Arangetra Velai

Plot

The story revolves around three unemployed people (the third is a middle-aged unsuccessful theatre owner). The story opens with the arrival of Sivaraman (Prabhu) in Chennai to dispute the denial of his company job which he was supposed to receive several years ago. Several candidates have passed him by with the last one being Rani who pretends to be an influential figure in the town. She threatens Balakrishnan to allow her to continue working despite his efforts to overthrow her. The company manager Venniradai Moorthy who knows her family situation (poor and pathetic) helps her to keep the job. Sivaraman is determined to stay back in the town until he succeeds in getting his job back from Rani.

During his stay, Sivaraman finds a temporary lodging in 'Urvasai Theater,' owned by Nambi annan (V. K. Ramasamy), with another tenant Asha (Revathi), both of whom are unemployed and have insignificant earning. Initially, Asha does not like the new tenant and tries to expel him from the house, but all her efforts are in vain, despite her trickery and cunning. Asha has been lying to her mother that she works in a large company based in Calcutta and that she is building them a new house in Cochin. Sivaraman finds out about this and labels Asha a fraud. But when he learns about her family situation, he sympathises and decides to sacrifice his claim on the job. That night Sivaraman gets drunk and reveals the Asha's fraud to Nambi. Asha confesses, but justifies that projecting herself as rich and employed was the only way to comfort her mother. The truth softens the hearts of both Sivaraman and Nambi and the trio decide to become friends and have fun in spite of their unending problems.

This is the turning point of the movie. Sivaraman wakes up at night when he hears the phone ring. A gang leader called Fakiram (Vijayaraghavan) has kidnapped the daughter of a rich businessman Jaiganesh and is demanding a ransom of Rs. 1 lakh. The panicked trio realise they have no idea who Jaiganesh is. Sivaraman tries to locate Jaiganesh's number from the telephone directory, only to realise that the phone numbers of the theatre and Jaiganesh have been mistakenly transposed. Asha does some quick thinking and comes up with a plan. She suggests that they act as the broker between Fakiram and Jaiganesh, demand a ransom of Rs. 3 lakhs from Jaiganesh, return his daughter to him, and earn a profit of Rs. 2 lakhs. Fed up with their poverty, the other two agree and the plan is set into motion, but the job isn't easy to carry out while hiding from the police and keeping Fakiram and Jaiganesh away from each other. Finally, after a struggle, the three rescue the girl from the gang leader and hand her over to Jaiganesh. They however are forced to confess the whole game when they encounter the police. Jaiganesh however forgives them for having safely rescued his daughter, and instead gives them the money as a prize.

Cast

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was composed by Ilayaraaja while lyrics were written by Vaali and Piraisoodan