Devathaiyai Kanden

<p>Babu is a struggling tea vendor who makes a living out of selling milk tea, carrying the business on his bicycle. He falls in love with Uma, a rich college girl. Gradually, Uma also reciprocates Babu’s feelings for his good nature, and things go smoothly for a while. Uma’s parents find her a groom Bala, who is wealthy and who well-educated. Uma is in a dilemma on whom to choose as her life partner. She thinks of her future if she chooses the impoverished Babu, where she visualises herself giving birth to a child in a government hospital, her husband unable to raise required money for her medical expenses, and overall a very difficult life; in contrast to a life where she is pampered by everyone, her every need taken care of almost instantly if she chooses to marry Bala. While Babu is on a religious trip to , Uma decides to marry Bala so that she can continue to lead a comfortable life. Babu is devastated when he learns of this and heartbroken when Uma goes to the extent of shouting at him. He accuses her parents for changing her mind. Babu gets arrested after trying to attempt suicide during a gathering. He is taken to the police station and gets beaten up by an inspector. Babu’s friend Kaduppu Subramani pleads with the inspector, saying that he and Babu are orphans and there is no one to ask after them if they get killed. This changes the inspector’s mind and makes him look at Babu’s plight kindly, and he agrees to file a case against Uma. In a unique way, Babu files a case against Uma for not holding the promise made to him of sharing a life together for a good 50 years. The case soon gathers momentum and has the public discussing it everywhere. As the case progresses, several sacrifices made by Babu for the sake of Uma come into light through revelations made by people known to him and by his close friends. Uma has a change of heart and on the final day of the hearing, decides to reunite with Babu. When Uma offers a rose to Babu, he refuses to accept her, saying that the case was filed not to win her back, but to prevent other men from suffering the same. He justifies further by saying that yesterday she hated him because of his status but today she loves him and tomorrow she may again find him unattractive. Babu also says that as he does not know English, she left him. While leaving the court complex, much to the surprise of the visibly embarrassed Uma, he tells his last word to her in his known English, “Goodbye”. In October 2002, signed a film titled ( ) soon after the success of his debut film . The venture, which is the directorial debut of , was also set to star Dhanush’s co-star . The film was later retitled ( ) and then finally as . replaced Sherin. Despite being announced in 2002, the film faced delays, while Dhanush prioritised other films including (2003), , and (all in 2004). He also worked on a number of dropped films during the period including ‘s , ‘s , and Sibi Chakravarthy’s . However, the production company held themselves, rather than Dhanush, responsible for the delays as they delayed the shooting schedules. This was Sridevi’s last film in Tamil. The soundtrack was composed by . was released on 14 January 2005, during alongside films like , , and . Malini Mannath of wrote “It is Bhoopathypandian’s first directorial venture and he can be appreciated for trying out something out of the routine here. If only he had polished up the earlier scenes too!”. Visual Dasan of praised Pandian’s direction, the performances of Dhanush and Sridevi. Malathi Rangarajan of wrote, “Coherence is a casualty in [ ] and so is tautness. The first half just languishes in light-hearted happenings that are anything but funny. It is in the last hour that the story gains some momentum”. wrote, “Bhoopthy Pandian, the debutant director has no clue about what he was trying to convey to the audience. All the characters are etched out in poor light and less said about the lead pair, the better! For a change, Deva’s lifted music is a blessing. The story, script, presentation is amateurish and the direction is incredibly lifeless and uninvolving”.</p>