anybody about the heist plan), leading to more incidents. Lakshmi tells Appaswamy about the cash she has stashed in her secret hideout, and shows him how to access it. Appaswamy and Ramu succeed in their heist later that night, but are exposed after they place the cash in a flower pot. The insane Rama's father, the sane Rama, and Mani all encounter the cash. Mani throws it outside to his Latha's brother. Again, Rama catches him red-handed. The cash is in Latha's brothers' coat. To prove that the other Rama is truly insane, the sane Rama tells the insane Rama that the coat will look good on her. When Latha's brother refuses to give her his coat, the insane Rama shows her insanity. As a result, all problems are solved, Lakshmi is pacified, and agrees to Ramu and the sane Rama's marriage.

Cast

; Actors * Muthuraman as Ramu *

as the insane Rama's father *

as Appaswamy * Srikanth as Mali * Moorthy as Sivaswamy *

Typist Gopu Gopalarathnam, known by his stage name Typist Gopu, was an Indian actor known for comedy and supporting roles. He acted in over 600 stage plays and 400 films. Career A native of Manakkal, Lalgudi in Trichy district, Gopalarathnam was active ...

as Dr. Iruthayam * Sasikumar as Mani *

Senthamarai Senthamarai may refer to: * Senthamarai (actor) Senthamarai was an Indian actor who acted in Tamil cinema and theatre. Career Senthamarai was born on 13 April 1935 at Kancheepuram. His family included his father Thiruvenkadam, his mother Vedamm ...

Paramantham (guest appearance) *

Suruli Rajan Suruli Rajan was a Tamil film comedian/character artiste. He was a recipient of Tamil Nadu State Government's Best Comedian Award for the year 1981–82. Biography Suruli Rajan was born in 1938 in Periyakulam, near Theni. His father ''Ponnai ...

as Chettiar (guest appearance) * S. Rama Rao as Iyer * S. L. Narayanan as Dr. Iruthayam's secretary * Sundhar as Mugilan ;Actresses *

as the secretary Rama * Manorama as Lakshmi *

as the insane Rama *

as Latha * Kumari Sachu as a popular dancer (guest appearance) * Vijayarekha as Appaswamy's wife * Renuka Sheshathri as Prema

Production

''Kasethan Kadavulada'' was a play written and directed by

, and staged over 300 times.

founder A. V. Meiyappan who saw the play decided to adapt it into a feature film and insisted Gopu direct; the film adaptation thus marked his directorial debut. While Muthuraman and Moorthy reprised their roles from the play as son and father, Manorama, who portrayed the lead actor's love interest in the play, portrayed the matriarch in the film; the lead actor's love interest in the film was instead portrayed by

portrayed the tea vendor Appaswamy masquerading as a godman, reprising the role originally played by Ramani, a mimicry artiste. In portraying Appaswamy, Srinivasan spoke in

Madras Bashai Madras Bashai (Tamil: , ) is the variety of the Tamil language spoken by native people in the city of Madras (currently known as Chennai) in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is sometimes considered a pidgin, as its vocabulary is heavily influ ...

. Cinematography was handled by K. S. Bhaskar, and editing by R. G. Gopu.

Soundtrack

The music was composed by

, with lyrics by Vaali. The song "Jambulingame" became popular upon release. Elements of the song were borrowed by

S. Thaman Ghantasala Sai Srinivas Thaman (born 16 November 1983), known professionally as Thaman S, earlier as S S Thaman, is an Indian music composer, professional drummer, and playback singer who predominantly works in Telugu films and Tamil films. Th ...

and used in "Pudhu Punal" from ''

Mouna Guru ''Mouna Guru'' () is a 2011 Indian Tamil-language action thriller film directed by Santha Kumar and produced by M. K. Thamizharasu. The film stars Arulnidhi and Ineya, while John Vijay, Madhusudhan Rao, Uma Riyaz Khan, Krishnamoorthy, and Bala ...

'' (2011).

Release and reception

''Kasethan Kadavulada'' was released on 19 May 1972. Gopu recalled that producers put up a huge cut-out for Srinivasan in the saint get-up. Srinivasan who was pleased did not want the lead actor Muthuraman to misunderstand so he and Gopu went to Muthuraman and explained that it was the role that became popular and even apologised to Muthuraman who smiled it away. The film was a commercial success, and Gopu received more film offers to work as both director and writer.

Randor Guy Madabhushi Rangadorai (born 8 November 1937), better known by his pen name Randor Guy, is an Indian lawyer, columnist and film and legal historian associated with the English language newspaper ''The Hindu''. He is also the official editor of the ...

of ''

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the secon ...

'' attributed the success to "the excellent comedy sequences, humorous dialogue, fine direction of Chitralaya Gopu and excellent performances". Thirumalai titled his 2011 comedy film as ''Kasethan Kadavulada'' which had no similarity with this film.

Other versions

In 2017, Y. G. Mahendran organised a play based on the film that was staged in

Mylapore Mylapore, also spelt Mayilapur, is a neighbourhood in the central part of the city of Chennai, India. It is one of the oldest residential parts of the city. It is also called Tirumayilai. The locality is claimed to be the birthplace of the cel ...

. Mahendran reprised the role of Srinivasan from the film. The play was performed 100 times. The film was remade in Tamil under the same title by

R. Kannan R. Kannan (born Rajmohan on 21 July 1971) is an Indian filmmaker. He made his directorial debut with the successful Tamil film ''Jayamkondaan'' starring Vinay Rai and Bhavana in 2008. Career Kannan started his career assisting director Manoba ...

, and scheduled to release in theatres in 2022.

Home media

''Kasethan Kadavulada'' was made available for viewing on

Amazon Prime Video Amazon Prime Video, also known simply as Prime Video, is an American Video on demand#Subscription models, subscription video on-demand Over-the-top media service, over-the-top Streaming media, streaming and Renting, rental service of Amazon (c ...

when it was launched in India in December 2016.

References

External links

* * {{AVM Productions 1970s heist films 1970s Tamil-language films 1972 comedy films 1972 directorial debut films 1972 films AVM Productions films Films about mental health Films directed by Chitralaya Gopu Films scored by M. S. Viswanathan Indian comedy films Indian films based on plays Indian heist films