- Two men, one young and arrogant, the other damaged - physically but not spiritually - by life, are thrown together by circumstances, and find that they are in some ways bound together by fate.
- Evocative and provocative, this masterfully crafted relationship drama tells the story of a series of comic events that occur when Nalla Sivam (Kamal Haasan) a wise-cracking, handicapped communist and Anbarasu (R. Madhavan), an arrogant young advertisement filmmaker who favors capitalism meet. They get stuck with each other on their problem-filled trip from Bhubaneswar to Chennai, giving them a unique opportunity to explore each other's belief system. Themes such as globalization, financial disparity and compassion in present-day India are explored around the two protagonists, while they also find how deeply interconnected their lives are.—Santhosh
- Nallasivam (Kamal Haasan) and Anbarasu (Madhavan) are drawn together by the strings of fate after they come into contact at the Bhuvaneshwar airport. Anbarasu is an advertisement director, while Nallasivam is a trade unionist. Fate entwines their travel plans, and they end up travelling to Chennai together. In the course of their journey, Anbarasu, born with a golden spoon, is touched by the realities of the sufferings of a normal human being when he witnesses the dead and the injured during a train accident, and he volunteers to donate his blood, which is of a very rare group, despite his fear of blood. The flashback of Nallasivam is recounted during one of their journeys. Nallasivam is a communist trade unionist, who fights for higher wages for his comrades. By chance, he falls in love with the daughter Bala (Kiran) of a rich industrialist, Bala's father, Padaiyacchi (Nasser). Due to the opposition, they plan to elope and get married, but unfortunately, Nallasivam meets with an accident which disfigures him. He is told by Padaiyacchi that Bala is married, so he pursues his communist agenda, during the course of which he meets Anbarasu. Anbarasu is drawn to Nallasivam in the end, and claims him as his adopted brother, and requests Nallasivam to come to his wedding. At the wedding hall, Nalla discovers the bride to be is none other than his sweetheart, Bala. When Padaiyacchi discovers him at the hall, he is in a panic, and pleads for him to leave. Santhana Bharathy as Padaiyacchi's henchman plays out a sentimental scene in the end. The movie is more of a parallel cinema, with Kamal and Madhavan acting their roles to stellar efficiency. Kiran appears in a very small role, to the disappointment of many.—Niranjan Venkatraman <v.niranjan@ieee.org>
- The film begins with ad film-maker Anbarasu (R. Madhavan)- who prefers that his name is mentioned in the abbreviation of A. Aras rather than his full name, arriving at the Bhubaneswar airport in Orissa, India. He is about to board a flight back to Chennai for his own wedding. However, he learns at the airport that his flight is cancelled due to the bad weather in the state where heavy floods and torrential rain due to the wet season have affected air traffic. While waiting for further announcements, Aras watches a television news of a terrorist threat at an airport in Mumbai, making him suspicious when he sees a limping man carrying an old sack on his hands. He informs the authorities, who find out that the man only has a cucumber in that bag and nothing else.
The man, a physically disabled man named Nallasivam a.k.a Nalla (Kamal Hassan) introduces himself to Aras and both of them get to know each other. However, Aras underestimates Nallasivam, ignoring his advice and friendly acquaintance, resulting in some comical events in the airport itself. Announcements are finally made that the flights would not board on that day and Aras will have to reserve place in nearby hotels to put up the night. Aras realizes that the five star hotel that he was staying in before is now fully booked, leaving him optionless. Nallasivam however helps him find a place in a two star hotel nearby, in which both Nalla and Aras have to share the same room. Aras' resentment of Nalla makes him act selfishly in trying to get rid of Nalla but at every juncture, Nalla does him a favor which leaves Aras with a heavy heart. The next morning, Aras takes a taxi without waking Nalla in order to find his own way to Chennai. However, Aras realizes that the floods have blocked most of the roads and even the train station is covered by high levels of water. He gets mugged by a thief in the station who offers to help Ars with his luggages, and loses all his money. Nalla however comes to the station and helps Aras retain the wallet, sans the money. It is then revealed that Nalla is a trade unionist and is travelling with a cheque worth Rs. 30 lakh to be delivered to some people after fighting a court cases for some union workers. The comical and misunderstanding events continue as the pair make it to a different train station. There, Nalla decides to tell the story of his own past, but a tired Aras falls asleep and walks away as he is about to begin.
