Friends (1999 film)


Friends is a 1999 Indian Malayalam-language comedy-drama film written and directed by Siddique, produced by Lal and starring Jayaram, Mukesh, Sreenivasan and Meena. It was the highest-grossing Malayalam film of the year, grossing around 11 crore at the box office. It was later remade into Tamil with the same name and into Telugu as Snehamante Idera and Odia as Dosti.

Plot

The three people who lend reason to the title are Aravindan, Chandu and Joey. They value friendship over everything else, even family, and for this reason, Chandu resists the advances of Aravindan's sister Uma. When the trio take up a painter's job at a mansion, Aravindan falls in love with Padmini, who lives there and Padmini's jealous cousin makes him believe that his overtures are reciprocated. When the truth is revealed and Padmini rejects him outright, Chandu stands up for his friend and speaks ill of her. This makes her swear to separate the friends.
After the marriage, Aravindan realises the hand of Abhinaya behind all the mishaps and Padmini too realises Chandu is innocent. Then the marriage of Chandu and Uma is arranged. This is not liked by Uma's aunt Ammayi who leads to a break in friendship between the protagonists. Subsequently, friendship between Aravindan and Chandu breaks, and in an accident from the hand of Chandru Aravindan is paralysed. Years later, Chandu is brought to Aravindan by Joey, and amidst all the accusations that Chandu hears, an emotionally overwhelmed Aravindan shows the first sign of movement, a tear falling from his eye, since his accident.

Cast

The film's soundtrack contains six songs, all composed by Ilaiyaraaja and Lyrics by Kaithapram Damodaran Namboothiri.

Box office

The film was highest grossing Malayalam movie of 1999 and collected 11 crore.