Ramji Londonwaley

Story:

Ramji Londonwaley is a 2005 Indian Hindi-language comedy-drama film directed by Sanjay Dayma and produced by Sunanda Murali Manohar. The film stars Madhavan and Samita Bangargi. Madhavan also worked as the dialogue writer for the film. The film had a theatrical release across India on 2 September 2005. Featuring a story written by Kamal Haasan, the film is a remake of Madhavan’s Tamil film Nala Damayanthi (2003)

PLOT

Ramji is a naive and docile village cook who has taken upon himself the sole responsibility of marrying his sister to a good family, as they are orphans. He eventually finds a good suitor for her and then he has to shell out dowry for the groom’s family -whereby the marriage is arranged and preparations made. Therefore, Ramji plans to go to London and work as a cook for a multi-millionaire dollar London-based Indian businessman-family. The arrangement is that Ramji will have to send part of his salary as a compensation for the dowry he owes. Unfortunately on the day Ramji arrives at the employer’s door-step, the millionaire who hired him is very sick, and eventually passes away before signing Ramji’s paperwork- leaving him jobless. Desperate to stay and earn (as he had promised his sister’s dowry), he starts working illegally (without work-permit) as an expert Indian chef in an Indian restaurant owned by an NRI, Guru, who has a wife and a handicapped son. Eventually, due to his good manners, friendliness and expert skills he wins the family’s heart. As the restaurant becomes lucrative due to Ramji’s excellent culinary skills, the police are on his heels.

Jai Kapoor, Guru’s cunning lawyer friend, explains that the only way out is marriage with a British citizen, and suggests Ramji to marry his own girlfriend Samira. Guru also convinces Ramji to do ‘marriage of convenience’ so that he can win this case against the police who have filed a case against his restaurant business (hiring illegal immigrants). Ramji reluctantly agrees for a “fake” marriage with Jai’s girlfriend Samira, and they get married over the weekend inside a church (so that paperwork comes faster) and he converts into Christianity as Robert. For all these gimmicks, the lawyer charges heavy fees from Mr. Guru and deposits them in the joint account of his wife Samira.

The police become more and more suspicious that this is a fake marriage and refer the matter to the consulate. The embassy invites both Ramji and Samira for interview for which they start preparing by getting to know each other better. By this time, Ramji finds out more about the cunning shrewd character of Jai (the lawyer) in a chance meeting at the bus stop with Jai’s ex -wife. The lady explains how Jai had promised her so many things and then suddenly deserted her and her son- for which she will seek revenge on him for abandoning his family. Ramji explains this all to Samira and Samira also meets with Jai’s ex-wife. In the meantime, constant stalking by the police forces Samira and Ramji to stay/live together to avoid detection by authority. Samira is deeply troubled with rural mannerisms of Ramji. To break the ice, Ramji cooks delicacies for Samira and wins her heart. Gradually, Samira also realises that Jai is merely fooling around with her life and doesn’t really love her.

Meanwhile, Ramji is not able to send the dowry installments as promised and his sister’s in-laws throw her out of the house. Ramji’s sister desperately calls Ramji and Samira answers the call and handles the situation by sending all the money received for the fake marriage in her and Jai’s joint account to her and makes sure her long-time friend is taken care of. Unfortunately, in their final interview with the consulate, Ramji answers more than he is asked at the immigration office then is forced to return to India ( due to being illegal worker). However, as Ramji is preparing to be deported a good news comes; Ramji wins a cooking competition (which Samira had enlisted him for) and thus, wins more money and employment opportunities at Ritz Hotel.