The financial and artistic crisis which plagued the once glittering Malayalam film industry at the turn of the 21st century lies at the center of the story. It depicts the struggles of Udayabhanu (Mohanlal), who is an assistant director and who aspires to be a director. But he is thwarted in his attempts by a scheming friend and junior artist, Rajappan Thengamoodu (Sreenivasan), who steals his screenplay to become superstar Saroj Kumar.
Udayabhanu is a hardcore worshipper of films and a talented assistant director, who learns to write and direct his own film at a time when the industry is filled with dubious filmmakers. Rajappan Thengummoodu is a rather crooked friend of Udayabhanu and an aspiring and failed actor.
Udayabhanu finally prepares to shoot his first film based on his own script, he discovers to his horror that Rajappan has stolen his manuscript, and filming is underway with Rajappan playing the leading role, which eventually propels him to stardom. Udhayabhanu soon finds himself faced with a career and personal crisis, with his faltering relations with his actress wife Madhumati contributing to the latter. She leaves the house later after Udayan causes chaos in the house after getting drunk, saying that he lost everything.
Later, with the help of producer Babykuttan, Udayabanu prepares to direct another film, but he is forced to cast Rajappan as the hero since he was the star with most market value at that time. Rajappan takes up the offer, since he is also at a plateau of his career, but refuses to co-operate and throws tantrums and causes maximum trouble when possible. He spends most of his time actively flirting with the actresses in the film.
Towards the end of the shoot, using a perceived insult as a ruse, Rajappan leaves the set leaving the film half way with the hope that this will destroy Udayabanu's career for ever. But Udayabanu devises clever tactics and shoots the remaining scenes with Rajappan without him even being aware of it.
At the end, the film is a critical and box office success, which also saves Rajappan from his damaging career, Rajappan realises his mistakes, admits publicly that Udayabanu is the real star and not himself and apologises to Udayabhanu.
The film was the directorial debut of Rosshan Andrrews who started as an assistant director in Malayalam cinema. He changed his name from Roshan Andrews to Rosshan Andrrews as per numerology before the film's release. The film's story was conceived by Andrrews, who prepared the story three years back but producers were not willing to take the film as they thought a film based on film industry would not work. He also approached Jayaram for the film, but he also rejected it as he was a new director. He then narrated the story to Sreenivasan who developed it into a screenplay, which took two years, and introduced him to C. Karunakaran who agreed to produce the film. Sreenivasan also helped him to cast Mohanlal in the lead role.[6]
The satellite rights for Udayananu Tharam was sold to Asianet for a hitherto record sum of ₹36 lakhs. AP International released the film on DVD and Blu-ray Disc.[7]
Reception
Critical response
Sreenivasan received critical acclaim for his performance as Saroj Kumar and his refreshing script.
Writing for The Hindu, Sreedhar Pillai wrote, "Udayananu Tharam, directed by debutant Rosshan Andrrews, asserts that the creator is a path-breaking director. After many years of prattle about `new' cinema within the commercial format, Udayananu Tharam gives some substance to the contention that Malayalam cinema has come of age. The most refreshing thing is that it is a genre film, a black comedy, rather than omnibus masala concoctions serving all the nine rasas.[6] Paresh C. Palicha of Now Running gave the film 3 stars out of 5 and wrote, ""Sreenivasan has peppered the story with real life incidents. He does not spare the two reigning superstars of Malayalam cinema, Mammootty and Mohanlal, even though the latter is the film's hero." He also praised Sreenivasan's performance writing, "Mohanlal gives a restrained and dependable performance as Udayan. But it is Sreenivasan who steals the thunder with his over-the-top act as the megalomaniac superstar."[8]Sify, in their review gave the film a verdict of "Excellent" and praised the film for its refreshing script, writing, "Writer Sreenivasan and director Rosshan traces Udayan’s dreams and progresses in a realistic manner. The wry passages and the swipes at the superstars are gingerly executed."[9]
The reviewer for Webindia called the film "a definite entertainer" and praised the film's script, writing, "Sreenivasan writes about real life incidents that happen in the film industry and presents them in a humorous manner. He makes a dig at everyone, not even leaving the superstars. The director has handled the script well. But somewhere something is amiss in the narrative especially in the first half." They also praise Sreenivasan's performance writing, "It is Sreenivasan who steals the show as the dimwit obnoxious superstar Saroj Kumar."[10]Varnachithram, praising Mohanlal's performance wrote, "He performs his role with great subtlety and makes us feel the pain of the character." They conclude writing, "Even with all the drawbacks we mentioned, it was a good movie to watch with the minimum standard we expect from Malayalam movies. But it is not a classic along the lines of Nadodikaatu (1987) or Sanmasullavarku Samadhanam (1986) which we like to watch over and over again. Finally, the movie should have been called Sreeniyanu Tharam (Sreeni is the star) for he was the real star of this movie.[11]
Box office
It was made on a budget of ₹2.35 crore, including prints and publicity.[1] The film was a major commercial success and a blockbuster.[12] It took the biggest ever opening for a Malayalam film until then, surpassing Narasimham (2000).[13] It grossed ₹3.12 crore (US$390,000) in two weeks from 41 screens in Kerala, with a distributor share of ₹1.38 crore (US$170,000).[6] The film grossed ₹19,80,000 in 17 days at Ernakulam Shenoys theatre, which was a record.[6] The film then grossed Rs 16.69 Crore from 41 screens in 35 days and a distributor’s share of ₹2.76 Crore.[1] The film managed to recover its budget from the releasing stations.[1] It ran for 100 days in several cities such as Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Kozhikode and Thrissur.[1] The film also performed well in cities outside Kerala, like Bengaluru, Chennai and Mumbai.[1] It was the first hit of the year.[12]
A spin-off titled Padmasree Bharat Dr. Saroj Kumar directed by Sajin Raaghavan was released in 2012. Sreenivasan reprises the role of Saroj Kumar from the original. The director announced that this is not a sequel. Only some characters from Udayananu Tharam were used.[14]
