Minnale

<p>Rajesh Shivakumar and Rajiv Samuel ‘Sam’ are students at an engineering college in . Sam is a top-performing student who is popular with the students and faculty, while Rajesh, an underperforming student, is notorious for his rebellious, violent and misogynistic attitude. This contrast in personalities puts the two students at loggerheads throughout their college days, with both of them engaging in constant fights and pranks with each other. Upon graduating, Sam and Rajesh decide to never see each other ever again. Sam goes to the United States as he has secured a job while Rajesh decides to stay in India. Two years later, Rajesh is a software engineering instructor in and roams around in his free time with his close friend Chockalingam “Chokku”. He stays with his grandfather Subbuni, a librarian from the neighbourhood of Chennai. Rajesh’s affection for his grandfather is such that he even refuses to accept an on-site opportunity in Singapore so that he can be with him. While on a trip to , he comes across a young woman dancing with children in the rain and gets immediately smitten by her when he sees her face lit by the flash of a lightning bolt. He comes across this woman again during a friend’s wedding and soon learns that the woman’s name is Reena Joseph and she works as a at , Bangalore. Some days later, Rajesh, who is back in Chennai, notices Reena again, this time exiting a Ford office cab. He and Chokku pursue Reena but lose track of her in a mall. Rajesh and Chokku meet Reena’s best friend Vasuki at a market and enquire about Reena. Vasuki informs them that Reena has been transferred to Chennai, however, when she realises that Rajesh is in love with Reena, she angrily says that Reena has already been engaged to an Indian American software engineer from Seattle named Rajiv Samuel, who happens to be her childhood friend, hence it would be futile to pursue her. Rajesh is upset at this development; however, on learning that Reena has never seen Rajiv since her childhood, and on the goading and encouragement of Subbuni and Chokku, decides to pursue Reena. He comes to her house impersonating Rajiv. Reena is smitten by Rajesh and within a few days, she reciprocates Rajesh’s love. Rajesh decides to reveal his true identity to her, but before he can, the real Rajiv arrives in Chennai. When Reena realises that the “Rajiv” she loves is an impostor, she breaks up with him and warns him never to come near her again. Rajesh, Chokku, and their friends decide to meet Rajiv to somehow convince him to break his engagement with Reena. To Rajesh’s shock, he finds out that Rajiv is his old nemesis, Sam. Enraged that Rajesh cheated Reena, Sam refuses to break up their engagement. Rajesh also tries to seek Reena’s forgiveness, to no avail, and stalks her while she is on a date with Sam at a restaurant. Sam notices this and both he and Rajesh engage in a brawl which is stopped by Reena, who again warns Rajesh never to come near her. Sam even threatens to kill Rajesh if he sees him at the same place as Reena ever again. Enraged, Rajesh, Chokku, and their friends decide to beat up Sam in a parking lot, but Rajesh backs out at the last minute, accepting the bitter truth that Sam and Reena are going to get married as well as realising what he did all this while was wrong. Rajesh decides to accept the on-site opportunity in Singapore which he had earlier rejected, to forget Reena. Meanwhile, Reena realises that she has fallen in love with Rajesh, despite having been cheated on by him. On the wedding day, Sam realises the love Reena has for Rajesh. He immediately cancels the wedding and takes Reena to , where Rajesh is awaiting his flight to Singapore. Sam tells Rajesh that although they will always be enemies, he is unwilling to marry a girl who does not love him. He tells him to take good care of Reena and leaves, intending to never meet Rajesh again. Rajesh and Reena are reunited. Gautham Vasudev Menon launched a Tamil romantic film titled, in 2000 with the project eventually changing producers and title into with , who was at the beginning of his career, being signed on to portray the lead role. About the making of the film, Menon revealed that he found it difficult as the team was new to the industry with only the editor of the film, Suresh Urs, being a prominent technician in the industry. Menon had come under further pressure when Madhavan had insisted that Menon narrated the story to his mentor, , to identify if the film was a positive career move after the success of his . Despite initial reservations, Menon did so and Ratnam was unimpressed; however Menon has cited that he thought that Madhavan “felt sorry” and later agreed to continue with the project. , was considered to play the film’s heroine during July 2000, as was , but eventually they were left out and , who appeared in her first Tamil film, was cast. also saw Madhavan collaborating with Abbas for second time after Kannada film . Post-release, Abbas felt that his scenes had been cut from the film and accused Madhavan of playing a role in editing his sequences out from the film. The music and background score of the movie were composed by . The audio cassette of the film was released in at a function in January 2001, where the songs were also screened. Upon release, the soundtrack received critical acclaim and was a major contributor to the film’s commercial success. The song “Vaseegara” is set in Natabhairavi raga marked the debut of poet as a film song lyricist. All songs except “Ivan Yaaro” and “Iru Vizhi Unadhu” (“Ore Nyabagam”) were reused in the film’s Hindi version by Harris himself. The film was advertised as a release in 2001 in Tamil Nadu, but was released on 2 February 2001, and upon release it went on to become a large success commercially. Madhavan became extremely popular among the youth after the release of , but had a setback as his next film underperformed. made him once again popular among the youth. Savitha Padmanabhan of claimed that the film had a “lot of verve and vigour” and that it was “sure to go down well” with the “yuppie, college-going youngsters”. A reviewer, Shilpa Kannan from , also gave the film a positive review, writing “the entire movie is given an advertisement like treatment by the director. It is glossy, stylish, youthful and trendy”. Visual Dasan of rated the film “above average”. Harris Jayaraj won the , the film’s only nomination at the . Jayaraj broke ’s 8 year long Filmfare winning streak. was dubbed into under the name and also performed well at the box office, owing to Madhavan’s popularity in Andhra Pradesh. The success of led to producer Vashu Bhagnani signing Menon on to direct the Hindi language remake of the film in the same year, (2001), which featured Madhavan reprising his role. The Hindi version gained mixed reviews and subsequently went on to become an above average grosser at the box office. However, the film belatedly gained popularity through screenings on television and subsequently developed a cult following amongst young audiences and the actors released a video thanking the film’s admirers for their adulation on the fifteenth anniversary of the film’s release. The film was also remade in Kannada as (2011).</p>