Madhavan is a petty thief who is wrongfully accused of stealing the idol of the village goddess. He quickly escapes police custody and tries to find the real culprit.
Plot
In a short prelogue, a young boy is seen stealing from Bhageerathan Pillai's house, while escaping he comes across an old thief- "Mullani Pappan (Mala Aravindan) being chased through the fields by villagers with torches and sticks at night. Pappan helps him escape, when he learns that the boy Madhavan, stole from the village loan shark at night- only to payback a monthly interest due the next day.
Set in the imaginary village of Chekk, Palakkad, the story begins 15 years later, on the traditional newyear according to malayalam calendar when we are introduced to Madhavan's family and friends. At dawn, Madhavan has a vivid nightmare in which he is bin Laden and his nemesis Bush has him trapped and surrounded. Madhavan and friends ruin the Vishu kani of his nemesis, Bhageerathan, by mooning, one of which was his friend Sugunan (Harisree Ashokan) dresses up as Lord Krishna painted blue.
Madhavan was forced to resort to petty thieving when his father dies and he has to find means for his elder brother's education. Although infamous in the locality for stealing Kindi, his helpful nature is appreciated by the villagers who see him as the local Robin Hood, nicknamed "Meesa" Madhavan, an epithet given under the circumstance that if Madhavan were to roll his handlebar moustache looking at someone, their house will be robbed by him before dawn. Sugunan is Madhavan's friend, Achuthan Nambhoothiri alias Nambooriyachan is the local Head Constable and Bhageerathan is the village loan shark, who is a cut throat when it comes to levying heavy interests on the poor villagers. A new Sub-Inspector Eapen Pappachi is posted at their village, who is a corrupt and alcoholic cop. Bhageerathan teams up with him to have Madhavan publicly humiliated. They manhandle Madhavan at the temple and Eapen threatens Madhavan to shave off his moustache. Madhavan in desperation of losing his house to Bhageerathan's greedy scheme, plans to win his daughter Rukmini's heart, when he proposes her she insults him along with her friends. In revenge, Madhavan breaks into her house, steals the golden waist Chain worn by a sleeping Rukmini and meets up with her next day confidently victorious that she won't file a police complaint of theft, to save her modesty. To his surprise, Rukmini runs off in tears. A vengeful Rukmini teams up with her father and Thrivikraman to plant a roll of banknotes worth ₹25,000 which Thrivikraman buries in Madhavan's front yard, to frame him. The next day on a match-making visit of Madhavan's sister Malathi, Eapen and the police arrive at Madhavan's place and forces him to dig up from the spot. But their shock, they only find a bag of dry jackfruit seeds. Eapen arrests Madhavan and trashes him in the station. Advocate Mukundan Unni bails Madhavan and saves him.
Later on, Madhavan confronts a puzzled Bhageerathan, Rukmini and Thrivikraman and reveals that they spoiled Malathi's marriage proposal. He threatens to kill Bhageerathan if the groom's family doesn't approve. Rukmini fells guilty, realises her mistakes and slowly starts falling for him. Eappen, who has an eye on Rukmini shows up one day, drunk, when Rukmini was home alone, only to be blindfolded and beat up by Madhavan inside the house. On getting treated by the local ayurvedic masseuse Eapen infuriates Bhageerathan by accusing Rukmini of having an affair, with Madhavan. Enraged, Bhageerathan rushes back house and locks Rukmini in her room. His advocate visits them and advices Rukmini that Madhavan might be taking advantage of the situation, eyeing Bhageerathan's wealth, getting his hand on, through Rukmini. They move immediately to court to seize Madhavan's residential property before Malathi is married, to pressurize him to back off from his relationship with Rukmini. Madhavan is offered, by Bhageerathan, his land and home back, if he comes clean with Rukmini about his motives. His property and sister's wedding at stake, a steadfast Madhavan pledges his love to Rukmini amidst the villagers and a dumbstruck Bhageerathan and advocate duo. Santhamma, Rukmini's mother seems to be the only person unmoved by this, as
Madhavan's own family wanted him to forsake Rukmini and grab back his ancestral home.
A furious Manikandan confronts Madhavan, the deadline to pay back ₹100,000 lumpsum by the weekend, Madhavan is driven to despair. At the temple ground, Malathi's fiancé Balan comes up to Madhavan and hands over the lump sum demanding absolute secrecy since his family will back off from the wedding if they came to know of what he's done. He advices Madhavan to immediately go to the city to arrange a lawyer to settle the money at the court. A grateful Madhavan goes inside and thanks to the goddess, which was seen by an ambalavasi Warrier, even after the poojari has closed the sanctum for the night.
The next day, the idol at the temple is found missing, and everybody thinks that Madhavan stole it, since his present desperate need for money was known well to the villagers. Adding oil to the fire is the news that a lawyer has been paid the whole sum, by Madhavan, last night. Madhavan is arrested by the police led by Eapen and beaten up by the mob, before he jumps off the bridge into a river. Madhavan comes across his mentor Pappan who seems to be the only person who believes Madhavan is innocent; Pappan advices Madhavan to lay low at a nearby empty warehouse. While hiding at the warehouse attic, Madhavan sees Eapen with two men. It was Eapen's house and Madhavan realises that Eapen stole the idol with help of the two men. Madhavan rushes and goes Pappan's house,to tell the news. Soon, Madhavan realises that Eapen has kept the idol in the deadwells with a nearby Murikku tree: which is within Pappan's compound. Pappan is shocked to see the idol there. He tells Madhavan that they both will be caught if they show the idol to anyone or say it. Pappan tells that Eapen and his men should come here and take the idol and they should be caught in front of the villagers, so that they will be proved innocent. Madhavan and Pappan device a plan to force Eapen to retrieve the idol from the well, in the nick of time. The mob led by Nambooriyachan catch Eapen and the goons. After a big fight, Madhavan subdues Eapen and his goons and returns the idol. Madhavan becomes a hero and praised by everyone. Bhageerathan also has a change of heart and accepts Madhavan and Rukmini.
The music album of Meesa Madhavan happens to be one of the most popular works of Vidyasagar. The lyrics were written by Gireesh Puthenchery. Originally, the song 'Elavathooru Kayalinde' was written by Arumugan Venkitangu as a folksong. A part of the song "Karimizhi Kuruviye" was reused in "Aasai Aasai Ippoluthu" in Dhool.
A critic from Deccan Herald wrote that "After Tenkashi Pattanam, this is another comedy that actually tickles you into laughter. Portraying the travails of a thief, Dileep characteristically performs to perfection eclipsing even the versatile Jagadhi Sreekumar. Kavya Madhavan as Rukmani has pretty little to do. The storyline itself has nothing new to offer, but it is the treatment of situations that require credit".[4]
Box office
The film was commercial success at the box office[5] and became the highest-grossing Malayalam film of 2002 and also emerged as an industry hit.[6][7][8] It had completed 250 days in theatres.[9][10][11][12][13][14][15]
