''Anantha Poongatre'' () is a 1999 Indian
Tamil
Tamil may refer to:
* Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia
**Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils
**Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia
* Tamil language, nativ ...
-language
romantic drama film
Romance films or movies involve romantic love stories recorded in visual media for broadcast in theatres or on television that focus on passion (emotion), passion, emotion, and the affectionate romantic involvement of the main characters. Typica ...
written and directed by
Raj Kapoor
Raj Kapoor (pronunciation: aːd͡ʒ kəpuːɾ born Shrishti Nath Kapoor; also known as Ranbir Raj Kapoor; 14 December 1924 2 June 1988) was an Indian actor, film director and producer, who worked in Hindi cinema. He is considered one of th ...
. The film stars
Ajith Kumar
Ajith Kumar (born 1 May 1971) is an Indian actor who works predominantly in Tamil films. To date, he has starred in over 60 films. His awards include four Vijay Awards, three Cinema Express Awards, three Filmfare Awards South and three Tamil N ...
and
Meena
Meena () is a sub-group of Bhils. They speak Meena language. They started adopting the Brahmin worship system. Its name is also transliterated as ''Meenanda'' or ''Mina''. Historians claim that they belong to the Matsya tribe. They got the sta ...
, with
Karthik in a guest appearance. The film is based upon how respect can be mistaken as love by circumstances. The film released on 27 May 1999. It subsequently opened to positive reviews and became a commercial success.
Plot
Meenatchi is a widow living with her son Nandu. Jeeva, living in the same colony, has been pining silently for her for the last four years. He runs an organisation called A-to-Z, which can get anything done for anybody.
Jeeva follows Divya to get some information on her for her suitor but she ends up falling for him and pursues him relentlessly. He avoids her, telling her that he is already in love with someone else and when cornered, reveals that it is Meenatchi.
This leads to some surprising revelations about Meenakshi's past. In the flashback, Meenatchi is a music student of Haridas. Haridas has a child, whose mother Banu died giving birth to him. Their mutual respect is mistaken for romance by her father Dharmalingam who is a zamindar and Haridas is killed in the fracas. Later Meena vows to live like a widow, taking care of Haridas' child. However, that very day, Jeeva and his parents were about to see Meenatchi as a prospective bride. When Jeeva sees this scene unfolding before his eyes, he starts admiring her courage. Despite his parent's protests, he assures Meenatchi's father that he would make her change her mind and that he would marry her. But Meenatchi's world turns upside down when Divya's father, a staunch supporter of love marriage, kidnaps Nandu and asks Jeeva to marry Divya. Jeeva of course accepts and things are then resolved in the climax.
Cast
*
Ajith Kumar
Ajith Kumar (born 1 May 1971) is an Indian actor who works predominantly in Tamil films. To date, he has starred in over 60 films. His awards include four Vijay Awards, three Cinema Express Awards, three Filmfare Awards South and three Tamil N ...
as Jeeva
*
Meena
Meena () is a sub-group of Bhils. They speak Meena language. They started adopting the Brahmin worship system. Its name is also transliterated as ''Meenanda'' or ''Mina''. Historians claim that they belong to the Matsya tribe. They got the sta ...
as Meenakshi
*
Karthik as Haridas
*
Malavika as Divya
*
Manivannan
S. Manivannan Rajagopal (31 July 1953 – 15 June 2013), better known by his mononym Manivannan, was an Indian film director, actor and activist who worked mainly in Tamil cinema and also worked in a few Telugu & Malayalam films. In a care ...
as Zamindar Rajadurai
*
Vadivelu
Kumaravadivel Natarajan (born 12 September 1960), known professionally as Vadivelu, is an Indian actor, comedian and playback singer, having acted in supporting and lead roles in Tamil cinema. He gained widespread acclaim in Kollywood in the 2 ...
as Subramani, Jeeva's friend
*Chaplin Balu as Jeeva's friend
*
Vijayakumar as Zamindar Dharmalingam, Meenakshi's father
*
Raj Kapoor
Raj Kapoor (pronunciation: aːd͡ʒ kəpuːɾ born Shrishti Nath Kapoor; also known as Ranbir Raj Kapoor; 14 December 1924 2 June 1988) was an Indian actor, film director and producer, who worked in Hindi cinema. He is considered one of th ...
as Ranjith, Divya's uncle (director)
*
Rajan P. Dev
Rajan P. Dev (20 May 1951 – 29 July 2009) was an Indian film and stage actor. He was born in Cherthala in the Alappuzha district of the former state Thiru-Kochi (present day Kerala). He had acted in over 500 films in Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu ...
as Shanmugam, Divya's father
*
Kovai Sarala
Kovai Sarala is an Indian actress and comedian, who prominently plays supporting roles in Tamil and Telugu films. She has won the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Comedian three times, for her performances in '' Sathi Leelavathi'' (1995), '' ...
as Saradha, Rajadurai's wife
*
C. R. Saraswathi
C. R. Saraswathi is an Indian actress and politician who has predominantly appeared in Tamil films. She is currently acting as spokesperson of Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam, a split group from All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.
Caree ...
as Colony neighbour
*
Crane Manohar
Crane Manohar (born 4 October 1965) is an Indian actor who appears in Tamil films, mostly in comedy roles. He appeared in many Vadivelu and Vivek comedy tracks.
Career
Manohar initially worked as a crane technician for films and when he start ...
