How sad is this?

Awesome Movie

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

This is a really well made movie about a wealthy Tamil Brahmin family. Shriram (Rajiv Krishna) is the son of 'Pepsi' Parasuram the younger brother of Raghu (Raguvaran). Raghu is married to Bhanupriya and has a son. While Raghu is a model son, Shriram is considered a wastrel. Shriram falls in love with Janaki, the daughter of a Brahmin cook. Parasuram opposes the match because of the difference in their status. Meanwhile, Raghu's college sweetheart, Gita (Sukanya) is dying and she wants to spend her last days with him. She contacts him after five years and they begin meeting secretly. Shriram finds out about this and tries to keep the family secrets, take the blame for everyone's shortcomings and becomes the family scapegoat and his father's favorite whipping boy. The rest of the film examines whether or not Raghu is finally vindicated in the eyes of his family.