| Director | Vineeth Sreenivasan |
|---|---|
| Box office | ₹82.8 crore |
In the early 1970s, Venu is a high schooler who devotes all of his time to helping out in traveling plays when they stop in his hometown. One night, the producer of a play asks him to bring an instrumentalist, Murali, from the house of the local landlord. Drunk, Murali reluctantly agrees to play for the evening. Venu is thoroughly impressed with the man's spontaneous musicality and they quickly become friends. As time passes, Venu goes to college; Murali shows up there one day, trying to meet the principal to borrow a new book that has reached the college library. Venu offers to help and discovers that the book has already been lent to a first-year student named Annie. Murali, on meeting Annie, instantly falls in love with her. They meet that night to exchange the book and continue seeing each other. Murali asks her out, but is met with shock and rejection. She tells him to leave, revealing that she is sexually involved with her brother-in-law.
Murali is shattered by the news and disappears for a while. One day, he writes to Venu that he is leaving for Madras with the intention of making it in cinema; Venu decides to join him. They rent out a room in Kodambakkam where Murali lands a job as a violinist under music director Indra Dhanush. After playing the violin for a B-movie, Murali meets the producer of the film, Keshavadev. He tells him that his film will flop massively. After the film flops, Murali introduces Keshavadev to Venu, who has the script for a prospective film. He is impressed and agrees to produce it. Venu insists that Murali produce the music for it, but he refuses, citing his inexperience. Murali secretly passes on some of his music to Indra Dhanush, who goes on to compose music for the film. The film, upon release, becomes a huge success, with the song that Murali composed becoming a sensation. He is driven mad by the fact that he did not produce the music himself. He meets with Indra Dhanush, asking him to tell Venu that the song was his, but gets rejected. Murali goes to Venu's place. Venu chides him for coming there in an inebriated state, and about their respective statuses as promising director and minor background violinist. Murali leaves in tears, but leaves behind the original cassette with his name on it, containing the song. Finding it and realising the truth, Venu tries to meet Murali, but discovers that he has left Madras. Murali goes to Bombay where he works as a music teacher in a school. He falls in love with his colleague, Bhumi. At some point, they have a misunderstanding and break up. Murali leaves Bombay after the 1993 bombings, and vanishes.
Over the years, Venu directs many more films and then leaves the cinema industry. He tries to search for Murali in vain. One day, 50 years after the Madras incident, he meets Murali again by chance, who tells him to return to the film industry. He hesitatingly agrees, and asks Murali to produce the music for his film. Annie and her husband John convince Murali to accept. At (still remembered mainly for Murali's song) Indra Dhanush's funeral, they discover the young director Pradeep. Venu and Pradeep start looking for a crew to work on one of Venu's old scripts, Jeevithagaadhakale. They mostly cast new artists except for the eccentric actor, Nithin "Molly/Mollywood" Mulanthuruthy. At the end of filming, their producer, Keshavadev's son Jayan, falls seriously ill and is unable to continue bankrolling the film. Murali, disappointed, disappears again. They are miraculously saved by the paparazzi who filmed Nithin Molly in an inebriated state, swearing at the entire film industry for their treatment of him. This makes him popular and creates a hype for the film. Jeevithagaadhakale releases theatrically and gets outstanding reactions and reviews. During the premiere, Venu gets a call and leaves.
Venu hires a taxi to a location in Tamil Nadu where he meets Senthil, an old friend from Madras. He directs Venu to Karpagam, a village near Salem, where Murali lives in a Carnatic music sabha. Venu tells him that their first movie as a duo has released, to Murali's delight. They go to a theatre in Coimbatore to see how the audience reacts to their film.