Muthu

Plot synopsis:
Muthu (Rajinikanth) is a kind-hearted man working in the zamin of Sivakami Ammal (Jayabharathi) taking care of the chariot and the horses used by her son Raja Malayasimman (Sarath Babu). Muthu is very loyal to the zamin family and in the meantime Muthu and Raja encounter Ranganayaki (Meena), a stage artist during their visit to a show and Raja immediately falls in love with Ranganayaki. Ambalathar (Radha Ravi) is the maternal uncle of Raja and he has plans of getting his daughter Padmini (Subhashri) married to Raja.
Ranganayaki’s drama troupe faces financial issues and Raja offers jobs to the entire troupe in his zamin. Now Muthu and Ranganayaki fall in love with each other and Sivakami gets to know about this. Kaali (Ponnambalam) is a spy for Ambalathar working in the zamin and keeps informing him about the happenings in the zamin. Kaali lies to Raja that Muthu is forcing Ranganayaki to marry him. This angers Raja and he has Kaali beat up Muthu, then orders him to leave the zamin. Sivakami gets angry on hearing about her son’s behaviour and informs him the truth that both Muthu and Ranganayaki are in love which shocks Raja.
The story moves to flashback where it is shown that Muthu’s father (Rajinikanth) is the zamindar and real owner of all the properties. Rajasekhar (Raghuvaran) is the cousin of zamindar. Sivakami is married to Rajasekhar and their son Raja is adopted by the zamindar as he did not have children. Later the zamindar’s wife gives birth to a child and dies. Rajasekhar and Amabalathar plan to grab the zamindar’s properties by forging false documents. The zamindar on knowing these worries about the nature of people around him and decides to give all the properties to Rajasekhar and his family and also to leave the place along with his son Muthu. But Sivakami pleads for guilty of her husband and asks to at least give his son so that she will raise him. The zamindar hands over Muthu to Sivakami but says that he should be brought up as an ordinary man and not as a zamindar for which Sivakami agrees. Rajasekhar feels bad about his cruel activities and upon seeing the generous behaviour of the zamindar, commits suicide. The zamindar leaves the place and Sivakami moves to another town. She informs everyone that the zamindar’s child is dead as she has been asked to raise the child as a normal man by the zamindar.
Sivakami says that the zamindar currently lives in a nearby place as a nomad and Raja, realising his mistake decides to go and meet zamindar and bring him back. Kaali overhears the conversation made between Sivakami and Raja and informs to Ambalathar. Now Ambalathar decides to murder Raja and frame Muthu so that he can take over all the zamin properties. But he is saved by zamindar and is married to Padmini. Finally Muthu comes to know all the truth and wishes to see his father but he leaves the place before Muthu could reach there. Muthu becomes the new zamindar, but prefers to see himself as a worker.

Tags: cult, romantic, flashback

Review:
Big and pleasant surprise.. Truly fabulous! It is so nice to see that old Hollywood musicals of 40's and 50's are still alive and well in southern India. The music is really something to be remembered, too.. Best movie ever. Muthu paves the way in regards to romantic-comedy-action-drama-martial-arts musicals. The "chariot jump" sequence almost made me wet myself in laughter. Unbelievably hysterical. Is there an English version of this somewhere?. My first Indian movie. I was 15 when I watched "Muthu." I started to be interested in other cultures at that time and I chose this movie randomly to watch something special. I totally fascinated by the dance scenes which start suddenly, colourful exotic dresses, and rhythmical songs replayed in my head again and again. It is the best movie to enter Bollywood world.. MUTHU with a HARRY POTTER TWIST. MUTHU is a well thought and written piece with subcontinent dialogue and language other than the language we use. We use for our understanding of cinema both our mother tongue and the intelligence gained by watching films from the western hemisphere.