''Panchamirtham'' is 2008 Tamil-language

fantasy comedy film Fantasy comedy or comic fantasy is a subgenre of fantasy that is primarily humorous in intent and tone. Typically set in imaginary worlds, fantasy comedy often involves puns on and parodies of other works of fantasy. Literature The subgenre rose ...

scripted and directed by Raju Eswaran, it stars

Jayaram Jayaram Subramaniam, (born 10 December 1965) known mononymously as Jayaram, is an Indian actor who predominantly appears in Malayalam,Tamil films, along with a few Telugu films. He is also a chenda percussionist, mimicry artist, and occasiona ...

Prakash Raj Prakash Raj (born Prakash Rai; 26 March 1965) is an Indian actor, film director, producer, television presenter, and politician. Known for his works in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Hindi, and Malayalam-language films, he is the recipient of several ...

and the director himself alongside an ensemble supporting cast including

Nassar Nassar ( ar, نصار, lit=helper, protector, supporter, victory-maker), is a given name and surname, commonly found in the Arabic language. Alternative spellings of this name, possibly due to transliteration include Naser, Nasser, Nasir, Naseer ...

, Aravind Akash,

Regina Cassandra Regina Cassandra (born 13 December 1990) is an Indian actress and Model who primarily works in Tamil and Telugu films. She made her acting debut with the Tamil film ''Kanda Naal Mudhal'' in 2005 and made her Telugu film debut with '' Siva Manasu ...

Saranya Mohan Saranya Mohan is a former Indian actress, who predominantly appeared in Malayalam and Tamil films. She has also acted in a few Telugu, Kannada and Hindi films. She is best known for her performances in ''Yaaradi Nee Mohini'' (2008), ''Vennila ...

, Samiksha,

Karunas Karunas (born 21 February 1970 as Karunanidhi Sethu) is an Indian actor, politician and comedian in the Tamil film industry. Appearing mostly in supporting roles, he has also played lead roles in films including '' Dindigul Sarathy'' (2008) a ...

, and

Ganja Karuppu Ganja Karuppu is an Indian actor who has predominantly appeared in comedy roles in Tamil cinema. After making his debut in Bala's '' Pithamagan'' (2003), Ganja Karuppu experienced success in the late 2000s with his roles in '' Raam'' (2005), ...

. Produced by Abhirami Ramanatha and with music by

Sundar C Babu Sundar (Devanagari: सुन्दर) is an adjective signifying attractive, beautiful, good, handsome or nice. It has its origin in Sanskrit language. The word is also used as names of people by speakers of languages branching off of Indo-Aryan l ...

, the film released on Christmas (25 December) 2008.

Plot

The story begins at

Ravana Ravana (; , , ) is a rakshasa king of the island of Lanka, and the chief antagonist of the Hindu epic ''Ramayana'' and its adaptations. In the ''Ramayana'', Ravana is described to be the eldest son of sage Vishrava and rakshasi Kaikesi. He a ...

n's (

) abode and the time of Ramayana when he orders his uncle Mareesan (

) to transform into a

deer Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the red deer, and the fallow deer; and the Capreolinae, including the reindeer ...

to abduct

Seetha Sita (; ) also called as Janaki and Vaidehi is a Hindu goddess and the female protagonist of the Hindu epic, ''Ramayana''. She is the consort of Rama, the avatar of the god Vishnu, and is regarded as a form of Vishnu's consort, Lakshmi. She ...

(

). Mareesan argues with Ravana but finally complies since Idumba (Raju Eswaran) and Ravana threaten the life of Mareesan's lover Mandahini ( Samiksha). Finally, the said thing happens, and Mareesan gets struck by the arrow by lord

Rama Rama (; ), Ram, Raman or Ramar, also known as Ramachandra (; , ), is a major deity in Hinduism. He is the seventh and one of the most popular '' avatars'' of Vishnu. In Rama-centric traditions of Hinduism, he is considered the Supreme Bein ...

. He becomes a rock, but not before he transforms Idumba into an anklet and wears it on his leg. Times change, and the modern day comes. Rajaram (

) is a very rich man who owns tea estates. He has Seetha (

) as his dietitian and Sri Rama ( Aravind Akash) as his cook. Both Rama and Seetha are in love. On the other hand, Rajaram's relatives (Thirupathi ( M. S. Bhaskar) and

Mayilsamy Mayilsamy (born October 2, 1965) is an Indian actor and comedian who prominently plays supporting roles. Appearing in many Tamil films, he is also a regular guest judge on '' Asathapovathu Yaaru'' on Sun TV in Chennai. Career He is a popular ...

