Kadhalukku Mariyadhai

<p>Jeevanantham “Jeeva” is a rich youth who has just completed his . Although his parents want him to marry a girl and settle down, Jeeva prefers to pursue studies instead and is not interested in marriage. However, his attitude changes when he meets Mini, a Christian girl and final-year B.Com student, at a bookstore. He instantly falls in love with her, and after a few incidents, he succeeds in winning her heart. However, Mini’s three elder brothers – a doctor named James, a police officer named Stephen, and a local goon named Thomas – who are all overprotective of her, eventually find out about their sister’s relationship with Jeeva and are furious. They thrash Jeeva, as well as his friends Kesavan and Raghavan, and warn Jeeva never to come near Mini. Undaunted, Jeeva takes Mini to his house, where his father Rajshekhar too disapproves of their relationship and throws them out of the house. Kesavan and Raghavan take the couple to their slum near , where Kesavan explains their situation to his father Kalingeyan, who is a fisherman. Kalingeyan agrees to let the couple stay in his house and also defends them from Mini’s brothers when they come to the slum to kill Jeeva. Later, Kalingeyan decides to get Jeeva and Mini married, but by now, Jeeva and Mini have developed second thoughts about their relationship as their families are against it. They decide to break up and return to their families, which is accepted by Kesavan, Raghavan, and Kalingeyan. But despite breaking up, Jeeva and Mini cannot forget each other. Meanwhile, Mini’s marriage is fixed with someone else. Jeeva’s mother decides to meet Mini before she gets married so that she can get a better wife for Jeeva. Jeeva, his parents, Kesavan, and Raghavan go to Mini’s house, where both families apologize to each other for what happened. But when Jeeva and his family are about to leave, Jeeva’s mother breaks down and requests that Mini’s family get Mini married to Jeeva. Mini’s family, including her brothers, agree to this. Jeeva and Mini are happily reunited. is the Tamil remake of ‘s Malayalam film . Initially, he was keen on casting a debutant in the lead female role, but , the lead actress of the original, insisted that she should also star in the remake. Fazil initially approached for the lead role, but due to mismanagement created by Abbas’ manager with call sheets, was selected instead. Filming began in October 1997, after Vijay completed shooting for his another romantic drama movie (1998), and was completed during early December 1997, after which it was set to release on 19th of December 1997. The soundtrack was composed by , with lyrics written by . The film was released on 19 December 1997. A reviewer from mentioned that “Vijay brings to surface the soft nature of the love”, while adding that the rest of the cast makes “fine contributions”, and praising the director’s work. K. Vijiyan of wrote “This is a movie for the whole family”. Ji of praised the performances of Vijay, Shalini, Ilaiyaraaja’s music and climax but panned the casting choices of Charlie and Dhamu as Vijay’s friends. rated the film 50 out of 100. The film saw Vijay win the alongside , while Palani Bharathi won the . Scenes from the film were spoofed in (2010). Shiva ( ) and a girl take the same book in a way similar to Vijay and Shalini in , but shock awaits as the girl turns out to be married. The song “Ennai Thalatta Varuvala” inspired the title of a . The film’s success led the lead pair, Vijay and Shalini, to collaborate again in (2000), which was also directed by Fazil and became a success.</p>