Karthik who is seriously trying to rework his career for the first time dons the role of a villain as well as hero in Manathil.  Kaushalya who refused to join the glamour brigade for the first time plays a glamour doll.   Scripted and directed by Mahesh assistant to director Fazil, the film's producer C K Shanmugham had earlier been an exporter of Tamil films like `Swamy', `Pitamaghan' and `Jana' abroad.

Karthik plays the double role of Shiva and Agni. Kaushalya is Nandini who returns to the village after completing her MBBS. Nandini and Siva fall in love. With the families approving the alliance the  astrologer tells them  that the two horoscopes were mismatched, and that if the duo married, it would lead to their death

Agni a look alike of Shiva stops a heart-broken Nandini from committing suicide. Agni gets closer to Nandini. Later on Shiva finds out that it was Agni who had bribed the astrologer to give a false prediction since he too wanted to marry her.

Says Karthik Since Kalabhavan Mani's dates were a problem the director asked me whether I could do the villain role. It's a new experience for me. In future too if I get offers to do the villain role I will accept.

 Editing by G Murali, artwork by Devadas and stunts by Dalapathy Dinesh are the other credits.