Tik Tik Tik

Tick! Tick! Tick!
Directed by	P. Bharathiraja
Written by	P. Bharathiraja
Starring	Kamal Haasan Madhavi Swapna Radha
Music by	Ilayaraaja
Release date(s)	1981
Country	India
Language	Tamil

Tick! Tick! Tick! is a 1981 Tamil Crime thriller starring Kamal Haasan in the lead role of the protagonist, directed by P. Bharathiraja. It was Bharathiraaja's second tryst with crime thriller after Sigappu Rojakkal, which also starred Kamal Haasan in the lead role.

Plot

Sarika is a model who returns to Chennai after a modeling stint abroad. She is received by the modeling agency and is soon drugged and operated upon. Her dead body is soon found.

Dileep (Kamal Haasan) is a photographer working for a newspaper run by Thengai Srinivasan. He is a photographer in a beauty pageant run by a rich industrialist, Oberoi, which was won by Madhavi, Radha and Swapna. He becomes professionally involved with Radha and Swapna while romantically involved with Madhavi. Soon Swapna’s deadbody turns up and he becomes the main suspect in the murder investigation and is on the run from police. As his face is plastered in wanted ads all over the city and police watching Madhavi’s house, he goes to meet Radha.

Radha, who always considered Kamal as her brother as he was always nice to her, helps him and lets him stay in her apartment. The next morning, when Kamal wakes up and turn on the tap, the water is bloody red and he hears screaming coming from the apartment water tank. He goes to investigate when a group of people are gathered around the tank and is shocked to find Radha’s bloody body inside the tank. Soon people recognize him from the wanted ad and mistakenly think that he murdered Radha. He is once again on the run from police for the murders.

He starts to investigate the murders and deduce that the only thing the two girls had in common, apart from him, was the modeling agency. When he secretively meets up with Madhavi, he finds a small incision on her body. Remembering that the other two girls had the same incision, he questions her. Although she doesn’t remember how she got it, she remembers that she didn’t have one before she left on a photo shoot abroad for the agency. She also finds it strange that she was unconscious for a few hours during the shoot but cannot remember what happened.

They eventually find out that Oberoi, has a nefarious business thro’ his modeling agency. He drugs the models during the photo shoot abroad, operates them and smuggles diamonds into India using their bodies. When the models return to India, they again drug the model and take it out and kill the girl.

Kamal gets captured by Oberoi’s goons but with the help of his editor and his girlfriend, he has already got the truth out. Before Oberoi can kill Kamal, they hear the police siren coming towards him. Oberoi, an obsessive diamond collector, rather than get caught and go to prison, eats his own diamonds and commits suicide.

Cast

• Kamal Haasan as Dileep
• Madhavi
• Swapna
• Radha
• Thengai Srinivasan
• V. K. Ramasamy
• Nisha Noor
• Shyam Sundar as Oberoi
• Thyagarajan (Guest role)
• Sarika ... Miss India (Guest role)

Reaction

Commenting on the did well at the box office performance. Bharathiraja commented "It makes more sense to make a film in a language not understood by your people rather than making one in your own language understood by your people!". When asked to comment on this, arasu (of 'arasu badhilgaL' fame in Kumudam): "A non- speaking Bharathiraja is (often) better than a speaking Bharathiraja!!. Considered a highly underrated thriller Tik Tik Tik is still remembered for Madhavi's bikini act.

Remake

The film was remade in Hindi as Karishma in 1984, with Kamal Haasan repeating the same role and Reena Roy replacing Madhavi.

Trivia

• Bollywood actress Sarika played a small role in the film, who later married Kamal Haasan.
• The film also marked the playback singing debut of Latha Rajinikanth.
• Chithra Lakshmanan, Manobala and Manivannan worked as assistants to Barathirajaa in this film, before becaming directors on their own.
• The film has elements of Michelangelo Antonioni's 1966 film Blow Up.

External Links

• Tik Tik Tik film at IMDb.