Arangetra Velai is a 1990 Tamil-language screwball comedy film, starring Prabhu and Revathi in the lead roles. The film was directed by Fazil and produced by Aroma Mani. It is a remake of the 1989 Malayalam filmRamji Rao Speaking. The film was dubbed and released in Telugu as Hello Pakiram.
Plot
The story revolves around three unemployed people. The story opens with the arrival of Sivaraman 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 Sivaraman to allow her to continue working despite his efforts to overthrow her. The company manager Venniradai Moorthy, who knows her family situation 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 Theatre, owned by Nambi Annan, with another tenant Masha, both of whom are unemployed and have insignificantearnings. Initially, Masha 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. Masha 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 Masha 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 Masha's fraud to Nambi. Masha 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 Pakki Ram and Charan Singh have kidnapped the daughter of a rich businessman Sakthinathan and are demanding a ransom of Rs. 100,000. The panicked trio realise they have no idea who Sakthinathan is. Sivaraman tries to locate Sakthinathan's number from the telephone directory, only to realise that the phone numbers of the theatre and Sakthinathan have been mistakenly transposed. Sivaraman does some quick thinking and comes up with a plan. She suggests that they act as the broker between Pakki Ram and Sakthinathan, demand a ransom of Rs. 300,000 from Sakthinathan, return his daughter to him, and earn a profit of Rs. 200,000. 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 Pakki Ram and Sakthinathan away from each other. Finally, after a struggle, the three rescue the girl from the gang leader and hand her over to Sakthinathan. They however are forced to confess the whole game when they encounter the police. Sakthinathan tries to shoot Sivaraman, but he escapes and promises Rani that he is ready with money for her brother's eye operation and tells her to reach Sakthi Nadaga Saba by morning. Nambi and Sivaraman reach Saba earlier and find out Masha is missing, so they both call police and tell they three are involved and with much sadness, he says he loves Masha, after few minutes, Masha arrives there and rejoices for money. Nambi asks why she is late, Masha says she settled the amount, but later Masha comes to know they said to police feels what happened with fear through heart surrounds her and Masha tells she love Sivaraman, police arrive at Saba, however, Sakthinathan forgives them for having safely rescued his daughter, and instead gives them the money as a prize.
The soundtrack was composed by Ilayaraaja, while the lyrics were written by Vaali and Piraisoodan. The song "Agaya Vennilave" is set to carnatic raga named Durbarikaanada, but leans slightly towards the Saramati-Natabhairavi scales and mixes Kanada in the charanams.
