Unnai Ninaithu

Unnai Ninaithu
Directed by Vikraman
Produced by K. Muralitharan
V. Swaminathan
G. Venugopal
Written by Vikraman
Starring Suriya
Laila
Sneha
Music by Sirpy
Cinematography Balasubramaniem
Edited by V. Jaishankar
Production
company
Lakshmi Movie Makers
Release dates
 10 May 2002
Running time
 163 minutes
Country India
Language Tamil

Unnai Ninaithu (English: Thinking About You) is a 2002 Indian Tamil film directed by Vikraman, starring Suriya, Laila and Sneha in the lead roles. The film opened to mixed reviews in May 2002, but went on to perform well at the box office, while also being remade into several other Indian regional languages.

Plot

Surya (Suriya) works as a receptionist in a lodge in Chennai. He along with his friend Krishnamoorthy (Ramesh Kanna) manages the entire lodge. Actually the lodge is owned by Surya’s father but has been leased due to financial troubles. Radha (Sneha) is the daughter of the new manager for the lodge who stays next to the lodge along with her family. Radha gets attracted towards Surya seeing his good nature. But Surya tells his past love story to Radha. A few years back, Nirmala (Laila) lived in the same house where Radha lives now. Surya likes Nirmala and helps her family financially. Slowly Surya and Nirmala fall in love and Nirmala’s parents decide to get them married. Selvam (Ramji) is the friend of Surya who stays with Surya during his initial days. Later Selvam secures a good job and starts earning well. Selvam also gets attracted towards Nirmala and tries to impress her. Nirmala’s parents consider Selvam to be a better match for Nirmala as he earns more than Surya. They convince Nirmala to get married to Selvam.

Surya gets heartbroken knowing this. But one day Surya finds Selvam in a shopping mall with another girl. Surya understands that Selvam has no intention of marrying Nirmala and is planning only for an illegitimate relationship with her. Surya informs this to Nirmala. But Nirmala misunderstands that Surya is trying to break her relationship with Selvam by cooking up false stories. Nirmala along with her family moves to a big house given by Selvam.

The story comes to present and Radha is even more impressed listening to Surya's past love story. One day, Surya finds Nirmala and gets to know that Selvam has cheated her without marrying. Surya is worried seeing Nirmala and her family’s poor state and again offers help. Nirmala had plans of pursuing MBBS before. Surya helps her is writing the entrance examination. She gets admission only in a private medical college where fee is high. Surya sells his lodge to the lessee and gives the money to Nirmala to use it for education fee.

Five years pass by and Nirmala completes her medical degree and gets a job posting also. Meanwhile Radha also remains unmarried as she loves Surya but she never expressed it to him. Nirmala is about to leave to another city for job along with her family. In the railway station, she conveys her intention of marrying Surya. But Surya denies saying that he knows Radha is in love with him and she has declined all the marriage alliances for the last 5 years waiting for Surya. Surya also says that Radha’s love is more genuine than Nirmala’s because Nirmala ditched him when she found a better guy than Surya. Radha overhears the conversation and feels happy. The movie ends with both Surya and Radha getting united.

Cast

Production

Vikraman had chosen Vijay to play the lead role in the film, and the actor shot for the film for a few days before opting out of the project, owing to creative differences. He was subsequently replaced by Suriya.[1][2] Vikram also briefly considered casting actor Prashanth, before finalising Suriya.[3]

The team predominantly shot the film in Chennai, while songs were shot in Malaysia, Thailand and Sri Lanka. The team travelled to Kandy and the Ramboda Falls to film sequences across Sri Lanka, and it became the first film by director Vikraman to be shot outside India.[4]

Soundtrack

Release

The film opened in May 2002 to mixed reviews from critics. A reviewer from The Hindu wrote, "the story must have had a strong theme to begin with and the screenplay surely aims at conveying something different. But things do not progress in that direction", and adds that "the treatment lacks punch".[5] The reviewers from Sify.com gave the film a negative review, adding "the film is very slow and one feels that the story is as old as the hills", adding it is a "rehash of the director's earlier hits and is long winded and extremely slow paced mainly due to illogical story, songs pushed into the narrative and a jarring comedy track".[6]

The film went on to perform well at the box office, and did exceptional business in town and village theatres across Tamil Nadu.[7] Owing to the film's success, it was later remade in Telugu as Cheppave Chirugali (2004) by Vikraman, while it was also made in Kannada as Krishna (2007).

Awards

Award Category Nominee Result
2002 Filmfare Awards South Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress Sneha Won
2002 Tamil Nadu State Awards[8] Best Film Unnai Ninaithu Won
Best Actress Sneha Won
Best Music Director Sirpy Won
Best Lyricist Ravishankar Won
Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Male Playback Unnimenon Won

References

  1. ↑ http://behindwoods.com/tamil-movies-cinema-news-10/when-suriya-replaced-vijay-mysteriously--suriya-vijay-26-02-13.html
  2. ↑ http://www.rediff.com/movies/2001/dec/07shah.htm
  3. ↑ http://www.nilacharal.com/enter/cinebit/c7.html
  4. ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20040825085457/http://www.chennaionline.com/location/unnai.asp
  5. ↑ http://www.thehindu.com/thehindu/fr/2002/05/17/stories/2002051701370200.htm
  6. ↑ http://www.sify.com/movies/unnai-ninaithu-review-tamil-pclurdcbjgidc.html
  7. ↑ http://www.thehindu.com/thehindu/mp/2002/07/24/stories/2002072400140200.htm
  8. ↑ "Tamil Nadu announces film awards for three years – Tamil Movie News". IndiaGlitz. 2004-10-01. Retrieved 2012-08-05.
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