Ramji Rao Speaking

Mannar Mathai(Innocent) is in financial crisis as his drama company Urvasi Theatres has been closed. He has two people staying at his home as paying guests. One is Balakrishnan(Saikumar) and other is Gopalakrishnan(Mukesh). Balakrishnan comes to city for a job to pay off his debts. Gopalakrishnan is a jobless guy who lies to his sick mother that he has a good job. Three of their lives take a turning point when Balakrishnan receives a wrong number from a kidnapper Ramji Rao(Vijayaraghavan). This film was a surprise hit as it had many newcomers and not so popular actors. Story is fresh and humour was superb. This film sky rocketed several people's career. Its director duo Siddique Lal later made many cult blockbusters to their credit. Though they parted ways, they found success there also in their respective fields. Siddique became a successful independent director whereas Lal became a successful actor, producer and director. Mukesh got established as a medium range comedy hero. Innocent got flooded with offers and became a popular comedian of malayalam cinema after Jagathi Sreekumar. Though Saikumar never got lead roles after this, he became a popular supporting actor in 90s and 2000s. Ramji Rao Speaking also started a trend of low budget comedy films in Malayalam. Also several films like this came in malayalam where the protagonist tries to make fast bucks to solve their financial issues. Overall Ramji Rao Speaking is a trend setting film.

Though strictly speaking this movie is not an epic, it is one among those which is remembered as one. The dialogues are still in the minds of every malayali. Ramji Rao Speaking is one movie which i guess every malayali must have enjoyed. There is not one element in this movie which was unwanted or unnecessary. All emotions ,whether it was sadness or happiness or comedy or subtle romance, it was so beautifully displayed. Also one has to note that this was the directorial debut of the duo Siddique Lal who are arguably the only duo who have the record of delivering only hits. their movies have also been remade in tamil and Hindi and also been as successful.

Kudos also to Saikumar. it was his first movie. And the rest of the stars liks Innocent, Mukesh, Mamukoya... One has to also note that this movie did not feature any one of super stars of that era like mamooty or mohan lal. And still this movie is onbe among the top films which ran for a very long time.

It is sad that we don't come across such movies anymore in the malayalam film industry. Ramji Rao Speaking would be one movie which is well above the many movies which have come and and which are yet to come.

Scenes to watch out for: (practically every scene is so good it is difficult to pick, yet my fav scenes)

1. Saikumar meeting Innnocent for the first time . Ente peru Balakrishnan

2. Mamukoya coming to Saikumar's office. Note the scenes where he comes there in more than one auto and the scenes inside the office especially Sankaradi comes in.

3. Sankaradi advising Rekha on the beach on how to lure Saikumar and the scene after that.

4. Mukesh calling his mother from Calcutta (supposedly) !! Too good

5. Mukesh showing Sukumari his house (supposedly) and Saikumar coming.

6. Saikumar picking up Ramji Rao's phone in the night.... Too good again!

7. Mamukoya coming to Saikumar's house and tells the masked guys to bring Saikumar and the scenes thereafter.

I can go on and i would literally describe every scene.... The movie is that good.. There are lot of scenes which i haven't mentioned but as I said the ones listed above are my personal fav from the rest of the scenes.....Its miss if you haven't seen this film.

Ramjirao Speaking (1989) : Brief Review -

This Cult Comedy by Siddique-Lal in their debut as directors will go down in history books for writing one of the best conflicts for any Comedy-Drama. Hera Pheri is known as a Classic Comedy among Bollywood audience and deservingly so. Even i have watched it over 100 times but now i know it was 99% copied from Ramjirao Speaking. I wish, all the real movie buffs will acknowledge this fact sooner or later but unfortunately that TV audience of Hindi movies will never understand this. Yes, that 1% extra what Priyadarshan has added in Hera Pheri is commendable. Those dialogues and additional humour from the Iconic characters has made it one of the Greatest South Remakes ever happened in Bollywood. A point to be noted here is, Ramjirao Speaking came more than a decade ago which gave it a Cult status. Those conflicts in Comedy genre Siddique-Lal wrote in late 80s by handling the human drama simultaneously, are just outstanding. I tried to remember almost every cult comedy i have seen, right from Silent Comedies of Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd from 1910s and 1920s decades to Frank Capra's Screwball comedies from 30s decades to many other from 40s, 50s and 60s. And then i realised that this piece of writing by Siddique-Lal was on the Level of those classics. It marginally beats out many great comedies of that time and please note that i am talking about conflicts and dramatic scenes in the film and not gags. Sai Kumar, Mukesh and Innocent's Trio is hilarious. Let's forget Hera Pheri here because it wasn't even in making for 11 years since this. Original will always have its credibility and so does Ramjirao Speaking. It appears to me that whatever great comedies i have seen till date from all over the world, This one will be in My Top 5 of the 80s decade. This was just simply 50 years ahead for any comedy-drama in India. We might get a better script than this by 2040s and i would wait for it to make comparisons or maybe not.

RATING - 8/10*

By - #samthebestest.

It's the best movie👍, I have not seen such beautiful movie

A really good movie. Very funny and at the same time bring suspensse and seriousness at the end. Innocent and Mukesh are really funny and there are many funny jokes throughout the movie. Sai Kumar acting debut in this movie. And Siddique - Lals duo first movie which turns out to be a big hit like many more to come.