Sathi Leelavathi

<p>Arun is married to Leelavathi, arranged by their parents, and they have two children together. He is embarrassed by his wife’s plain looks and weight. When he meets Priya, who works in a building construction company, he hides from her the fact that he is married, and they have an affair. When Arun and Priya decide to go on vacation to Bangalore over a long weekend, Arun bumps into an old friend Sakthivel, an orthopaedic surgeon from Coimbatore, who is also going on holiday to Bangalore with his wife Palani and his son Anand. Sakthivel ends up travelling with Arun on the same flight and even staying in the same hotel, and Arun attempts over the trip there to hide that Priya is with him, as Sakthivel knows Arun is married to Lela. On the first night there, Sakthivel is called to Arun’s room in the night as Arun has injured his back and the hotel doctor is unavailable. He bumps into Priya in the room finds out about their affair, but hesitantly keeps it under wraps from his own family under Arun’s insistence. After returning to Chennai, Priya finds out that Arun is married and even has children, but decides to stay with him when Arun says he was forced into this marriage and promises to divorce his wife. When Arun’s wife Leelavathi discovers Arun’s affair through pictures Sakthivel’s son Anand took of their holiday, she has a huge breakdown, leading to Arun moving out of their home and into Priya’s flat. With the help of Sakthivel and Palani, and then Priya’s old lover Raja, Leelavathi sends their children to stay with Arun and Priya, then her father-in-law and pet dog as well, making Priya hate Arun. Finally Priya unites with Raja, apologising to him, and Arun unites with Leelavathi. The initial plot of revolved around two men fighting over a woman, with one of them being the antagonist. , who had grown weary of being typecast in “soft” roles, readily accepted ‘s offer to portray the antagonist to break the stereotype, but deep into pre-production, felt this premise had been “done-to-death”, and according to Raja, “From a bad guy, I became the extreme good guy”. was initially offered the lead role but his unavailability meant that the team finalised . Haasan, who was supposed to appear only in four scenes, was attracted by the story and took on an important role. was Mahendra’s choice for the role of Palani, although Haasan wanted . Mahendra objected, but Haasan remained adamant, and the director gave in. According to Sarala, post-release Mahendra was delighted that she was part of the film and that he felt bad for initially doubting her ability. Haasan speaks in the film, which he was said to have learned from Sarala. The film was loosely inspired by 1989 American film , but does not depict the female lead trying to establish her own identity at the cost of her husband’s. The music was composed by , with lyrics by . The song “Marugo Marugo” pays homage to the song of the same name from (1989). was released on 15 January 1995, the week of . R. P. R. of criticised the story’s lack of originality, but lauded Mohan’s dialogues and Haasan’s humour-based performance. The film was a success, which Haasan attributed in large part to Sarala’s comedy. She won the . was dubbed in Telugu under the same title, with Haasan’ voice dubbed by instead of the usual . It was remade in as (1999), and in as (2005) with Aravind and Haasan reprising their roles.</p>