The film opens with a young child climbing into a bullock cart and insisting that he also go with the cart to pick up the 'Shavundi' - a person who performs funeral rites and lives amongst the cremation grounds. Though essential to the funeral ceremonies, he is often considered frightening or unlucky. He certainly looks that way too - covered in ash and grime, sleeping in a bat-infested grove and given ominous background music. The 'Shavundi' and child begin talking in the cart ride to the funeral, and then a flashback takes us to meet Lakshmi. Life for Lakshmi turns head over heels when Vishnu the new priest's son and priest-in-training, shows up in her village. Lakshmi is instantly intrigued by the new young man in town, and strives to start a relationship with him. Certain antics and innocent clashes follow and both of them fall in love. Later, problems arose due to Vishnu's status in society; i. e. he is a bramhachari and cannot marry. Meanwhile, Lakshmi's marriage is fixed with her cousin, Parthasarathi and she has to go through the ordeal. After marriage Lakshmi's husband is informed by her that she loved Vishnu and he says its not a problem for him. Later Lakshmi becomes pregnant and Lakhsmi's husbands says to her that he is impotent. At present due to some circumstances, its shown that Lakshmi's husband is dead and Vishnu is the one who is performing funeral pooja as Shavundi. Seeing this, Lakshmi becomes furious and opens the secret that her only son cannot perform the last rites as his father is alive and he is none other that Vishnu. Hearing that everyone is shocked. Knowing the truth, Vishnu refused to become a poojari and take Lakshmi and his son away from society to lead a happy life.
Cast
Aravind Swamy as Vishnu
Sridevi as BhagyaLakshmi
KPAC Lalitha as Alamelu
Nedumudi Venu as Shankaran
Chippy as Indhu
Janardanan as Harihara Subramanya Iyyer
Kaveri
M. S. Thripunithura
Kozhikode Narayanan Nair
Narendra Prasad as Ramadhanapadikal
Priyanka Anoop
Reena
Ravi Menon
Zeenath as Malathy
Ravali as Kokila
Par
Rajiv Krishna as Parthasarathy
Production
was initially considered for the lead role, before the makers chose Sridevi. The reason that Sridevi accepted the role was because Sridevi's mother, Rajeshwari Ayyappan, had told Bharathan that Sridevi would act in one of his films.
Soundtrack
The music was composed by M. M. Keeravani and the lyrics were penned by M. D. Rajendran. ; Malayalam version ; Tamil version ; Telugu version
The film was not well received at the box office and was mostly panned by film critics. However, the film's music was universally praised and the lead cast received mostly favorable reviews. The last Malayalam film of late Indian actress Sridevi Kapoor as heroine, it was a return to form for Sridevi, who started her career as a child star in several Malayalam films. Sridevi's performance in the film, her look was well appreciated by the audience. Sridevi dubbed for her character in the Tamil version, while Revathi dubbed for Sridevi in the Malayalam original.
