Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa

<p>Karthik is a graduate in with poor results who aspires to become a filmmaker instead of an engineer. His friend introduces him to Ganesh, a cinematographer. With Ganesh’s help Karthik becomes an assistant to director. Karthik’s family, who are Hindus, rent the bottom floor of Jessie’s house. Jessie is from a conservative /Syrian Catholic family from , who lives upstairs. Karthik falls in love with Jessie the moment he sees her on the street in front of their house. He tries to interact with Jessie, who is afraid of speaking to men around her strict father, and ends up angering her. Unable to hide his feelings any longer, Karthik confesses his love for her but she does not accept. A few days later, Karthik learns from his sister that Jessie has gone to Kerala to visit her grandmother. He and Ganesh end up in Kerala to look for her. After several days, he finds her and apologises. She introduces him to her family in Kerala as her “classmate”. Jessie denies she has any feelings for him but agrees to only be his friend. However, on the train journey back home, Karthik purposely sits closely next to her and kisses her a few times but she eventually gently slaps him to make him stop. Karthik is convinced that Jessie loves him and repeatedly expresses his love towards her while she continues rejecting him by stating that her parents would not allow them to be together. She says that both of them are from different religious and ethnic backgrounds, and she is also a year older than him. The two meet several times and Jessie begins to realize that she also likes Karthik, but wants to refrain from any problems because she knows her father wouldn’t accept the union. Eventually, due to various misunderstandings between Jessie’s brother, Jerry (Ranjith Velayudhan) and Karthik, her parents learn of their supposed affair. They arrange for Jessie to be married to a different man and schedule her wedding. The wedding day arrives and midway through the ceremony, Jessie refuses to marry the groom, displeasing everyone in her family. Karthik, who had, without anyone’s knowledge, come to Kerala to witness the wedding is ecstatic and secretly visits Jessie at her home. It is then that Jessie admits she has indeed fallen in love with him. Karthik and Jessie continue to see each other without the knowledge of their parents. At this point of time, Karthik goes to on a 45-day film shoot, where he gets rather busy. Meanwhile, the topic of Jessie’s marriage comes up again at her home when the guy whom she refused to marry earlier pays them a visit. Panicking, Jessie calls Karthik and tells him that she wants to elope with him. Karthik, since he is traveling through less than ideal places, tells Jessie to stay in Chennai for now, and that soon he would be back and they can discuss. Jessie then stops taking Karthik’s calls and so he goes back one night to check on Jessie. He learns that Jessie has decided to break up, as the relationship is not peaceful due to her parents’ disapproval. She says she has agreed to marry a boy of their choice. When Karthik pleads her not to do it, she tells him that a time had come when she was willing to elope, but the moment was gone. She doesn’t want Karthik to wait for her too long, as he has his dreams to fulfill. Karthik later learns that she is married and has settled in the UK. Two years later, Karthik meets Nandini. She falls in love with him, but Karthik rejects her by saying that he hasn’t yet gotten over Jessie. He then comes up with a script for his first film, which happens to be his very own love story and is shot in Tamil. He calls upon as the film’s protagonist, Nandini as the female lead and Ganesh as the film’s cinematographer. The film is eventually titled “Jessie”. While shooting for the film in New York, he sees Jessie and she comes to speak with him. Angry at her parents for not allowing her to be with Karthik, Jessie moves to New York. She admits that she is not married and is still in love with him, and he too says she is still in his heart. Karthik and Jessie spend time with each other around New York City. Karthik proposes yet again and they get married the same day. This is actually revealed to be the end scene in Karthik’s film – which Karthik and Jessie in real life are watching together in the theatre. After the film ends, it is revealed to the audience that Jessie had in fact seen Karthik in New York but had not come forward to meet him. She is married now and hence asks Karthik to move on. She tells Karthik that they cannot lead a life which is full of obstacles as well as without parents’ approval and hence they depart separately, to lead different lives and different destinies. After making a series of action films, Gautham Vasudev Menon actively chose to make an “out and out love story” at the insistence of his close associates, and marked a return to the genre for the first time since (2001). Initially titled , inspired by the title of a song from , Menon started writing the film as a simple love story which slowly became an intense love story, as the scripting phase progressed. Stating that the film would narrate the romantic tale of two people called Karthik and Jessie over a period of almost three years, he revealed that the film would be “conversation driven” and hoped “everybody will identify with the lead pair”. Menon took the script to producer , who asked him to narrate the film to her brother and the movie was a and bilingual. Menon initially felt that the film would not suit the actor, but later agreed preliminary terms to make it in Telugu titled with the actor and have as the music composer, as he was impressed with the story. Continuing from the earlier proposed theme of , Menon later chose to use the second line of the song to title his film as , after it was suggested by the cinematographer . Menon discussed a Tamil and Telugu version of the script with several actors including , and who had wanted changes to be made to the climax, and described being “one week away” from starting the project with a debutant actor. But in late January 2009, Menon confirmed that he was in discussions with and to portray the lead roles from the script. After finding out that Silambarasan had dates available as a result of the delay in the shoot of ‘s (2012), Menon chose to halt the production of his ongoing and finalise pre-production work on . Menon added that