Anu is a college student; her fellow student Sashi desperately tries to win her affection. Sashi and Anu play various pranks on each other. Anu eventually admits her affection for Sashi and they begin a courtship.. All seems to proceed well, except that Anu is strangely melancholic from time to time; she repeats to Sashi that she senses an imminent danger to their relationship, although she is unable to pinpoint what the threat or describe why it may materialize so soon. Some things are revealed when Anju begins to get sharp headaches from time to time. Her father, A. R. Rangaraj, a quiet widower, tries to help her, but is not able to get to the bottom of the matter. ARR is a gentle old man who has devoted the greater part of his life to his daughter. Things come to a head when, on her 18th birthday, Anu visits her doctor who confirms she has bilateral renal artery stenosis and is almost certain to succumb within a year. She may require an operation within that time, but the likelihood of her coming through it alive is minimal. Anu requests the doctor to keep it between them. However, unbeknownst to Anu, her father discovers it by accident when the local pharmacist sends some prescription drugs through him. When Anu discusses the matter with Sashi, he expresses his support in spite of his grave sadness. Anu reveals a thread from her past that may explain her melancholic mood. The film flashes back to several years before, when ARR had a happy family. Anu, then five or six, attended school; ARR handled his job and his loving wife managed the home. Tragedy struck when they lost his wife to an illness. Anu took this particularly hard. Yet, ARR tried to help cope with it somehow and move on. Some time thereafter, ARR met Sharada at a wedding. Sometime thereafter, ARR sought a tutor for young Anu, and Sharada happened to take the position. The friendship evolved into a courtship, to the point where ARR was about to propose marriage. As time went on, Sharada realized her own bindings. Both her parents were deaf-mute, and she was the only way they could communicate with the rest of the world, this left her torn between her filial duty and her personal aspirations. Things were worsened when Anu experienced feelings of motherly yearning and was simply unable to accept Sharada in the role of a mother. Sharada is bewildered and ultimately frustrated by all this. And in spite of ARR's assurances that they can work it out, she refused his proposal and moved to Bangalore to take a position as a schoolteacher. Since that time, Anu has been plagued by guilt for her part in the breakup. The doctors pronounce a date and time for the unavoidable operation. Anu takes this with stoic grief, and asks Sashi for one last thing: to find Sharada and attempt to reunite her with ARR. They find an old picture of Sharada, and Sashi recognises her as the woman he had met in Bangalore a few weeks ago. He sets off on a frantic hunt for Sharada. On the day of the operation, Sharada happens to be in Chennai en route to a training event in the US. After a tricky set of near-misses, Sashi is able to locate her in the nick of time, and bring her to Anu and ARR moments before Anu gets anaesthetized. The film ends with Anu going for one last ride with Sashi on his motorbike and right before they leave, Anu mentions that she has gained faith in surviving the surgery, and according to previous circumstances, what she feels is the outcome and so the results are let to the audience.
Vasanth, an erstwhile assistant of K. Balachander, made his directorial debut with this film. He revealed that the first shot he directed was the scene where Radhika's character cries over her parents' death.
The music was composed by Ilaiyaraaja in his only collaboration with director Vasanth. The song "Nee Pathi Naan Pathi" is based on the ragaChakravakam. The entire soundtrack was completed in 45 minutes. "Mannil Indha Kaadhal" has Balasubrahmanyam appearing to sing two stanzas without taking a single breath in between the lines. The song is set in the carnatic raga known as Keeravani. The song "Karpoora Bommai" is inspired from"Poovagi kaayagi" form the film Annai composed by R. Sudarsanam.
Release and reception
Keladi Kanmani was released on 27 July 1990. N. Krishnaswamy of The Indian Express wrote, "Class photography by Raghunatha Reddy, brilliant decors created by debutant art director Maghi along with choice of new-look locales, rich music music by and excellent staging of action by director Vasanth — even in his first film, this protege of K. Balachander shows a great deal of competence — put Vivek Chitra's Keladi Kanmani in the top bracket." Ananda Vikatan, in a review dated 5 August 1990, rated Keladi Kanmani 55 out of 100. The film was a commercial success, running for over 285 days in theatres, thereby becoming a silver jubilee film.
