Oh Manapenne!

<p>Karthik, lethargic by nature, completes his by clearing his subjects after almost five years. His dream is to become a chef and open a restaurant, but he receives no support from his father. Shruthi is a very focused girl who works hard to fulfill her dreams of going to Australia. However, her father shows no interest, as she is a girl and he wanted a boy instead. When Karthik and Shruthi meet at a matchmaking event, her younger cousin, Barath, accidentally locks the door, which jams very often, leaving them stuck in the same room. To pass time, they talk about their past. Shruthi reveals that she was in love with a man named Arjun. They both wanted to start a food truck business. Arjun went to to talk with his father about their love and business. Meanwhile, Shruthi started her plan eagerly and was ready to surprise Arjun by buying the truck. But things went wrong and Arjun did not come back, because he became engaged. Shruthi and her father waited for him but when they realised Arjun was not coming back, her father decided to get her married to someone else. On his turn, Karthik reveals that he was unemployed and always went out with his two friends, Sathya and Faizal. So Karthik and his friends made cooking videos, as he is passionate about cooking. But it was not profitable enough, so they took to prank videos and were caught by Karthik’s father, which ended their plan. It is then revealed, after the door is fixed, that Karthik came to the wrong address for his matchmaking event. Later, Karthik goes to his actual matchmaking event, which is with a rich family. Meanwhile, Shruthi tells the man coming to her matchmaking event that she is not interested in the marriage. The family of Karthik’s prospective bride wants him to be able to run a business, so he and Shruthi decide to operate the food truck themselves, with Karthik as the chef, and Shruthi in charge of the business side of things. At first, they face many difficulties, mainly because of Karthik and his friends’ laziness as well as fighting with Shruthi and giving up the food truck. Later, Karthik visits Shruthi’s house and informs her father that he should be proud to have such a responsible daughter. He also claims that if he ever gets a son like him, he would wish to have a daughter like Shruthi and insists that he let her pursue her dreams. Because of this, Shruthi understands the good nature of Karthik and later convinces Karthi’s father that he is a talented cook by cooking them Karthik’s recipe. Then they kickstart their business with the support of both their parents. After this, their food truck became a major success. In the process, they fall in love without realising it, but Karthi has an engagement party a few days later, so they drift apart. After realising they love each other, they come back together through a radio show organised by Shruthi’s friend Ramya. With the support of their family and friends, Karthik and Shruthi reunite successfully. In late October 2016, bought the rights to remake the film (2016) in , under his banner Ondraga Entertainment. The film was titled , and was to be directed by Menon’s assistant Senthil Veerasamy. In March 2017, Menon chose and as the lead actors. was chosen as the cinematographer, with and Praveen Anthony as the music composer and editor respectively. Though Vishal anticipated that filming would begin in July or August 2017, the start of filming faced repeated delays, and ultimately by December, Vishal opted out of the project as he could no longer allot new dates due to the delays. Followed by the uncertainty prevailing over the film’s lead cast after Vishal’s exit, adding to the reason was budgetary constraints which prompted Menon to shelve the project. Though Menon initially planned on reviving the project with a new cast and lower budget, by November 2019 the project had undergone a complete change in cast and crew. The new film was jointly produced by A Studios LLP, A Havish Production, SP Cinemas, Madhav Media and Third Eye Entertainment, with Kaarthikk Sundar, a former associate of , making his directorial debut, and Satyanarayana Koneru and Ramesh Varma Penmesta handling production duties. The screenplay was written by Deepak Sundarrajan, cinematography was handled by Krishnan Vasant, and editing by Kripakaran. The title was revealed on 1 October 2020, derived from the song of the same name from (2010). Kaarthikk said, “We wanted to have a title that refers to weddings/matchmaking. The names that we had zeroed in on were either too old or not interesting enough”, but when he was listening to the song, he chose that as the film’s title. Kaarthikk chose not to do a remake, but kept the original film’s essence, and added, “Since have many commonalities, there was not much to change”. In November 2019, was announced as the lead actor, and a month later as the lead actress. In a December 2019 interview, Kaarthikk said that after watching , he told Harish he would be a “perfect fit” as the lead actor if the film was to be remade in Tamil. In an October 2020 interview, Kaarthikk said that when he thought of the lead characters of , Harish and Priya came to his mind and he was convinced they could pull off the roles of a “boy-next-door” and “bossy character” respectively with conviction. In preparation for his role as a chef, Harish learnt cooking from Siddhanth, the owner of the barbecue food truck Spitfire BBQ, on whose life the original film was based. The team also approached Siddhanth to play a minor role. The film is the feature debut of theatre actor Abishek Kumar, who Kaarthik cast because of their friendship and Kaarthik’s belief that he was a “natural actor”. Abishek said he sought to avoid deep preparation and , and that he was “just trying to fit the role in the most natural way possible”. began on 11 December 2019, and in February 2020, a week before the was declared. Post-production works began soon after filming wrapped. According to Kaarthikk, “The lockdown only helped us as we could patiently edit and get it done”. The soundtrack was composed by . It consists of four songs and two instrumentals. The song “Lazy Song” fuses with the western and genres. It was released on 26 February 2021 as a single. Another single “Bodhai Kaname” was released on 30 July 2021. The third single “Aao Ji Aao” was released on 15 October 2021. was released on 22 October 2021 via . M. Suganth of called it “a worthy remake that is as charming and delightful” as the Telugu original. Ashameera Aiyappan of said “is a light, breezy film about love and aspirations. It might work better if watched as a stand-alone film, without the lingering presence of looming ahead of it”.</p>