This movie, along with Kilukkam, was one of the biggest hits of the Mohanlal-Priyadarshan duo. The movie ran for nearly a year in many theatres, a record in Kerala at the time of its release. So what made it click? Like so many other Mallu movies of the time, it was backed by a strong story and a great screen play. Add the evocative brilliance of Mohanlal and the stable talents of Nedumudi Venu, Srinivasan and Sukumari, and the recipe for a super-duper-mega-blockbuster hit (did I miss any of the usual adjectives used by the filmi guys? Nah, I dont think so) was complete.
The Duplicate Husband
In a nutshell, that subtitle sums up the story-line for you. The heroine, Kalyani (played by Renjini) is betrothed to a scum-ball, who displays his true colors just before the wedding. She ditches him, and hires Vishnu (Mohanlal) to act the part of her husband in front of her father, who is under the impression that she is already married, and is a heart patient to boot (might suffer a heart attack if he hears that his daughter is not married after all).
The two of them get along just like a cobra and a mongoose would, and a good deal of the movie’s comic situations arise from their fights and attempts to ace one another. Kalyani, however, gradually falls under the spell of Vishnu. What happens thereafter is the stuff this particular legend is made of. (Go buy the video, boss!)
This movie has quite a lot of situational comedy that can be understood by even those who dont follow the language well. Watch it once, and you will definitely want to watch it again,
Postscript
One of the most memorable antics of Mohanlal in this film is that of mimicking the clicking of a camera with his fingers.