Panchatanthiram

“Panchatanthiram” (2002), is a black comedy film with a social message directed by K. S. Ravikumar. The film featured an ensemble cast including Kamal Haasan, Jayaram, Ramesh Aravind, Simran and Ramya Krishnan. The film centres around Ram, whose friends hire Maggie, a high-class call girl, to comfort him after his wife makes a false accusation against him for cheating. This slippery slope takes a dark turn when Maggie is found murdered, pulling them all into a dark and sinister web of darkness, danger, and suspicion.

Ram aka Ramachandramurthy is an Indian-born pilot, now living in Canada, once notoriously known as a lady-killer. When that hijacking occurs, he finds an ally in passenger Mythili, and together they outsmart the terrorists and save everyone on the flight from disaster. Romeo-esque Ram, the dashing son of a powerful family, pursues her until they fall in love and marry, after which Ram tries to leave his playboy past behind. However, when Ram intervenes to save Hegde’s ex-girlfriend, Nirmala, Mythili misunderstands the situation and leaves him to stay with her parents.

To escape his controlling mother and to distract Ram, his friends whisk him off to the party capital Bengaluru and procure a call girl, Maggie, on his birthday. When things go awry and Maggie turns up dead, his friends choose to conceal what has happened by hiding the body rather than involving the authorities. Ram discovers diamonds smuggled in Maggie’s cell phone and promises to avenge her murder. With concern growing about what they might do, Ram’s friends throw a bachelor party for him and Mythili. During the party, Maggie shows up again, asserting that the diamonds belong to her and that she staged her death. When the smuggler who inventory the diamonds claps again Mythili confuses the rescue for an abduction and tries to kill herself. Ultimately, thanks to Ram’s intervention, she is rescued, and they are reunited and made up.

As fun as it was incisive, “Panchatanthiram” unfolds as a snarky and very funny dark-comedy thriller that mixes deceit and a whole lot of it with laughs and high-spirited, irresponsible transgressions. Featuring great performances and a smartly humorous script, it walks the line between comedy and crime thriller, delivering an overall fun and feel-good experience.