(Much ado about something trivial. The section titles are inspired from The Day of the Jackal.)
Anatomy of a plot
I was going over Google Analytics after a long time this weekend, and I found that I was getting a few hits from Bing for the search term “Koundamani”. A closer look revealed that VKpedia was the fourth result on Bing for Koundamani. A friend in India told me that he found that my blog was placed first for the same search term on Bing for Sweden. (Wow!)
While I was still celebrating this high note, my friend Shankar posed me a trivia question. Anyone who has listened to FM radio in Chennai would know that some RJs (especially Blade Shankar and Speed Dheena) play a clip from Koundamani when the caller is a woman — “Ai.. ladies!” The poser was “Which movie is this dialogue from?” To someone like me who considers Koundamani the equal of Kamal Hassan and Tom Hanks, the lack of a ready answer was an affront.
Anatomy of a manhunt
Anyone who has cheated by using Google to find an answer, and then promoted the answer as if it was the result of one’s own mental faculties, would know that this is not one of those problems. Because the search terms are generic, but the intended result is super-specific, Google is not an ideal tool for such a search operation. (Marissa Mayer, are you listening?)
Twitter is indeed the right tool, for one can tap into the collective intelligence of the masses. This route was pursued, but to little avail, so I was forced to resort my own mental faculties.
The immediate tool of choice was the process of elimination. This is ideal because when someone tries to whittle down to a few options from a filmography as daunting as Kounder’s, selection does not work well. One could eliminate movies from the 80s and from 2000 onwards with confidence. So the movie must be from the 90s. Obviously, the movie must be reasonably popular, and therefore it could not have starred an also-ran actor as the leading man. And obviously, the leading man could not have been Rajnikanth or Kamal Hassan, for I know the combinations well.
Also, the movie is probably not a rural movie. Of course, the term “ladies” is not restricted to the vocabulary of just those who graduated from Ivy League schools, but still I went ahead with this assumption. (Case in point: Gounder tells Sarath Kumar in Suriyan, “Side-la yeng [sic] ladies ellaam varraanga…”) This rules out actors like Vijayakanth, Sathyaraj and Ramarajan, in whose movies, our man plays meaty roles.
So that leaves us with the few actors who play predominantly urban roles, and who generally allow Goundamani a free ride in their movies. In short, Karthik and Arjun.
Anatomy of a kill
We know Karthik-Kounder combos like the back of our hand. So, it is probably an Arjun movie.
Not Gentleman, because we know every single scene from the comedy track. So, it must be Jai Hind or Karna. I could have sworn that the movie was Karna; but then, I started watching scenes from Jai Hind in fast-forward mode. And then, I heard it – boom! Koundamani tells Ranjitha, “Oh, ladies… sorry!” when they are traveling by boat to a terrorist hideout. The previous sentence turned out to be a false alarm. The dialogue in question appears a while later. Arjun and his team reach the terrorist’s basecamp. They are looking out for an ideal moment to strike, when a group of women with guns walk past a guard. And this is the precise moment when the magic happens!
So there you go, the most definitive answer is Jai Hind!
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Tags: Arjun, FM radio, Google, Jai Hind, Kamal Hassan, Karna, Karthik, Koundamani, Oh ladies, Rajnikanth, Suryan FM, The Day of the Jackal, Twitter
Syju on 
I have been plagued by the same question but did not summon the courage the admit in a public blogpost fearing izhukku shall befall by latchiyam.
It is not Jaihind. It is a more deep throated ecstatic :”hei ladiess ladiess” ?
Of course ‘ladies’ can also be – and is very likely to be – singular in Gounderspeak.So it is difficult to imagine what the situation is. orE kustamappA.
Post updated with the audio clip. Jai Hind, it is!
This post and Alaipayuthey Madhavan’s dialogue are similar..ithula etho iruku aaana illai
Charuhasan. En nanban. Romba nallavan. Eungala vida, enna vida, namma ellarayum vida nallavan.
Enaku oru unma terinjaganum!Answer jai hind a iliya?Ilana naanum tedren
Jai Hind dhaan.http://www.vkpedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/Aii…-ladies…-ladies.mp3
ok
ThanksWill check out the link.
I shall sleep in peace now after so many years.ungaL sEvai nAttukku thEvai.
//and then what the hell is Charuhassan doing in Jai Hind?//
to answer out of turn, he was trying to compete with GM. There is one song sequence where he shakes his shoulders while sitting squirely on the floor. Dance-aamaam !
hmm.. i thought it was a rural movie, the one where he interviews them for the oil mill, could be wrong though.
No, that clip was an obvious candidate, but Kounder only says "Hai", but not "Ladies"!
I've never seen so much of empirical problem solving technique as I see in this post
pretty brilliant!
dude, In the same movie, he says ladies! in the terrorist hide out…when these guys are hiding in the tent and women in the terrorist group walk in a line with guns…
Super post!! You rock VK!
)
Superb post!!Vijay, nethu naama panna collective and independent analysis-a college la pannirundha engeyo poiruppom
I tried every possible way to search in google using index etc., to narrow it down – no avail. Searched goundar ring tones for there has been a flurry of remixes with his voice of late – no avail. Karthik (mainly because of the bombay tailors movie), Prabhu and Arjun were the choices remaining for me as of this morning. Now youtubing for Jaihind comedy track 
I am still not fully convinced. I need to check out the scene Subbu has referred to, but something tells me we need to do a bit more research.
yes.. Subbu sonnadha than naan theditrukken – to confirm that's indeed the one
@All: Subbu is the original genius. All bow to him.
YAY!!! Thanks Vijay, But you know wat I included arjun movies in my search only after seeing your post…that's one hell of a movie, without thalaivar 10 mins kooda paaka mudiyathu….
Damn right, Subbu. I was telling myself, "Indha biscothu padathayellaam download panni paarka vendiyirukke!"
and then what the hell is Charuhassan doing in Jai Hind? I could never understand.
Charuhasan-grathu yaaru? Avar appa yaaru? Enna kulam?
@VK, ROTFL, ultimate form!
@Vijay, ROTFLMAO!
ROTFL post.
was watching ‘Chinna Gounder’ last weekend. Goundamani was in his elements… with the accent required matching his own!
dei..nee yenga yeppadi erukka vendiyavan theriyuma