Ee Parakkum Thalika

Unnikrishnan (Dileep) owns and drives an old bus,^[9] received as compensation for his father Thamarakshan Pillai's road accident, which killed Pillai, who was a chenda master. Unni faces consequences due to the pathetic condition of the bus, named after his father. He sells several valuable things to maintain the bus. His friend and distant relative, Sundareshan (Harishree Ashokan), is his only companion and the bus's cleaner. A mouse has eaten Sundareshan's passport and spoiled his chances of going abroad causing him further distress. Some part of the film's comedy involves Sundareshan running behind the mouse for revenge. A live TV show in which Unni badmouths Circle Inspector Veerappan Kurup (Cochin Haneefa) lands him in more trouble when the former commands Unni to leave the city with the bus. Sreedhara Kaimal (Oduvil Unnikrishnan), a banker and well-wisher, tries to help Unni with a bank loan to run a mobile kitchen (Thattukada) from his bus.

The plot takes a turn when a girl named Basanthi (Nithya Das) enters the bus as a nomad. She is actually Gayathri, the daughter of an influential and politically powerful minister R. K. Santhanam in Puducherry. Santhanam forces Gayathri to join politics, which made her leave home. Initially, Gayathri refuses to leave the bus, despite Unni's and Sundareshan's constant efforts. The police trace her and take her back to Santhanam's custody. Santhanam is making arrangements for her marriage to someone else. Meanwhile, Unni realizes that he cannot live without Gayathri. He and Sundareshan secretly enter her house. When Unni and his friends plan to take Gayathri, Santhanam finds them inside the almirah. Santhanam's men start beating up Unni despite Gayathri's pleas to stop. A terribly wounded Unni fights back and refuses to let go of Gayathri and Santhanam realises their true love, letting his daughter go with Unni on his bus.

Ee Parakkum Thalika was a major commercial success.^[10] The film was one of the few films of the year that could retrieve its cost of investment and make a profit.^[11][12] It is considered one of Dileep's first solo hits.^[2] The success of the film further enhanced Dileep's stardom and established him as a bankable star.^[11] In a year-end trade analysis by Rashtra Deepika, they called Ee Parakkum Thalika the biggest financial success of the year and termed it a "surprise hit"^[13][14] It was the second-longest running Malayalam film of 2001, after the Mohanlal starrer Ravanaprabhu.^[13]