Silambarasan was “apt for this kind of a film” and was “ready to experiment and try something different” from his usual film roles, prompting him to agree to star in the film. As Menon was working with Trisha on , he chose to use her dates for instead. To pique interest before the official announcement, the makers released a series of film posters featuring Silambarasan and Trisha inspired from previous classic Tamil films. The team used posters inspired from (1989), (1997), (1998), (2000) and (2003). Other members of the technical crew included Menon’s regular collaborators editor , art director , costume designer and lyricist . The project was jointly produced by and , with , , Madhan as producers. For the role of a mentor to Karthik’s character, Menon first approached , but he turned down the opportunity. Later, one of the film’s producers, , was cast in the role, in what later became his breakthrough film as an actor. Chennai-based model was recruited to portray the role of an assistant director who falls in love with Karthik, but the role was later reshot with , who worked as the lead actress of the film’s Telugu version. Janani Iyer was subsequently seen in the background of several scenes where Karthik is shown to be a part of a film production team. also auditioned for the role of Jessy’s brother in the film and was selected, but eventually did not feature after having a clash of dates. Singer dubbed for the lead actresses – Trisha, Samantha and Amy Jackson in Tamil, Telugu, and Hindi languages respectively. Scenes were shot in the lakes of during April 2009 for a month, with the doubling up as caravans. In May, the team moved to to film the song sequences for “Hosanna” and “Omana Penne”, choreographed by Flexy Stu. For the particular song sequences in the film, Menon wanted “churches, water and caves” and convinced the producers to finance a trip to Malta, and in the process, the team became the first South Indian film to shoot in the country. Scenes were shot in places including , , and , as well as in lanes, alleys, eight churches and during the time of a village feast. The makers brought along a crew of twenty-six people to Malta, with ten local workers also helping on the production. The shoot lasted ten days and cost approximately €90,000. In October 2009, the team flew to the to complete the final filming schedule. Scenes were shot throughout locations in and , with particular shots filmed at , and . But 70% of filming took place in and as well. The soundtrack was composed by . marked the beginning of a collaboration between Rahman, Silambarasan and . The world premiere was held at in London on 25 December 2009 and later it was relaunched in on 6 January 2010. The album consists of seven tracks. The audio received good pre-release response and was marked as No. 1 in Asia, in advance bookings. It retained the same tunes for the Telugu version of the film, and the Hindi remake, . The film was given a by the because, according to Menon, they believed “the love in the film was too intense for a child to understand”. said that it was “Very good” further citing “The film is a must watch for those who cares for cinema of sense and substance. It stresses the fact that Tamil cinema has to break the mould if it aims to grab eyeballs. Gautham Menon has crafted a movie that will stay in our hearts for a long, long time.” Pavithra Srinivasan of called the film a “Must watch” further citing “The best part about VTV is that it revolves around people, rather than events. It’s like putting a camera into the intimate, everyday life of two people and following them on their adventures. The characters go through a whirlwind of emotions, laugh and cry, and take you along with them.” However, the reviewer points out certain drawbacks in the film citing “On the minus side, VTV suffers from the same defect as Vaaranam Aayiram: the second half lags in pace. The dialogues and confrontations are repetitive. There’s a would-be love-track that seems unnecessary before the story takes off again.” Malathi Rangarajan from said “Twenty two-year old Karthik’s true-to-life overtures, reactions and recklessness are just as you would expect from a director of Menon’s calibre. It is his authentic depiction of Jessie’s confusion that’s all the more amazing – Menon’s complete understanding of a woman’s psyche bowls you over! So do the young lovers!” Aravindan D. I. of gave the film three stars out of five and said “Gautam Vasudev Menon’s “Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya” is a clean romantic story without any deviation or sub-plots.” said, (VTV) is an excellent effort on the part of Gautam Vasudev Menon in narrating a clean romantic story without any deviation from the plot” and further cited “As is Menon’s forte, the dialogues and the execution of scenes are top-notch. The joys of falling of love and the pangs of separation have been portrayed well. The way Simbu nurtures his love for Jesse and the positive but ambiguous reactions from Trisha to his overtures are very nice indeed.” took a grand opening, grossing around (US$110,000) in its first three days in Chennai. In February 2018, announced a sequel to the film, titled . This film will be a – which will focus on Karthik and his best friends from college travelling to the to attend a wedding ten years after the events of the first film. Initially, Menon had stated would be playing the role of an older Karthik. After Madhavan dropped out of the project, Silambarasan agreed to reprise the role he originally played. and will also be reprising their roles from the first film. and will be playing the roles as Karthik’s and friends respectively. Telugu actors , , , and have been approached to play the role of Karthik’s friend. Actresses and are being considered as a third female lead. The short film referring the characters Karthik and Jessie, titled starring and was released on 21 May 2020. The dialogue “Inga Enna Solludhu” spoken by VTV Ganesh inspired a 2014 film of which was produced and acted by Ganesh. The sequence when Karthik (Silambarasan) leans on the gate when he is in love with Jessie in the song “Hosanna” is parodied by in (2012). The scene where Karthik proposes to Jessie is spoofed in (2020). In the film, Pratap (played by ) gifts Jessie (played by ) a necklace. The scenes and dialogues were parodied in (2018). The song “Omana Penne” inspired a film of the same name, but being titled as ( ).</p>