Santhwanam (TV series)

Krishnan and Lakshmi have four sons and run a grocery store, Krishna Stores, in a town named Ambalathara. Their world crumbles when Lakshmi's brother Shankaran forces Krishnan into financial difficulty, causing Krishnan to kill himself. Balakrishnan, the eldest son, marries Devi. She helps to look after his ailing mother and his brothers (Hari, Shiva, and Kannan) as if they were her own kids. Devi is often criticized by her relatives for not having children, but her brothers-in-law do not let it affect her.

Shankaran pressures Lakshmi to agree to an arranged marriage between his daughter, Anju, and her son, Hari. However, Hari opposes this because he is in love with his college friend Appu. Devi asks Balan to convince Appu to leave Hari, but he refuses. Devi secretly visits Appu's father Thampi, a powerful landlord, who gets offended and beats her; this transgression causes Hari to accept the marriage proposal. Thampi decides to kill Hari but his plan falls apart. Appu creates a scene in the wedding hall, leaving the relationships between the two families strained.

To save the family's reputation, Devi decides that Shivan should marry Anju. Eventually, Hari marries Appu and Shivan marries Anju, but Devi is criticized by Anju's mother, Lakshmi, and Anju for what is seen as a poor match. The couple eventually does come to love each other, though they have difficulty expressing it. Meanwhile, Appu and Hari fight over money until Appu adjusts to the lifestyle at Santhwanam.

Thampi sees Kannan escorting Appu's younger sister, Amritha or "Ammu", back home. Suspecting that they are lovers, Thampi assaults him. Kannan tells his brothers about this, who confront Thampi and have a physical altercation. Appu worries about her father. Enraged, Thampi stops sending goods to Krishna Stores. As a result, there occurs a rapid shortage of goods at the shop. However, the brothers find a way to manage, and slowly, everything starts to become normal.

Shiva and Anjali get ready to go to a relative's wedding. On their way back home, they get into an accident when someone hits their bike. Shiva and Anjali tell Balan and Hari that the accident was intentional. Balan asks Hari to ask around about the accident before calling Sethu and informing him about the accident. Jayanthi, who was standing near Sethu, hears all this and calls Savitri and Shankaran to inform them. They rush to Santhwanam house and Savitri creates a scene. Savitri blames Shivan for the accident saying that it is because they did not give enough dowry he pushed Anjali intentionally off the bike. Meanwhile, Hari discovers that the man that hit Shivan and Anjali's bike was one of Thampi's men, Mahendran. Hari comes back home and discusses this with his brothers secretly but Jayanthi overhears their conversations and blames Appu for the accident, exposing the truth to the whole family. Lakshmi is enraged by this and angrily orders Appu to get out of the house. Appu is heartbroken and the next morning she goes missing from the house. Hari is deeply worried about her. Balan, Hari, Shiva, and Kannan searches for Appu everywhere. Finally, Balan and Hari find her in Amaravathy and bring her back. Balan scolds Appu for leaving Santhwanam house without informing anyone and for pleading with Thampi for his forgiveness. Appu replies that she went away not because of the last night's incidents but because she wanted to question her father about what he did and warn him to not hurt the family again.

Appu's birthday arrives and she expects a gift from Hari, reminiscing on the gifts he gave her on her past birthdays. Shivan helps Anjali as she struggles with a headache but gives her the wrong medicine. Balan surprises Shivan by gifting him a mobile phone. Shivan calls Anju to enquire about her health and starts worrying. Later, Appu gets emotional when Hari forgets her birthday. Anjali saw her cry and asked if everything was alright. Appu revealed that it was her birthday. Anjali secretly phones Hari and informs him about Appu's birthday. Later the family surprises Appu with a party. After the party, Hari tells Appu that she should be thankful to Anju for reminding him of her birthday. This makes Appu angry and she accuses Anjali of still having feelings for Hari. This really upsets Anju. At the same time, Shivan and Anju spent some quality time and they reveal each other's birth dates. The very next day Appu apologizes to Anju, but Anju denies it. Anju also shouts at Hari.

Anjali asks Shivan to come for her college reunion. At first, Shivan denies it, but later Balan asks him to go. On the day of the reunion Anjali puts forth some conditions which were not acceptable for Shivan and he backs out from the plan. This makes Balan angry and he scolds Shiva. After that Anjali tells Balan that it was because of her unacceptable conditions Shivan backed out from the plan.

