Listen, sweetheart; also spelt Keladi Kanmani) is a 1990 Indian Tamil-language romantic drama film that marked the directorial debut of Vasanth.
It revolves around a terminally ill woman who seeks to make amends for a past mistake before she dies.
Cinematography was handled by R. Raghunatha Reddy, editing was by the duo Ganesh–Kumar, and Maghi made his debut as art director.
On her 18th birthday, Anu visits her doctor who determines that she has bilateral renal artery stenosis and is almost certain to succumb within a year.
Unknown to Anu, her father accidentally discovers it when the local pharmacist sends some prescription drugs through him.
Despite ARR's assurances that they could work it out, she refused his proposal and decided to move to another city; her parents committed suicide as they felt they were a hindrance to their daughter.
Anu takes this with stoic grief, and asks Sasi for one last thing: to find Sarada and attempt to reunite her with ARR.
They find an old picture of Sarada, and Sasi recognises her as a woman he had met in Bangalore a few weeks ago.
On the day of the operation, Sarada happens to be in Chennai en route to a training event in the United States.
[8] Cinematography was handled by R. Raghunatha Reddy, editing by the duo Ganesh–Kumar, and Maghi made his debut as art director.
Balasubrahmanyam was initially hesitant to accept the offer as he did not want Vasanth to take a risk by making a film with him as the lead actor.
[5] Suhasini was Vasanth's first choice for the role of Sarada, but she could not accept the offer due to her busy schedule; Radhika was chosen instead.
[10] Sukanya and Ramya Krishnan were initial choices for the role of Anu, but could not accept due to other commitments; Anju was finally chosen by Vasanth, despite the scepticism of the crew since she was a relative newcomer.
Neena played the character as a child after Vasanth saw her in Idhayathai Thirudathe, the Tamil-dubbed version of the Telugu film Geethanjali (1989).
[14] The song "Mannil Indha Kaadhal" was filmed at a beach off East Coast Road, Mahabalipuram.
[24] Vasanth initially proposed that the entire song be sung in one breath, but Ilaiyaraaja said to restrict that to specific stanzas.
[10] N. Krishnaswamy of The Indian Express wrote, "Class photography by Raghunatha Reddy, brilliant decors created by debutant art director Maghi along with choice of new-look locales, rich music by [Ilaiyaraaja] and excellent staging of action by director Vasanth – even in his first film, this protégé of K. Balachander shows a great deal of competence – put Vivek Chitra's [Keladi Kannmanii] in the top bracket.
"[29] Ananda Vikatan said that Vasanth had taken a weighty script in his first attempt and told it very clearly without any confusion for the audience, that he demonstrated self-confidence by choosing Balasubrahmanyam for the male lead and Anju for the role of his daughter, and that he made his guru (Balachander) proud with the film, rating it 55 out of 100.