) plan a plot to take the property. In this process, they end up planning to kill Seetha by pushing her from a mountaintop. Seetha falls directly on the rock idol of Mareesan and gets his human form. At the same time, his anklet falls off and gets eaten by a fish. That fish is caught by fisherman Manickam (

), and Idumba gets his human form. The age old enmity crops up, and while Mareesan vows to protect Seetha, Idumba plans to help Manickam get Rajaram's property as half brother. What happens from there forms the rest of the story..

Cast

as Mareesan *

as Ravanan * Raju Eswaran as Idumban *

as Rajaram and Manickam (dual role) * Aravind Akash as Sriram *

as Seetha * Samiksha as Mandahini *

as Pandi *

as Muthu * M. S. Bhaskar as Thirupathi *

as Rajaram's relative *

Ilavarasu Ilavarasu is an Indian cinematographer and actor, who works in the Tamil film industry. He started his career as a cinematographer and worked for 13 films, winning a Tamil Nadu State Film Award for one of them. He, however, became better known ...

as Kasi *

Manobala Manobala (born 8 December 1953) is an Indian film director, producer, actor and comedian who predominantly plays supporting roles in Tamil-language films. He started his career in Tamil cinema in the early 1970s and with Kamal Haasan's referen ...

as Doctor * Lollu Sabha Soundarya as Pappi * Gowthami Vembunathan as Thirupathi's wife

Production

Abirami Ramanathan, well-known theatre owner and Managing Director of Abirami Mega Mall, forayed into film production with Panchamirtham. The film's inaugural function was held on 13 July 2008. Director, K. Balachander, KRG, Kalaipuli S Dhanu, Kalaipuli Sekaran, Sarath Kumar, Radha Ravi and Rama Narayanan inaugurated the function, A song sequence with Nasser was filmed during the pooja. Earlier

Vivek Vivek (or Bibek/Bivek in some regions) (विवेक in Devanagari script) is a masculine given name that is popular in South Asia, particularly in India and Nepal. It is of Sanskrit origin and means "wisdom" and/or "conscience". Vivek may refe ...

and

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 ...

was said to be the part of this film but proved untrue. A song featuring Saranya Mohan was shot in Ooty and actress-cum-dance master Gayathri Raghuram choreographed it.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was composed by

Sundar C. Babu Sundar C Babu composes music for Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu films in India. He is the son of an eminent Veena Vidhwan Dr.Chitti Babu and Sudakshina Devi and his brothers are Rangasai and Radhakrishnan. Under his father's guidance, Babu began ...

, and lyrics for all songs were written by Vaali. *"Panchamirtham"—

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 ...

*"Thandana Thandana" —

Shreya Ghoshal Shreya Ghoshal (born 12 March 1984) is an Indian singer and television personality. One of the highest-paid and most well-established playback singers of Indian cinema, she has received four National Film Awards, four Kerala State Film Awar ...

*"Nadhikkarai Oram" —

Madhu Balakrishnan Madhu Balakrishnan is an Indian playback singer who sings in different languages Malayalam, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada. Personal life Madhu Balakrishnan was born on 24 June 1974 to Balakrishnan and Leelavathy at Paravur, Eranakulam. His earlier ...

K. S. Chithra Krishnan Nair Shantakumari Chithra (born 27 July 1963), always credited as K. S. Chithra or Chithra, is an Indian playback singer and Carnatic musician. In a career spanning over four decades, she has recorded over 25,000 songs in various In ...

*"Kadhal Vandhal" — Karthik,

Rita Rita may refer to: People * Rita (given name) * Rita (Indian singer) (born 1984) * Rita (Israeli singer) (born 1962) * Rita (Japanese singer) * Eliza Humphreys (1850–1938), wrote under the pseudonym Rita Places * Djarrit, also known as Rita, ...

*"Uchathula Aandavan" — Naveen Madhav

Critical reception

Nowrunning wrote: "With so many comedians, this film is a slapstick comedy. With children as its target audience, the film entertains". Indiaglitz wrote: "Panchamirtham is a laugh-riot". Rediff wrote: "Even if it isn't as funny or classy as they had promised, the team does deliver some laughs". Kollywood today wrote: "Panchamirtham is a fantastic treat. But unfortunately, there are whole lot of traces of TV serial and Raju Eeswaran with his knack tactics could’ve dealt with this". Behindwoods wrote: "worth a watch".

References

{{Use dmy dates, date=April 2020 2008 films 2000s Tamil-language films Indian fantasy comedy films 2000s fantasy comedy films Films scored by Sundar C. Babu 2008 directorial debut films 2008 comedy films