*
Bala Singh
Bala Singh (7 May 195227 November 2019) was an Indian actor who appeared in Tamil language films. After making his debut in Nassar's '' Avatharam'' (1995), he appeared as the antagonist in over a hundred films.
Early life and career
Bala Sing ...
as Viswam,
*
Manobala
Manobala (born 8 December 1953) is an Indian film director, producer, actor and comedian who predominantly plays supporting roles in Tamil-language films.
He started his career in Tamil cinema in the early 1970s and with Kamal Haasan's referen ...
as Poongavanam
*
Madhan Bob
S. Krishnamoorthy (born 19 October 1953) professionally known as Madhan Bob, is an Indian actor and comedian, appearing in many Tamil films in supporting roles. Madhan Babu is known for his amusing facial expressions, laughter and protruding ey ...
as Advocate Krishnan
*
Mayilswamy
Mayilsamy (born October 2, 1965) is an Indian actor and comedian who prominently plays supporting roles. Appearing in many Tamil films, he is also a regular guest judge on ''Asathapovathu Yaaru'' on Sun TV in Chennai.
Career
He is a popular a ...
as Mani
*
Ambika
Ambika may refer to:
Mythology
* Ambika (goddess), an avatar of the Hindu goddesses Durga, Parvati, and Shakti
* Ambika (Jainism), a Jain Yakshini goddess
* Ambika (Mahabharata), the wife of Vichitravirya was also the mother of Dhritarashtra, ...
as Janaki
*
Bhanupriya
Bhanupriya (born Mangabhanu; 15 January 1967) is an Indian actress, Kuchipudi dancer, and voice artist. In a career spanning over 4 decades, Bhanupriya has appeared in 155 feature films- predominantly in Telugu & Tamil, in addition to occasiona ...
as Bhanu (guest appearance)
*
Raju Sundaram
Basuva Raju Sundaram is an Indian dance choreographer, actor and director, who works primarily in Tamil, Kannada and Telugu films. He appeared as an actor in films such as but not limited to: ''Jeans'' (1998), '' 123'' (2002), ''I Love You Da' ...
cameo in song "Meenatchi Meenatchi"
*Japan Kumar (special appearance in the song "Udhayam Theatre")
Production
During production, the producer M. Kajamydeen had attempted unsuccessfully to oust Ajith Kumar from the project and replace him with
Prashanth
Prashanth Thiagarajan (born 6 April 1973), known professionally as Prashanth, is an Indian actor and businessman, known for his works predominantly in Tamil cinema. Besides Tamil films, he has also appeared in few Telugu, Hindi and Malayalam fi ...
. The producer and Ajith later clashed following the failure of their action film, ''
Jana'' in 2004. Initially
Vindhya
The Vindhya Range (also known as Vindhyachal) () is a complex, discontinuous chain of mountain ridges, hill ranges, highlands and plateau escarpments in west-central India.
Technically, the Vindhyas do not form a single mountain range in the ...
was assigned to play Malavika's role in the film, but due to her commitment to ''
Sangamam
''Sangamam'' () is a 1999 Indian Tamil-language musical romance dance film co written and directed by Suresh Krissna and produced by V. Natarajan of Pyramid Films. The film stars Rahman and newcomer Vindhya with Manivannan, Vijayakumar, Radha ...
'', she was later dropped from the project.
Release and reception
The film won two Tamil Nadu State Awards with the
Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Dialogue Writer
The Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Dialogue Writer is given by the state government as part of its annual Tamil Nadu State Film Awards for Tamil (Kollywood) films.
The list
Here is a list of the award winners and the films for which they w ...
going to Shivaram Gandhi while it also won the
. The film was remade as ''Subhakaryam'' in Telugu and then also later remade in the
Kannada
Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...
language in 2009 as ''
Rajakumari''. Sandya Krishna of ''Indolink.com'' writes, "If you have nothing great to do and wish to sleep through the first half of a certain film and catch up watching the second half, ''Aanandha Poongaatrae'' is for you!" K. N. Vijiyan of ''
New Straits Times
The ''New Straits Times'' is an English-language newspaper published in Malaysia. It is Malaysia's oldest newspaper still in print (though not the first), having been founded as ''The Straits Times'' on 15 July 1845. It was relaunched as the ' ...
'', writes "Generally go for this movie if you are an Ajith, Karthik or Meena fan. It has star value and good comedy"
Soundtrack
The music was composed by
Deva
Deva may refer to:
Entertainment
* ''Deva'' (1989 film), a 1989 Kannada film
* ''Deva'' (1995 film), a 1995 Tamil film
* ''Deva'' (2002 film), a 2002 Bengali film
* Deva (2007 Telugu film)
* ''Deva'' (2017 film), a 2017 Marathi film
* Deva ...
, while lyrics were written by
Vairamuthu
Vairamuthu Ramasamy (born 13 July 1953) is an Indian lyricist, poet, and novelist working in the Tamil film industry. He is a prominent figure in the Tamil literary world. A master's graduate from the Pachaiyappa's College in Chennai, he first ...
and Ponniyin Selvan (Meenatchi Meenatchi).
References
External links
* {{IMDb title, 2378378, Anantha Poongatre
Films set in Chennai
1999 films
Tamil films remade in other languages
1990s Tamil-language films
Films shot in Chennai
Indian romantic drama films
Films scored by Deva (composer)