Sundhara Travels

Plot

Gopikrishna (Murali) owns an old bus, received as a compensation for his father's road accident, and he is facing lots of consequences due to the pathetic condition of the bus. He sold many valuable things to maintain this bus. His friend Azhagu (Vadivelu) was his only companion and the cleaner of the bus. A mouse had eaten the passport of Azhagu and had spoiled his chances of going abroad. Some part of the film's comedy involves Azhagu running behind this mouse for his revenge. A live TV show, in which Gopikrishna insults the City Traffic Commissioner (Vinuchakravarthy) lands him in more trouble, when the former commands Gopikrishna to leave the city with the bus. His other friends, advocate and well wisher tries to help him with a bank loan to run a mobile kitchen (Tattukada) from his bus.

The plot took a turn when a girl named Vasanthi (Radha) entered the bus as a nomad, but she was actually Gayathri, the daughter of an influential and politically powerful minister (P. Vasu) in Puducherry. Her father forced her to join politics, which made her leave home. Initially, the girl declines to leave the bus, despite the constant efforts of Unni and Sundaresan. The police trace her and take her back to her father's custody. Her father was making arrangements for her marriage with someone else. Meanwhile, Gopikrishna realised that he could not live without Gayathri. Gopi and Azhagu secretly entered her house and finally all ended well by winning the heart of her father.

Cast

Production

Malayalam hit "Ee Parakkum Thalika" starring Dilip and Nitya Das and directed by Thaha comes to Tamil as "Sundara Travels". While Thaha directs the Tamil version too, the lead roles are played by Murali and Radha from Andhra. The supporting cast has Vadivelu, Vinu Chakravarthy, Manivannan, Sabita Anand, Ilavarasu, Pandu, Delhi Ganesh, Madan Bob, with director P. Vasu too enacting a crucial role.

Bharani sets to tune the lyrics penned by Pa. Vijay, Snehan and Newton. While cinematography is by Selva, editing is by Mohan, sets are by Mohan Mahendran, and dance choreography by Cool Jayant. Shooting commenced at Kodaikanal, and held at locations in Kerala and Thenkasi.

Critical reception

The film received mixed reviews. Balaji wrote: "Sundara Travels is more a series of contrived incidents than a movie and fails rather badly in its attempt to raise laughs". The Hindu wrote: "The director starts off very well but loses steam midway and presents something predictable".

Soundtrack

Soundtrack is composed by Bharani.