Raakilipattu

Plot

Josephine (Jyothika), her best friend Radhika (Sharbani Mukherjee) and their friends are pranksters in a ladies' college. Like other college girls, they sing songs, break rules and wreak havoc. They also have a grudge against Gita, another girl from the college.

Lakshmi, who plays Radhika's aunt, wants her niece to get married. To escape, Josephine and Radhika fake a boyfriend whose name is Ramesh. However, this fantasy takes on a whole new meaning when a person named Ramesh calls and sends Radhika letters claiming to be her boyfriend. To end this nuisance, Josephine and Radhika invite Ramesh to the hostel during the college dance program. Josephine instructs Radhika to bring a gun for their safety.

Mysteriously, without them shooting him, Ramesh (Major Ravi) dies. At the same, Radhika loses her chain. Suspicion eventually falls on the two friends. Gayathri (Tabu) is a man-hating police officer, and is put on the case. To make matters worse, Gita suddenly disappears. Josephine and Radhika find themselves as fugitives, running away from the law in a bid to prove their innocence. Meanwhile, the real killer is still on the loose.

In the end, it is revealed that the real killer was Gayathri (Tabu), avenging the death of her sister (Jomol). The film ends with Gayathri in a mental hospital and Josephine and Radhika come to see her.

Cast

Production

The original story idea for the film was taken from Marathi writer Chandrakant Kulkarni, who had made the successful Marathi film, Bindhaast, based on the story the previous year. Priyadarshan heard about the film and asked producer Mukesh Mehta to see it and decide whether he would like to produce the movie and thus Mehta went to Bombay, saw the film and liked it. However the producer reiterated that they have taken only the main thread from the Marathi story with the rest of the film, its sub-plots and the treatment are completely different from the original. Initially, it was planned as a Malayalam film with a cast familiar to the Kerala audience. But as Priyadarshan's excitement over the project grew, the canvas got wider and the producer decided to look for a bigger audience. Thus Jyothika, Sharbani Mukherjee and Ishita Arun, daughter of Ila Arun, stepped in to give it a more national flavour. Seasoned actresses like Lakshmi, Lalitha, Sukumari, Mita Vasisht, Tabu and Dipti Bhatnagar also joined the all-female team. Cinematographer Jeeva and art director Sabu Cyril also joined the team and they shot 90 per cent of the film in a college in Mysore and the rest in Madras, also featuring live coverage of the Dussera festival of Mysore. The film was subsequently made simultaneously in Malayalam and Tamil with a title of Snegithiye, while a Hindi version was also planned in 2000.

Jyothika prioritised her work in the project and thus delayed her schedules for Uyirile Kalanthathu in order to ensure the film was released as early as possible. The songs of the film were released at Devi Theatre with Kamal Haasan appearing as the chief guest.