Aparna wishes to go for a honeymoon but eventually, Aparna ends up going with the whole family except Balan and his mother. Appu is not happy about this at all but still goes along with it. During this time, Shivan and Anjali grow closer. At home, Savitri and Shankaran take care of Balan's mother and the business respectively. But Savitri forgets to give medicine to Lakshmi (Balan's mother). Though she gets unconscious Balan and Shankaran rush her to the hospital and she is saved. Meanwhile, Shivan, Anjali, Aparna, Hari, Sridevi, and Kannan return and go to the hospital. when they come home everyone expresses their disgust at Savitiri's actions.

Later on, Kannan's friends cheat him and he is arrested by police. The whole Santhwanam family is distraught. Thampi uses this opportunity to mock Balan. The person who gave the case against Kannan was Appu's cousin on the basis of a misunderstanding. Shiva and Hari find the real culprit and make him tell the truth to Appu's cousin. Then Kannan is freed from police custody due to Appu convincing her cousin to retrieve the case against him and Appu tells her father that nothing can break the love of the Santhwanam family.

Balan brings a scooter for the whole family and Aparna mistakes the scooter as her husband's gift as she had just told him that she wants a bike the night before. Aparna gets friendly with Anjali and she wishes for the union of Shivanjali. Some days later Anjali's father informed Santhwanam housemates that Anjali's mother is ill and requests Anjali to accompany him back home. But when Shivan told him that he will allow only a few days to stay (indirectly saying that he can't miss her). Anjali's father was very happy and left the house on the promise that Shivan will bring Anjali to her home. Anjali was very happy to hear the concern of her husband in her matters and realizes his love. When Anjali comes to her house, her mother and Jayanti forces her to get a divorce from Shivan and to remarry another person for her well-being. Anjali gets frustrated. She calls Shivan and asks him to pick her back from her home. Later she rebukes her mother and Jayanti and returns to Santhwanam house. Later, Anjali asks Shivan to buy some black Halva for her. Shivan agrees and buys some for her. When he reaches the house, he overhears Anjali talking about them with Kannan, Devi & Appu. She tells that at first she pretended to love him for her father's sake but now she loves him very much. Shivan only hears the part about her saying that she pretended to love him and is heartbroken. He gets back on his motorcycle and drives far away and in a fit of anger, he throws the halva at the roadside. He eventually sees Sethu and gets drunk and pours his heart out to Sethu. He reaches the Santhwanam house in the morning, only to find that Anjali has been waiting for him, worried. He does not tell her that he overheard her, and instead talks to her in an unaffectionate way. Anjali is confused and heartbroken. She later tells him that she is going to her parents' house. Meanwhile, Appu finds out that she is pregnant. The family is overwhelmed especially Devi. She takes good care of Appu and does everything to please her. Anjali returns on her birthday but Shiva has gone to Anjali's house to surprise her. When he goes there, Savithri taunts him. On the other hand, Anjali thinks that Shiva is still angry with her. Shiva waits for Anjali but leaves for home when it is late. Anjali is in their room waiting for Shiva. When Shiva comes back home, he sees Anjali but thinks that he is dreaming about Anjali. When he realizes that Anjali really came back, he struggles to wish her a happy birthday but somehow wishes her seconds before twelve. Balan and Devi advise them to set things right between them. On the other hand, Thambi is enraged upon learning that Appu is pregnant and no one informed him about it. After much convincing, Thambi agrees to meet Appu. His wife asks her and Hari to come to her house and stay for some days but Hari refuses to go. Somehow, they manage to convince Hari and he half-heartedly leaves with Appu.

Thambi pretends to soften up with Hari and Aparna and gifts them clothes. Hari is suspicious as Balan had been warned by Thanbi that he will seperate Hari from the former. Hari escapes from Thambi's house during dawn and arrives by Santhwanam, but is sent back by Balan. Aparna lashes out at Hari for leaving the house. Thambi starts talking business but his plan does not seem to work during Hari's stay in Amaravathy. Aparna and Hari return to Santhwanam, much to the family's delight.

This series has an original Tamil version Pandian Stores which was adapted in various Indian languages: