Whats Kuselan/Kathanayakudu/Kadha Parayumbol all about?

Ok this is in response to a query from my friend- Jayanto.Heard of the tale in Lord Krishna's life about his friendship with his poor friend Sudhama ( in South India Sudhama is also called Kuselan)?Well Srinivasan has brilliantly adapted this episode into an excellent film plot.Here in Kadha Parayumbol- Srinivasan plays a poor barber ( Balan) who is married and has two kids.He is nearly in a state of poverty and doesnt have money to upgrade his place of work unlike his competitor.Srinivasan also tells his wife and kids about stories of himself and his friend who is now a superstar in Malayalam films ( Mammooty).

One fine day Mammooty comes to Srinivasan's village for a film shooting.Word somehow spreads that Srinivasan is Mammooty's friend and suddenly everybody has a new found respect for him as they want to use his help to get close to Mammooty. But Srinivasan refuses to meet Mammooty as he feels that his friend may not recognise him after so long & must not feel that he has come to him for any favour.

The best part of the movie is the climax shot in the school- where Mammooty pours his heart out while Srinivasan is completely shocked to hear his friend speak about him.The movie works on all counts-
1. Acting- Srinivasan is brilliant & Mammooty though in a cameo steals the thunder at the end
2. Cast & characters- Superb is what I have to say. Be it the Parallel colleg lecturer- Mukesh
( who co-produces the movie with Srinivasan) , Meena as Balan's wife, Jagadish as the rival barber etc all are good.
3. Music- by M.Jayachandran suits the film completely
I have already spoken about the story.Now its Rajnikanth doing the superstar role in Tamil & Telugu,SRK in Hindi and Ganesh doing it in Kannada. As for the barber's role its played by Pasupathy in tamil, Jgapathi Babu in telugu,Irfan Khan & Ramesh Arvind in kannada.

Lets wait and watch whether these versions also carry the same magic.