is a 2010 Indian Tamil-language musical romantic drama film written and directed by Gautham Vasudev Menon, starring Silambarasan and Trisha.
Jointly produced by Elred Kumar, Jayaraman, VTV Ganesh and P. Madan under the banner Escape Artists Motion Pictures and RS Infotainment, the film was distributed by Udhayanidhi Stalin's Red Giant Movies.
[1] Launched after a wave of publicity posters with no details about the cast and crew, Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa began its first schedule of filming in February 2009.
Shooting continued through 2009, with the film garnering significant media interest, with schedules in Malta and the United States.
[2] Before release, it became the first Tamil project to have a music soundtrack premiere outside of India, with a successful launch at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTAs) in London.
The film features soundtrack composed by A. R. Rahman, cinematography by Manoj Paramahamsa and editing by Anthony Gonsalves.
Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa explores the complicated relationship between a Hindu Tamil boy, Karthik Sivakumar, and a Malayali Christian girl, Jessie from Alappuzha, Kerala.
Karthik falls in love with Jessie only to be met by her indifference and reluctance as they belong to different religions and her strict conservative family will never consent to their union.
[4] A short film/sequel titled Karthik Dial Seytha Yenn, again directed by Menon with Silambarasan and Trisha reprising their roles, was released in May 2020.
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.
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 (Ranjith Velayudhan) and Karthik, her parents learn of their supposed affair.
[6] Menon took the script to producer Manjula Ghattamaneni, who asked him to narrate the film to her brother Mahesh Babu and the movie was a Tamil and Telugu bilingual.
[citation needed] Continuing from the earlier proposed theme of Vennilavae Vennillavae, Menon later chose to use the second line of the song to title his film as Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa, after it was suggested by the cinematographer Manoj Paramahamsa.
[8][9][10][11] But in late January 2009, Menon confirmed that he was in discussions with Silambarasan and Trisha 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 Vignesh Shivan's Podaa Podi (2012), Menon chose to halt the production of his ongoing Chennaiyil Oru Mazhaikaalam and finalise pre-production work on Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa.
Other members of the technical crew included Menon's regular collaborators editor Anthony, art director Rajeevan, costume designer Nalini Sriram and lyricist Thamarai.
[15] Ashwin Kakumanu 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.
[16] Singer Chinmayi dubbed for the lead actresses - Trisha, Samantha and Amy Jackson in Tamil, Telugu, and Hindi languages respectively.
[17] In May, the team moved to Malta to film the song sequences for "Hosanna" and "Omana Penne", choreographed by Flexy Stu.
Scenes were shot in places including Valletta, Mdina, Gozo and Comino, as well as in lanes, alleys, eight churches and during the time of a village feast.
[24] It retained the same tunes for the Telugu version of the film, Ye Maaya Chesave and the Hindi remake, Ekk Deewana Tha.
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.
"[27] Malathi Rangarajan from The Hindu 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.
"[28] Aravindan D. I. of nowrunning.com 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.
"[30] Raman Nalluswamy Thevar, an Indian author wrote an E-book titled "One Awesome Girl" which narrates the dialogue "One-way ticket to Heart-break city" delivered by Simbu.
[40] The sequence when Karthik (Silambarasan) leans on the gate when he is in love with Jessie in the song "Hosanna" is parodied by Santhanam in Neethaane En Ponvasantham (2012).