''Paattali'' () is a 1999 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 ...

. The film stars

Sarath Kumar Sarathkumar Ramanathan (born 14 July 1954) is an Indian actor, politician, filmmaker, and singer. He has acted in more than 130 Tamil language, Tamil, Telugu language, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada films. He has won two Tamil Nadu State Film A ...

Ramya Krishnan Ramya Krishnan (born 15 September 1970), also credited as Ramya Krishna (in the Telugu and Kannada film industries) is an Indian actress. She has appeared in over 260 films in five languages: Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, and Hindi. Ramy ...

and

Devayani Devayani ( sa, देवयानी, translit=Devayānī) is a character in Hindu literature. She is described to be the daughter of Shukra, the acharya (preceptor) of the asuras, and his wife Jayanti, the daughter of Indra. She marries K ...

. The film's score and soundtrack are composed by

S. A. Rajkumar S. A. Rajkumar is an Indian composer and lyricist. He has made music for all South Indian language films in Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, and Kannada. Early life Rajkumar's father was a vocalist performing in stage shows conducted by popular mu ...

. The film released on 17 December 1999 and became a commercial success.

Plot

Shanmugam is the grandson of the rich landlord Kulasekaran based at the Karamadai area in the Coimbatore District of Tamil Nadu. Upon his parents' early death, Kulasekaran transfers all his wealth to Shanmugam and passes away. Shanmugam is raised by his paternal aunt Lakshmi. However, Lakshmi's husband Rajarathinam is greedy about money and tries to kill Shanmugam. To save Shanmugam from her cruel husband, Lakshmi lies with the help of their family lawyer Naachiyappan that the entire wealth is transferred to her name and let Shanmugam grow as a servant in the same home. Shanmugam is very fond of Lakshmi and treats her as his own mother. Shanmugam falls in love with Shakuntala who is employed in the same house. Kannamma is the only daughter of Lakshmi and she returns to the village post completion of her studies from abroad. While Lakshmi dreams of marrying Kannamma to Shanmugam, she has other plans. Kannamma discloses that she is in love with her classmate Raja. Although not interested, Lakshmi agrees for the wedding. One day, Shanmugam is sick and Sakunthala plays a prank on him without knowing by making him jump in the river which makes his condition worse. However, Shakuntala saves him, but Shanmugam shivers in cold. Accidentally, they both enter into a physical relationship and Shanmugam promises to marry her. Meanwhile, on the day of Kannamma's marriage, Raja and his parents cancel the wedding knowing that all their properties actually belong to Shanmugam only. Rajarathinam gets shocked knowing the truth. To save the life of Kannamma, Lakshmi requests Shanmugam to marry her. As Shanmugam could not turn down her request, he agrees and marries Kannamma. To Shanmugam's shock, Shakuntala gets pregnant so she decides to leave the village as she does not want to interrupt Shanmugam's life once again. But Shanmugam stops her and accommodates her in their farmhouse, which is managed by Mani, Rajarathinam's sidekick who was a corrupt person but has just reformed after seeing their sacrifices for each other and feels proud of them. Shanmugam secretly visits Shakuntala and takes her to hospital for periodical check-up. Kannamma also visits the same doctor once and she spots Shanmugam and Shakuntala together. Kannamma feels heartbroken but understands the situation of Shanmugam. Shakuntala discloses the truth and speaks in favour of Shanmugam. Rajarathinam's henchmen try to kill Shakuntala and her baby. But she is saved by Kannamma and the baby is delivered successfully. Shanmugam, with a greater upper hand, fights with and defeats both his own uncle and his henchmen. Finally, Shanmugam is married to Shakuntala but begins a fresh life with Kannamma, on Shakuntala's advice and hence the movie ends with a happy ending.

Cast

as Shanmugam *

as Kannamma, Shanmugam's wife and Lakshmi's daughter *

as Shakuntala, Shanmugam's love interest * Sujatha as Lakshmi, Kannamma's mother and Shanmugam's paternal aunt *

Manivannan S. Manivannan Rajagopal (31 July 1953 – 15 June 2013), better known by his mononym Manivannan, was an Indian film director, actor and activist who worked mainly in Tamil cinema and also worked in a few Telugu & Malayalam films. In a care ...

as Mani, Rajarathinam's sidekick *

Anandaraj Anandaraj (born May 15, 1959) is an Indian actor. He has acted in villain roles in several Tamil films and has appeared in over a two hundred films in different languages including Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi. Career Anandaraj was bor ...

as Rajarathinam, Kannamma's father and Shanmugam's uncle *

Vadivelu Kumaravadivel Natarajan (born 12 September 1960), known professionally as Vadivelu, is an Indian actor, comedian and playback singer, having acted in supporting and lead roles in Tamil cinema. He gained widespread acclaim in Kollywood in the 2 ...

as Velan alias Vadivu *

Kovai Sarala Kovai Sarala is an Indian actress and comedian, who prominently plays supporting roles in Tamil and Telugu films. She has won the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Comedian three times, for her performances in '' Sathi Leelavathi'' (1995), '' ...

