Thenmavin Kombathu (1994)

Thenmavin Kombathu is a 1994 Malayalam romantic comedy written and directed by Priyadarshan. Manikyan (Mohanlal) is a servant in Srihalli, a village on the Kerala-Karnataka border, and his employer Sreekrishnan Thampuran (Nedumudi Venu) treats him almost as family. A chance meeting at a fair leaves Sreekrishnan drawn to Karthumbi (Shobana), and a trip home goes wrong, carrying Manikyan and Karthumbi into unfamiliar territory in Karnataka. The film has a rustic setting and a string of songs. Sreenivasan, Kaviyoor Ponnamma, Sukumari, Sharat Saxena, K.P.A.C. Lalitha, Sankaradi and Kuthiravattam Pappu are also in the cast. N. Gopalakrishnan produced and edited the film under Prasidhi Creations. R. D. Burman was first signed as composer but died before finishing, and Berny-Ignatius took over. K. V. Anand won the National Award for cinematography and Sabu Cyril for production design. The film was remade in Tamil as Muthu (1995), Hindi as Saat Rang Ke Sapne (1998) and Kannada as Sahukara (2004). It released in May 1994, and a 4K restored version was set to return to theatres in September 2026.