Friends

“Friends” is one of the best friendship-oriented drama films in Tamil cinema by Siddique Ismail. It features Vijay in a triple role as friends of one another, Suriya and Ramesh Khanna, alongside Devayani and Vijayalakshmi. The film follows three inseparable childhood friends whose relationship begins to break down when different kinds of people plot to create conflict between the three of them by spreading false rumours and creating mistrust.

Aravindan, Chandru and Krishnamoorthy are lifelong best friends who put their friendship above all else, even marriage or starting a family. Chandru, an orphan who lives with Aravindan’s family, spurns the advances of Aravindan’s sister, Amudha. Having fulfilled their short jail time sentence, the three friends get jobs as house painters in a wealthy mansion where Aravindan meets Padmini, who will have none of that and only wants to be friends. Padmini’s cousin Abhirami, driven by jealousy, manipulates Aravindan into believing that Padmini is in love with him. When Padmini agrees to marry someone else, Chandru comes to Aravindan’s aid by confronting his fiancée, resulting in the engagement being broken. Padmini decides to marry Aravindan to seek revenge on Chandru but later discovers that Abhirami caused the chaos, mending relations and arranging Chandru's wedding to Amutha.

Gautham, wanting to marry Amudha, tries to drive wedges between Chandru and Aravindan. After a string of sabotages, even a lethal bullock race, Chandru takes umbrage at unexplained discomforts and misunderstandings and exits. The reality of Gautham’s plots comes to light after Aravindan’s fatal fall, though dead. Years later, Chandru, now a Major in the Indian Army, hears that Aravindan is still alive but in a coma-like state. He goes home, and finds out Aravindan named his son after him, Aravindan, only for the friends to be reunited on a trip by Gautham’s confrontation with Aravindan.

“Friends” is a sincere Tamil friendship drama that takes us through scenes of friendship loyalty, misunderstanding and eventual reconciliation. A remake of a hit Malayalam film, Friends is still today a heartwarming story about lifelong friendship and how the truth can mend broken bonds.