as Sarala, Velan's love interest *

Vinu Chakravarthy Vinu Chakravarthy (15 December 1945 – 27 April 2017) was an Indian actor, screenwriter and director who is known for acting in more than 1000 movies in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Badaga and Malayalam mostly as a comedian, supporting actor or in ...

as Kulasekaran, Lakshmi's father and Shanmugam's grandfather * R. Sundarrajan as Kaalaiyan, Shakuntala's father *

Anu Mohan Anu Mohan (born 24 August 1990) is an Indian actor who works in Malayalam films. Career He made his debut in the 2011 film, ''Orkut oru Ormakut''. He also played the antagonist in Roopesh Peethambaran's '' Theevram''. Anu Mohan is the young ...

as Avudaiappan, Vadivu's to be imagined brother *

Crane Manohar Crane Manohar (born 4 October 1965) is an Indian actor who appears in Tamil films, mostly in comedy roles. He appeared in many Vadivelu and Vivek comedy tracks. Career Manohar initially worked as a crane technician for films and when he start ...

as Senthil *

Pandu In the Hindu epic ''Mahabharata'', Pandu ( sa, पाण्डु, Pāṇḍu, pale) was a king of the Kuru Kingdom. He was the foster-father of the five Pandava brothers, who were the boons bestowed upon his wife Kunti by a number of deities ...

as Lawyer Naachiyappan *Bharath Kalyan as Raja, Kannamma's ex-fiance *

Vasu Vikram Vasu Vikram is an Indian actor and stage director who has worked on Tamil-language films and in television dramas. Career Vasu Vikram is the son of actor M. R. R. Vasu, and the grandson of M. R. Radha. Several other members of his family are al ...

as Rajarathinam's henchman *

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 a servant *

K. Natraj K. Natraj is an Indian actor and director who primarily worked in Tamil-language films and serials. Personal life In film industry circle, he is popular as a close friend of actor Rajinikanth. His daughter, Rajini, was married actor Vishn ...

as Rathnam *Kallukkul Eeram Ramanathan as a servant *

Halwa Vasu Vasu, popularly known as Halwa Vasu, (died 17 August 2017) was a comedian in the Tamil film industry in India. He worked in around 900 films. Career Vasu who hailed from Madurai district, came to Chennai to work in cinemas after his graduati ...

as a villager *Chaplin Balu as Vadivu's uncle *

Kovai Senthil Kumarasamy, known by his stage name, Kovai Senthil, was a Tamil film character artist who appeared in Tamil films starting with Bhagyaraj's ''Oru Kai Osai''. He appeared in over 400 Tamil films. Career During his career, Kovai Senthil made ...

as a priest *

Master Mahendran Mahendran is an Indian actor who works in Tamil and Telugu language films. He started acting at the age of 3 and has appeared in over 100 films in six languages as a child actor, a record in India. He is a recipient of two Nandi Awards and two ...

as Young Shanmugam *

Hemalatha Hemalatha, often credited as Hema, is an Indian actress and dancer. She is acclaimed for her roles as Raghavi in the popular soap opera ''Kana Kaanum Kaalangal'' on STAR Vijay and as Deepa in the superhit Tamil drama serial on Sun TV ''Thend ...

as Young Shakuntala *

as a flower decorator (cameo appearance) *

Cheenu Mohan Cheenu Mohan (17 May 1956 – 27 December 2018) was an Indian actor who appeared in Tamil language films. He acted in films including ''Thalapathi'' (1991) and ''Iraivi'' (2016). Career Mohan began his career as a stage actor in the late 1970s ...

as a servant

Production

During the making of the film, Sarathkumar dislocated his left hand during a stunt accident, and shooting was stalled for two weeks.

Meena Meena () is a sub-group of Bhils. They speak Meena language. They started adopting the Brahmin worship system. Its name is also transliterated as ''Meenanda'' or ''Mina''. Historians claim that they belong to the Matsya tribe. They got the sta ...

was first offered the role, but could not sign on as a result of her commitment to

Vikraman Vikraman is an Indian film director primarily working in Tamil cinema. Career 1990–1994 He worked as an assistant to actor and director R. Parthiban in ''Puthiya Pathai'' (1989), which was the latter's debut film as a director and an actor. ...

's ''

Vaanathaippola ''Vaanathaippola'' () is a 2000 Indian Tamil-language drama film written and directed by Vikraman. The film stars Vijayakanth in dual role. The supporting cast include Meena, Prabhu Deva, Livingston, Kausalya and Anju Aravind. Produced by Venu R ...

'' (2000) and was replaced by

Soundtrack

The film score and the soundtrack were composed by

. The soundtrack features 7 tracks.

Reception

K. N. Vijiyan of ''

New Straits Times The ''New Straits Times'' is an English-language newspaper published in Malaysia. It is Malaysia's oldest newspaper still in print (though not the first), having been founded as ''The Straits Times'' on 15 July 1845. It was relaunched as the ' ...

'' praised

and

for their acting, and criticised the weak plot.

References

External links

* {{K. S. Ravikumar 1999 films 1990s Tamil-language films Films directed by K. S. Ravikumar Films scored by S. A. Rajkumar Indian action drama films 1990s action drama films