Kondattam () is a 1998 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

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by

K. S. Ravikumar K. S. Ravikumar (born 30 May 1958) is an Indian film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, primarily working in Tamil films. Career 1990–1997 Ravikumar worked as co-director on R. B. Choudary's production ''Pudhu Vasantham'' direct ...

. It stars Arjun and

Simran Simran (Gurmukhi: ਸਿਮਰਨ; hi, सिमरण, सिमरन ; from Sanskrit: , ''smaraṇa'', 'to remember, reminisce, recollect'), in spirituality, is a Sanskrit word referring to the continuous remembrance of the finest aspect of ...

Plot

Raja is a rich fun-loving man, whose boat ride with his friends turns tragic after his friends die in an accident. Raja is heart-broken after his fiancée Lalitha blames him for his friends' deaths. Feeling remorse for his actions, Raja writes off his properties to the families of his deceased friends. He gets a call that Anand's wife died after giving birth to a baby boy. Raja gives the baby to Anand's family who wants him to stay in their home for some time. Except the older couple, other members initially do not like his presence but he wins their love and affection. Raja discovers that someone is attempting to kill the child. He then gets himself into a situation where he can continue staying in the house and detect the mystery. Lalitha who is engaged to be married comes to stay in the same home and still hates Raja. During the naming ceremony of the baby, the family learns that Raja killed Anand. Arjun's servant reveals that Anand's property will be inherited by the baby. While getting thrashed by their car driver Pazhani, Raja who accidentally sees Pazhani's ring realises he was the one who attempted to kill the baby. Pazhani was in love with Purushothaman's daughter and had an eye on the property, after coming to know that child is the heir of the property he tried to kill it. In the end, Raja marries Lalitha and becomes a part of the huge family.

Cast

* Arjun as Raja (Ramu) *

as Lalitha * Manthra as Vidhya *

Gemini Ganesan Ramasamy Ganesan (17 November 1920 – 22 March 2005), better known by his stage name Gemini Ganesan, was an Indian actor who worked mainly in Tamil cinema. He was referred to as the ''Kaadhal Mannan'' (King of Romance) for his romantic roles ...

as Anand's grandfather * Vijayakumar as Purushothaman *

Jaiganesh Jai Ganesh (1946 – 11 February 2001) was an Indian Tamil film actor. He had supporting roles in the films '' Aval Oru Thodar Kathai'' and ''Attukara Alamelu'', among others. His most popular roles have been as a supporting actor or as a vill ...

as Rajarathnam *

Ramesh Khanna Ramesh Khanna (also spelt as Ramesh Kanna) is an Indian actor and film director who has worked in Tamil cinema. He has acted in a number of supporting and comedian roles. Early life Khanna was born on 12 June 1954 in Chennai and third child to ...

as Pazhani * R. Sundarrajan as Bhaskaran * Rajeev as Anand's uncle *

Sowcar Janaki Sankaramanchi Janaki (born T. Janaki; 12 December 1931), popularly known as Sowcar Janaki (Tamil) or Shavukaru Janaki (Telugu) or Sahukar Janaki (Kannada), is an Indian actress who has appeared in over 300, films, predominantly in Tamil, Telug ...

as Janaki *

Raja ''Raja'' (; from , IAST ') is a royal title used for South Asian monarchs. The title is equivalent to king or princely ruler in South Asia and Southeast Asia. The title has a long history in South Asia and Southeast Asia, being attested f ...

as Gopikrishna *

Sathyapriya Sathyapriya is an Indian actress. She has acted in over 350 films, and played the heroine in a few of them. She made her debut in ''Manjal Mugame Varuga'' opposite Vijayakumar in Tamil. Her notable films include ''Besuge'', ''Dharmasere'', ''H ...

as Vidya's mother * K. R. Vatsala as Bhaskaran's wife *

Anand Babu Anand Babu is an Indian actor who was known for his works in Tamil films. He is the son of legendary comedy actor Nagesh. Career He first entered the film industry with Tamil films and also played leading roles in Telugu as well as supporting ...

as Babu * Anand as Anand *

Chinni Jayanth Chinni Jayanth (born Krishnamurthy Narayanan on 26 July 1960) is an Indian film director, producer, comedian, actor and mimicry artist who has appeared in many main, character and supporting roles in Tamil films. He is also a popular televisio ...

as Siva *

Delhi Ganesh Delhi Ganesh is an Indian actor who mostly acts in supporting roles in Tamil cinema and serials. He has acted in more than 400 films from 1976 to present. Before films, he was a member of the Delhi-based theatre troupe, ''Dakshina Bharata Natak ...

as Raja's servant *

Saradha Preetha Saradha Preetha is an Indian actress in Tamil and Malayalam movies. She was one of the prominent lead and supporting actresses in Malayalam and Tamil movies during 1990s. She came into movie industry as a child artist and later started doing lea ...

as Saradha *

Sheela Kaur Sheela Kaur is a former Indian actress who has starred in several Telugu and Tamil films along with a few Malayalam and Kannada films. She is known for her performances in ''Nandha'', '' Adhurs'' and ''Veerasamy''. She has appeared in nearly 20 ...

as Anjali *

Subhashini Subhashini (born 2 August 1965) is a South Indian films and television actress. Her sister is famous actress Jayasudha. Both of them are nieces of famous actress and director Vijaya Nirmala. She worked with Rajini's Johnny movie's songAasaiya K ...

as Anand's aunt * Lavanya as Purushothaman's daughter *

Idichapuli Selvaraj Idichapuli Selvaraj ( – 30 January 2012) was a veteran Tamil comedy actor. He acted in more than five hundred films. He acted along with lot of actors. He also worked as an assistant director for the M. G. Ramachandran films like ''Idhayakkani ...

as Watchman * Mahendran as Mahendran *

in a cameo appearance

Production

The film was developed with the working title of ''Uthama Puthiran'', before the team changed title.

Sivaji Ganesan Villupuram Chinnaiya Manrayar Ganesamoorthy, better known by his stage name Sivaji Ganesan, (1 October 1928 – 21 July 2001) was an Indian actor and producer. He was active in Tamil cinema during the latter half of the 20th century. Sivaji Ga ...

was initially considered to play the patriarchal head of the family, though his unavailability meant that

was selected instead.

Soundtrack

The film soundtrack features score and 6 songs composed by Maragatha Mani, with lyrics by Kalidasan. Unlike other Tamil films he worked where he was credited as Maragathamani, here in this film he was credited by his real name Keeravani.

Reception

''Indolink'' wrote "the movie is alright for family viewing". ''Geocities'' wrote "For the number of actors in Kondattam, the movie also has equal number of plot elements in it. It has love (both as in kadhal and jollu), friendship, tragedy, humor, action, master-servant relationship, drama etc. It almost feels like you have seen all of the scenes in the movie before. But the overall plot line is not that common. However it too resembles the plot of Nirai Kudam (Starring Sivaji Ganesan)".https://web.archive.org/web/20001006002459/http://geocities.com/Hollywood/5473/kondattam.html

References

External links

{{K. S. Ravikumar 1998 films Indian drama films Films scored by M. M. Keeravani 1990s Tamil-language films Films directed by K. S. Ravikumar