Thenali is a Tamil film which released on November 7, 2000 and was directed by K. S. Ravikumar. This film is a blatant copy of the Hollywood movie What About Bob?, and has Kamal Haasan and Jayaram playing the lead roles with female leads played by Devayani and Jyothika Saravanan. It turned out to be a box-office hit. The film also included Meena, B. H. Abdul Hameed, and director K. S. Ravikumar in cameo appearances. The film's music was scored by Academy Award-Winning composer A.R. Rahman.
Plot
Thenali (Kamal Hassan) is a man who fears anything and everything due to his earlier life in Sri Lanka. Dr. Panchabhootham (Delhi Ganesh) and his assistant (Ramesh Khanna), who are the doctors treating Thenali, are jealous of a relatively junior doctor Dr. Kailash (Jayaram) getting all the media attention. They send Thenali to Dr. Kailash because the former will make people mad because of his antics and expected him to do the same on Dr.Kailash, who is on a vacation to his home in Kodaikanal where his wife Jalaja(Devayani) and two children lived. The expected happens. Thenali falls in love with Janaki (Jyothika), the younger sister of Dr. Kailash, which was vehemently opposed by the latter. The whole film is about how Dr. Kailash goes mad with the antics of Thenali and even begins to suspect that his wife has an affair with Thenali, as she has a soft corner for the latter. He even tries to kill Thenali by tying him to a tree with a time bomb, which Thenali (not knowing it is a bomb) removes and puts it in the doctor's house, causing it to explode and Dr. Kailash, seeing this, suffers a paralytic attack.
Evantually, Thenali marries Janaki and cures Dr. Kailash through shock treatment by bringing Meena, Abdul Hameed and K.S. Ravikumar and makes Meena act as his Sri Lankan wife.
Box Office
- The film grossed $4 million at the box office.
- Mohanlal was originally planned to do the role, eventually done by Jayaram.[citation needed]
- Similarly Simran Bagga was originally planned to take up the role, eventually done by Jyothika Saravanan, as the former was too busy in the industry.
- This came after Hey Ram, which was a no-show at the box-office and huge disappointment for Kamal Hassan. Inspired by the success of Thenali, Kamal Hassan followed up on other laughter-riots Pammal K. Sambandam and Panchathanthiram.
Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Kamal Hassan | Tenali Soman |
| Jayaram | Dr. Kailash |
| Devayani | Jalaja |
| Jyothika | Janaki |
| Meena | Actress Meena |
| Delhi Ganesh | Dr. Panchabhootham |
Sound Tracks
- Athinni Chittini | Hariharan , Chitra Sivaraman, Kamal Hassan
- Swasamae Swasamae | S.P.Balasubrahmanyam , Sadhana Sargam
- Injiringo Injiringo | Kamal Hassan , Chitra
- Porkalam Ingae | Srinivas , Gopika Poornima
- Aalangatti Mazhai | Kamal Hassan, Srinivas, Sujatha
- Thenali | Shankar Mahadevan
| Thenali | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | K.S. Ravikumar |
| Produced by | Sivaraj, Venkatraj |
| Written by | Crazy Mohan |
| Starring | Kamal Haasan Jayaram Devayani Jyothika Saravanan Meena Ramesh Khanna Ravikumar Abdul Hameed Charle Delhi Ganesh |
| Music by | A.R. Rahman |
| Release date(s) | November 7, 2000 |
| Language | Tamil |
