Gopalakrishna Pillai is a rich money-lender in a village called Elavumthitta in Pathanamthitta district. People misunderstand him to be money-minded, without having any emotional bond even towards his mother, Devaki, or his younger brother Ramakrishnan.
As the story moves along, we learn more about the hero. He is considered heartless, as he threw out his father, Madhava Menon, when he was a teenager, for his father's wayward lifestyle. His mother hates him for doing that and his brother hates him as he does not let him pursue his dream of being an actor and never gives him any freedom. His main antagonists are Sreedharan and his younger brothers. Jayalakshmi is a bank manager, who is seen as a threat to Gopalakrishnan's money-lending business.
It turns out that Ramakrishnan is in love with a girl from Gopalakrishnan's rival family. Though, Gopalakrishnan arranges the marriage forgetting the rivalry, he asks his brother to repay him the expenses he incurred for the wedding and prompts the newlyweds to sleep separately. With this, he becomes the most hated person to his brother and mother. Frustrated, Ramakrishnan leaves the house and joins his in-laws against Gopalakrishnan by saying that his money-lending business is illegal. Still, that doesn't work.
Ramakrishnan accuses his brother of processing the family wealth alone. He gives false information to the Income Tax Department and files a suit against him in court. In the climax, it is revealed by Gopalakrishnan's advocate that Gopalakrishnan has kept his hard-earned wealth in the name of his younger brother and was always hard on him just to make him responsible. It also is revealed that his father was not thrown out, but committed suicide in Madurai due to his debts. The story ends happily as the brothers reunite and everyone apologises to Gopalakrishnan.
The film collected ₹1.37 crore from 61 screens in its first weekend (3 days) from Kerala.[4] It was made on a budget of ₹ 3.5 crores. The film got ₹ 1 crore 90 lakhs as distribution share, ₹ 1 crore 8 lakhs as satellite and video rights, ₹ 9 lakhs as audio rights, and ₹ 25 lakhs as overseas right. It got a gross collection of ₹ 7.5 crores within 30 days. The film collected ₹100 million in total.[5] The movie ran for more than 100 days in major centres.[6]Madampi became one of the highest-grossing Malayalam films of the year.[7]