The film then flashes to few years back when a perfectly good looking Nalla performs in street theatres protesting against the industrialisation process which is marginalizing labor force. He often gets into trouble due to this. Nalla is also a painter, and a very talented one at that. He is fighting mainly against the town's biggest business tycoon, the manipulative Kandasamy Padayachi (Nassar), whom he satirically imitates during many of his shows. However, an interesting turn of events sees Nalla and Kandasamy's own daughter Bala (Kiran Rathod) fall in love with each other. Realizing Kandasamy's power would be too much to bear if they want to get together, Nalla and Bala decide to elope, but while Nalla is on a bus on his way to meet Bala, the bus meets with a horrible accident at a hillside which leaves Nalla badly injured, which subsequently leads him to be paralyzed. Bala is told by her father that Nalla is dead, while Nalla suffers from inferiority complex on his new, paralyzed look and starts wondering about doing social work and still fighting for union causes. Nalla is also shown as a communist believer.
The film returns to present times, as Aras and Nalla board the train for which they have been waiting, but as the train arrives, they get into an argument about communism, Karl Marx, and so on. Nalla accuses Aras as an agent for Western and rich manipulation, while Aras defends himself and criticises communism as a whole, referring that the Soviet Union doesn't exist anymore. Nalla argues that the idea of communism wouldn't die. The argument turns heated and sensitive, causing a short-tempered Aras to punch Nalla. After initially looking calm, Nalla punches Aras back even harder, causing Aras to bleed. As a result, Aras deceives Nalla into buying water for him and locks the train door, leaving Nalla stranded. On the train, Aras meets a good-looking corporate individual who shares the same interests as Aras (Yugi Sethu), who asks Aras to throw away a pack of biscuits Nalla gave to Aras and instead take his own whisky offering. As Aras wakes up the next day, he realizes that he has been conned again and the corporate man is a thief, and has stolen all of Aras' belongings. The train comes to a halt because a train which travelled on the track before had an accident and it has to be cleared up first. There, Aras witnesses a slew of dead bodies and suffering people, causing him to suffer emotionally. To his surprise, he meets Nalla again at the treatment camp nearby. He apologizes to Nalla, who forgives him. Nalla proposes that he donate blood to a dying boy in need of AB- blood, while Aras mentions that he is bloodsick. Nalla manages to convince him finally, and Aras donates. Aras also retrieves his belongings as he finds that the thief is also around the camp. Nalla proposes that Aras travels with him in an ambulance which will be carrying the injured boy on its way to Chennai.
While on the journey, the boy passes away, finally causing Aras to cry as he calls God 'unjust' for giving the boy hope in the form of Aras' blood, and then take away his live. Nalla, who doesn't believe in God externally, tells Aras, that Aras himself is God, that his tears after the boy dies is the nature of God itself. Aras also comes to terms with using his full name Anbarasu (derived from the full Tamil name Anbarasan - literally 'King Of Love'), a name he previously despised under the reason that he doesn't like 'anbu' (love). Both of them go their separate ways in Chennai, but Aras realizes that Nalla's union cheque is with him and returns to the address Nalla had given him.
He realizes that Nalla had lied to him previously when he told that he has a wife and son named 'Sangu'. The address is a place where injured labourers from Orissa camp while waiting for their legal funds (the money fought for them by Nalla). 'Sangu' is the name of Nalla's dog. After giving the cheque, he goes to the nearby shop to meet Nalla, and scolds him for not telling the truth. He asks Nalla to come with him for his marriage, but Nalla says he will 'come later'. In an emotional moment, Aras recounts the story of how his brother died from a freak accident when he was young (a story he already told to Nalla before). He says that Nalla is his new-found brother and should stay with him as long as life permits. A clearly emotional Nalla immediately accepts the invitation.
However, at the marriage, Nalla realizes that the girl Aras is about to marry is Bala. He takes this opportunity to appear in front of Kandasamy and threaten that he will stay on and make Bala realize what a cheat her father is unless Kandasamy signs all related documents for pay increment and bonuses for his company's labourers. Sacrificing himself for the workers, Nalla leaves after Kandasamy signs, leaving behind a letter for his 'brother' that he has missions to complete in this world, and that he'd rather travel as a free bird than to be caged and tied at one particular place. He thanks Aras for the love shown. Kandasamy meanwhile orders his assistant (Santhana Bharathi) to kill Nalla. As Nalla walks away, the assistant approaches and Nalla, telling that he cant fight like he used to do, is ready to accept death. However, the assistant drops his weapon, weeps, and apologizes to Nalla. He tells Nalla that because he did all the dirty work for his boss, the God has punished him by taking away his beloved daughter from him. He tells Nalla that he has done enough sins, and doesn't want to bear any more sins on behalf of his boss. He asks Nalla to leave and that God will protect Nalla. Nalla refutes, saying that the assistant himself is God. He says that there is no greater God than to be able to apologize and change an original intent of killing.
The film ends with Nalla walking away with his dog, Sangu.
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