 A mafia henchman (Mohanlal) moves to a village and takes over a small temple complex inhabited by a young girl (Manju Warrier) and her surrogate father. Starting off as a mercurial grouch, he soon turns into a benevolent patriarch, protecting citizens from an evil landlord (Narendra Prasad). Probably a turning point in Mohanlal s career. He typecast as the perfect macho star who is never slighted, an unfortunate precedent for the rest of his Malayalam films, which went more or less the same trajectory as Rajni s acting representations in Tamil cinema once he d reaced superstar status. In its defence, Aaram Thamburan is much more watchable than some of the more megalomaniacal cinema which followed though.