Vaseegara

<p>Bhoopathy is a happy-go-lucky youth from who is sent by his father Mani Gounder to stay with his best friend Vishwanathan at , , so that he can get a job and behave responsibly. Priya is Vishwanathan’s daughter who is engaged to an groom Prakash. Priya and Bhoopathy are at loggerheads and constantly fight and play pranks on each other. Soon, however, Priya falls for Bhoopathy. While Bhoopathy also loves Priya back, he realises that she is already engaged to another man and is also reminded of his father’s words that he (Bhoopathy) should not make him (father) lose face with his friend under any circumstances. With this in mind, he starts to keep a distance from Priya and decides to return to Pollachi, only to be stopped by Vishwanathan. Some days later, Priya and Bhoopathy, along with Priya’s younger cousin sister Pappi, go to Ooty to attend the wedding of Priya’s friend Asha. At Ooty, Bhoopathy attends the of the groom Sriman. While drunk, he reveals his feelings about Priya. After the marriage, Bhoopathy, Priya and Pappi, along with a photographer Ganesh, go on a day-out to , where Ganesh takes a photo of Bhoopathy and Priya holding hands. Bhoopathy keeps snubbing Priya and her romantic overtures to him during the trip as he is reminded of his promise to his father but cannot forget her. On the day before Priya’s wedding, Mani arrives in Chennai and knows about the relationship between Bhoopathy and Priya. Later that night, Prakash and his family see the photo of Bhoopathy and Priya holding hands and Prakash’s father Chandrasekhar decides to call off the wedding unless Vishwanathan can pay 1 crore to him, which Vishwanathan refuses to do. When Vishwanathan confronts Priya, Priya’s aunt Lakshmi, who is aware of the love Priya has for Bhoopathy as well as Bhoopathy’s dilemma, reveals the truth to Vishwanathan. Meanwhile, Bhoopathy is at the railway station, trying to convince Prakash to marry Priya. Vishwanathan, who has also arrived at the railway station, sees this, and realising the true reasons behind Bhoopathy backing out over his love for Priya, sends Prakash and his family away and accepts Bhoopathy’s relationship with Priya. In the end, Bhoopathy marries Priya. , who had worked previously with in and , opted to remake the 2001 Telugu hit into Tamil with his previous film ‘s lead actor Vijay retained. The remake’s title was derived a song from (2001). was signed on to as the lead actress, acting with Vijay for the first time. was also signed on to play a supporting role. A song from the film was canned in , while scenes were shot at Birla Planetarium and MGM Dizzee world. Unlike the Telugu original which did not have any fight sequences, Tamil version included a fight sequence. Vaseegara’s soundtrack was composed by , which marked his fourth and final collaboration with Vijay after , and . While “Aaha Enparkal” and “Poopola Theepola” were reused from the original, “Venaam Venaam” was reused from “Vaana Vaana” from , also composed by Rajkumar. was released on 14 January 2003, during , and opened alongside several prominent films such as and . The film grossed 8 crore during its lifetime, and estimated it suffered a loss of (equivalent to 18 crore or US$2.2 million in 2023). gave 3 stars out of 5 and stated ” is Romantic-Comedy entertainment that leaves you with a smile on your face”, calling it “a perfect outing with your family this festival season”. rated the film 41 out of 100. Franco of stated “I strongly believe Vijay has never been so hilarious before […] all the characters have done their part well, especially Puppy” and rated 3 stars out of 5. Visual Dasan of wrote even if you remove the small flaws, is half a poem and the rest is prose. Malini Mannath of wrote “The film opens interestingly enough, the earlier scenes being lively and enjoyable. It’s more to do with the characterisation of the hero than the situations. [..] But then the narration proceeds on the same plane, there are hardly any exciting moments in the script, and it all becomes a bit too monotonous in the end”. wrote “Though the storyline is very thin it is the presentation that is refreshing. Director Selvabharathy has done commendable job. Though Vijay is no match to Venkatesh, he has given honest performance. Sneha is okay. Music by S A Rajkumar fails to rise above the ordinary, while the cinematography by Balasubramaniam deserves mention. Gayathri Jayaram, the other heroine, has nothing but couple of scenes”. wrote “There is nothing remarkably different about this film from all his [Vijay] other recent releases. Its the usual single-lined story, a soggy screenplay and a very ordinary direction”. wrote “The script is a bit different from the normal romantic films and the director has treated the subject well. However, at times one can see the shades of overacting by the lead characters in trying to evoke laughter”.</p>