Thullatha Manamum Thullum

<p>The film starts with Kutty revealing, on a train journey from Pune to Hyderabad, that he just got out of jail after seven years. His past is revealed in a flashback.Kutty is an aspiring but struggling singer who works for a local cable provider Mani. He is unable to get recognition and a stage to exhibit his musical talent. Rukmini “Rukku”, a college student, is new to the locality where Kutty stays, and on hearing Kutty’s voice, she becomes his fan and decides to seek him and encourage his talent as his voice resembles that of her late father. However, Rukmini always catches Kutty in negative situations and, not knowing that he is Kutty, develops a hatred for him as she thinks that he is a rowdy. Once, when Kutty is pickpocketed, he pursues the pickpocket to Rukmini’s college. In the process, he accidentally drops a bottle of acid to the ground, which causes Rukmini, who is present at the spot where the acid bottle fell, to become blind. Kutty is horrified when he finds out that he is the reason Rukmini had become blind. To make amends, he decides to become her close companion and help her in every way possible. Soon, love blossoms between the two. When Kutty’s mother dies, he finds out that her eyes had been donated. He decides to arrange the operation to restore Rukmini’s eyesight with his mother’s eyes, but as the price of the operation turns out to be very high, he accepts an offer from a man to donate a kidney for his -based father for 40,000. Having paid for Rukmini’s surgery, Kutty leaves for Pune to donate his kidney. While waiting at the to return to , he is framed as a terrorist and arrested. He is then jailed in Pune prison. Seven years later, Kutty is released from prison and returns to Chennai, only to find out that Rukmini had moved out of their locality and is now a , her eyesight having been restored as well. But Rukmini, on seeing Kutty and not knowing that he is Kutty, orders for him to be arrested, in revenge for his “rowdy activities” in the past and for making her blind. But when Kutty begins to sing, Rukmini realises that the “rowdy” she had arrested is none other than Kutty. She apologises for misunderstanding him, and they happily embrace. The film saw director , an erstwhile assistant to the duo , Panneer and , make his debut as a filmmaker under ‘s production house . The film’s concept was inspired from ‘s (1931) that Ezhil had watched during a film festival. An earlier version of the script showed the lead character as a painter. The initial title for the film was ( ), but Choudary later changed it to . Ezhil initially wanted comedian to play the lead role. was also considered for the lead role before was selected. On the suggestion of his friends, Ezhil decided to make the film with a commercial hero and changed the entire script retaining only the emotional core of . Prior to its release, the role of Vijay’s mother in the film was kept under wraps with the media speculating who would play the role. Eventually, no actress played the role although the character played a pivotal part in the film. was initially supposed to do the project, but as the project underwent changes, the actress opted out before she was replaced by . began with the song “Dhuddu” as the director felt it would give the team some time to gel, this was choreographed by . The story takes place in because Ezhil had lived there for a while in his uncle’s house. The team scouted for a long time to find a suitable location that fit the story’s requirements however a chance visit to the set of a film at Murugalaya Studios convinced Ezhil that erecting a set would be far more cost-effective and thus set resembling Triplicane was erected. The soundtrack was composed by . He agreed to compose the music for this film after learning that Ezhil had assisted Robert–Rajasekar, who introduced him in films. The song “Meghamaai Vandhu” which was supposed to be the theme song of the film, was inspired from Urdu song ” ” sang by the Pakistani band in 1997; Ezhil wanted a Tamil version of it. After the song was recorded, he learned that had used the same tune for “Salomiya” from . Rajkumar told him not to worry and gave him the tune of “Innisai Paadi Varum”, which is set to the raga . was released on 29 January 1999. The film received positive reviews and became a huge commercial success, running for over 200 days in theatres. Kala Krishnan Ramesh from mentioned that “the experience of seeing the film is simply thrilling”, mentioning that the success comes from “the naivete, the simplicity, the absolute lack of sophistication, and from the delightful hero (Vijay)”. Rajitha of praised the “unusual premise” and wrote that Ezhil “makes a strong debut with this film”. rated the film 41 out of 100. Thamarai Manaalan of wrote, “Newface director Ezhil thinks in a novel and innovative way” and concluded, “Ezhil who’s stepped into direction has come and conquered too”. D. S. Ramanujam of wrote, “Debutant director S. Ezhil makes his bow on a high note in Super Good Films’, , making a good blend of the entertainment elements through his screenplay based on his story”. K. N. Vijiyan of wrote, “This is an entertaining movie, which uses humour effectively. It will serve to further boost the stature of both Vijay and Simran at the box-office”. The film won three , which include (R. B. Choudary), (Simran), and the (Vijay). The success of led to more offers for Simran, who with and , established herself among the leading actresses in Tamil films. Vijay and Simran were also paired together in several other films after the film’s success, with projects titled (2000) and (2004) launched weeks after the film’s release. The film went on to be remade in as , in as , in as , and in as .</p>