Thenali

Thenali is a 2000 Indian Tamil comedy-drama film directed by K. S. Ravikumar and written by Crazy Mohan. The film stars Kamal Haasan in the title role, along with Jayaram, Jyothika, and Devayani. The film's music was composed by A. R. Rahman. The story of the film was inspired by the 1991 Hollywood movie What About Bob? directed by Frank Oz.

The film opened to positive reviews from critics and was a commercial success at the Tamil Nadu box-office. The film won three Tamil Nadu State Film Awards, including a Special Jury award for Jayaram's performance as Dr. Kailash.

Plot

Thenali (Kamal Hassan) is a man who fears anything and everything. Dr. Panchabhootham (Delhi Ganesh) and his assistant (Ramesh Khanna), who are the doctors treating Thenali, are jealous of a relatively junior doctor Dr. Kailash (Jayaram) getting all the media attention. They decide to derail Dr. Kailash's success by sending Thenali over to him. Soon after their first appointment, Dr. Kailash heads to his home in Kodaikanal on a vacation with his wife Jalaja (Devayani) and his two children. Dr. Kailash tells Thenali to wait until after the vacation before his therapy can begin, but Panchabhootham asks for Thenali to go meet Kailash while on vacation.