Nadodikkattu (1987)

Laden with laughs, this insightful comedy opens by introducing the two protagonists, Ramdas/Dasan (Mohanlal) and Vijayan (Sreenivasan), who are employed as ill-paid peons. A commerce graduate, and proud of that, Dasan frequently vents his frustration in having to serve lesser qualified superiors and having to settle with lesser than what he feels he deserves in life.

Vijayan, his less educated, comic sidekick, is his roommate and sole friend. Their relationship is one full of tension, with Dasan adopting a superior stance on the account of his education and good looks, which fiercely rattles Vijayan. Several comic situations later in the film borrow from this aspect of their characters. Dasan frequently bosses over Vijayan to do all the household chores.

Dasan and Vijayan, hopeful of getting a better job, as soon as the new managing director joins their company, wait for him to take charge. However, one day, on their way to work, they get involved in an unnecessary altercation with an unknown person. Dasan, in order to grab attention from a lady, abuses the person and pushes him into a puddle of rainwater. Vijayan punctures his car tires. But when they reach the workplace, they find out that the person that they had picked the fight with is their new managing director.

Both vanish from the workplace and surface on the next day in disguises; Dasan wearing dark sunglasses and Vijayan wearing a long beard. Both try to convince their supervisor that they were seriously ill the previous day, but they are made to report to the new managing director. They manage to fool him initially and start work but the managing director soon finds out the truth from old office photographs and both get thrown out from work.

Being jobless, their landlord (Sankaradi) convinces them to take a bank loan and buy two cows. Dasan and Vijayan, upbeat about the new business, start dreaming of a bright future. However, they soon find out that the cows yield very little milk and the business fails. The bank contacts them for defaulting on the loan repayments. To escape, Vijayan sells the cows and arranges for them to go to Dubai (in United Arab Emirates) with whatever money they get.

Gafoor (Mamukkoya) is an agent who promises to take them to the Gulf. Gafoor explains them that his uru (boat) going to California will be diverted past Dubai sea shore for them. Gafoor also instructs them to wear Arabic clothing thawb to fool the authorities. Dasan and Vijayan once again start dreaming about the bright and luxurious life ahead.

On reaching the sea shore, both change into the Arabic attire. Two strangers (Johny and Ajith Kollam) follow Dasan and Vijayan and forcefully exchange their suitcases. Confused, Dasan and Vijayan start exploring the city. They are surprised to see no Arabs in the city and soon find signboards in Tamil. They realize that they have been cheated by Gafoor who has off loaded them in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Dasan and Vijayan check the suitcase and find drugs inside. They contact local police and hand over the suitcase.

Meanwhile, the strangers who are actually gang members of Ananthan Nambiar (Thilakan), smuggler and underworld don, find out that they were mistaken. Ananthan Nambiar believes that those in Arabic dress were Crime Investigation Department officers in disguise.

Dasan and Vijayan with the help of Dasan’s friend Balan (Innocent) get jobs at Ananthan Nambiar’s office. Dasan meets his colleague Radha (Shobana) who turns out to be their neighbour as well. But soon Dasan and Vijayan gets fired by Ananthan Nambiar thinking that they are undercover officers. On the road again, Vijayan tries to get a chance in movies. He visits noted film director I. V. Sasi’s home and meets Sasi’s wife, actress Seema.

Dasan starts a small vegetable business with Radha’s help. A minor romance plot develops between Dasan and Radha. Meanwhile Ananthan Nambiar hires contract killer Pavanayi (Captain Raju) to finish off Dasan and Vijayan. But Pavanayi dies while trying to kill Dasan and Vijayan. This irks Ananthan Nambiar even more and makes him all the more paranoid about these two "officers".

As the story proceeds to climax, Dasan and Vijayan are called to a rundown factory by one of their other enemies, Kovai Venkatesan (Janardhanan), a well-connected businessman with political aspirations for an ostensible meeting, where he plans to liquidate them both. Dasan and Vijayan find themselves surrounded by Ananthan Nambiar’s gang as well, the latter also having selected the location to do a drug deal.

However, the both gangs mistake each other as enemies and a mixed fight breaks out. Dasan and Vijayan manage to lock all others inside the building as police arrive and arrest everyone.
The movie concludes as Dasan and Vijayan gets selected into the Tamil Nadu police as Crime Investigation Department officers and they along with Radha drive away in a jeep.