Avvai Shanmugi

K. S. Ravikumar's 1996 Tamil film is the local adaptation of Mrs. Doubtfire. Unable to see his daughter after his divorce, Pandiyan enters his father-in-law's house disguised as an elderly woman and takes a job there as her nanny. Kamal Haasan's make-up and physical work carry the film; he builds Avvai Shanmugi not as an imitation but as a separate person. The template is fitted to a local family structure, and the father-in-law falling for the nanny is a local addition. What is troubling now is using a man in women's clothing as comic material and leaving the father's conduct unquestioned. Who it's for: viewers who like Tamil comedy and Kamal Haasan's transformation roles. Who it's not for: anyone who has seen the original, or troubled by the period conventions of disguise comedy.