Thenali

Infobox_Film | name = Thenali


imdb_id = 0262037
writer = Crazy Mohan
starring = Kamal Haasan
Jyothika Saravanan
Devayani
Meena
Jayaram
Ramesh Khanna
Ravikumar
Abdul Hameed
Charlie
Delhi Ganesh
director = K.S. Ravikumar
producer = Sivaraj,
Venkatraj
distributor =
released = July 30, 2001
runtime =
cinematography =
language = Tamil
music = A.R. Rahman
awards =
budget =

"Thenali" is a Tamil film which released on November 7, 2000 and was directed by K.S. Ravikumar. This film is a remake 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 winner. It won the Filmfare Best Tamil Movie Award in the year of its release. The film also included a couple of stars in guest roles which were Meena and the famous previous Sri Lankan radio broadcaster and master of ceremony for many Tamil functions across the world, B.H. Abdul Hameed.

Plot Summary

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.

Trivia

* Mohanlal was originally planned to don the role, eventually done by Jayaram.Fact|date=February 2008
* Similarly Simran was originally planned to take up the role, eventually done by Jyothika, 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 it up, another Laugh-riot "Pammal K. Sambandam" and Panchathanthiram.Both were hits.

Cast