Ramji Rao Speaking

The story revolves around three unemployed people (the third is a middle aged unsuccessful theatre owner). The story opens with the arrival of Balakrishnan in Cochin to dispute the denial of his company job which he was supposed to receive several years ago. Several candidates overtook his chance and the last one was Rani who pretends to be an influential figure in the town. Rani threatens Balakrishnan to continue to work despite his efforts to overthrow her. The company manager who knows about her family situation (poor and pathetic) and helps her keep the job. Balakrishnan is determined to stay in the town until he succeeds in getting the job.

During his stay, Balakrishnan finds a temporary lodging in 'Urvasi Theatre', owned by Mannar Mathayi, with another tenant Gopalakrishnan, both unemployed and with insignificant earnings. Initially, Gopalakrishnan does not like the new tenant and tries to expel him from the house, in vain. Gopalakrishnan is tricky and cunning. He lies to his mother by telling her that he works in a large company based in Calcutta and that he is building a new house in Cochin. Balakrishnan discovers the truth and mistakes Gopalakrishnan as a fraud. But what shocks Balakrishnan most was the realization of Rani's family situation. He feels sympathetic towards her and decides to let her keep the job. That night Balakrishnan gets drunk and reveals the fraud play of Gopalakrishnan to Mannar Mathayi. Goplakrishnan confesses and justifies that projecting himself as rich and employed was the only way in front of him to comfort his mother. The truth melts the minds of both Balakrishnan and Mannar Mathayi and they all became friends and decided to enjoy the night despite their unending problems.

Further into the night, Balakrishnan wakes up to a ringing telephone. A gang leader named Ramji Rao and his associate Charan Singh / Karan Singh have kidnapped the daughter of a rich businessman Urumees Thampan and are asking for a ransom of one lakh rupees. The three unemployed have no relation with Urummes Thampan; the gang had apparently dialled the wrong number. Panicking, Balakrishan tries to find the number of Urumees Thampan from a phone directory, only to find out that the numbers of Urvasi Theaters and Urumees Thampan are interchanged in the directory. Gopalakrishnan comes up with an idea and asks Balakrishnan to act as a dealer between Ramji Rao and Charan Singh with Urumees Thampan, without letting them know about each other, and demand a ransom of four lakh to Urumees Thampan, instead of a lakh, get the girl from Ramji Rao, and take the remaining three lakh for themselves. The plan was a good one, but the job wasn't as easy to carry out as hiding from the police and keeping Ramji Rao and Urumees anonymous to each other was not an easy task. Finally, after a struggle, the three rescue the girl from the gang leader and hand her over to Urumees Thamapan. They confess the ploy to him upon a police encounter. Urumees forgives them and is thankful for returning his daughter, and offers them the three lakh rupees as a reward.

• Saikumar as Balakrishnan
• Mukesh as Gopalakrishnan
• Innocent as Mannar Mathai
• Rekha as Rani
• Devan as Urumees Thampan
• Vijayaraghavan as Ramji Rao
• Mamukkoya as Hamzakkoya
• Sukumari as Gopalakrishnan's mother
• Sankaradi as Manager
• N. F. Varghese as a staff of Balakrishnan's office
• Kunchan as Mathai the servant
• Amritam Gopinath as Matron
• M. L. Augustine as office peon
• Nisha as Urumees Thampan's daughter
• Alleppey Ashraf as Chemmeen Varghese
• P. C. George as Police Inspector
• Harisree Asokan as Telephone Customer

The movie is directed by Siddique-Lal duo, who were assistants of Fazil. The film is also produced by Fazil. Saikumar, son of late veteran actor Kottarakkara Sreedharan Nair made his acting debut with this film.[5]

The film's soundtrack contains 4 songs, all composed by S. Balakrishnan in his debut, with the lyrics by Bichu Thirumala. This is the first movie A. R. Rahman programmed a song for a film; "Kalikalam".[6]

The film became a commercial success.[7][8][9][10]

Mukesh's dialogue in the film "Kambilipothappu" became a catchphrase.[11]

• Ramji Rao Speaking at IMDb