''May Maadham'' () is a 1994 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

romance 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, and the affectionate romantic involvement of the main characters. Typically their journey ...

directed by Venus Balu. The film stars

Vineeth Vineeth Radhakrishnan (born 23 August 1969) is an Indian actor, classical dancer, voice artist and choreographer who primarily works in Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu language films. He has also starred in a few Kannada and Bollywood films. He h ...

and

Sonali Kulkarni Sonali Kulkarni (born 3 November 1974) is an Indian actress, producer, and writer who primarily appears in Marathi and Hindi films. She has also appeared in Kannada, Tamil, Gujarati and English films. She has worked in over 70 films, both com ...

, and has music by

A. R. Rahman Allah Rakha Rahman (; born A. S. Dileep Kumar; 6 January 1967) is an Indian music composer, record producer, singer and songwriter, popular for his works in Indian cinema; predominantly in Tamil and Hindi films, with occasional forays in int ...

. It is based on the 1953 American film ''

Roman Holiday ''Roman Holiday'' is a 1953 American romantic comedy film directed and produced by William Wyler. It stars Audrey Hepburn as a princess out to see Rome on her own and Gregory Peck as a reporter. Hepburn won an Academy Award for Best Actress f ...

''. The film was released on 9 September 1994. It was remade in

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

as ''

Love You Hamesha ''Love You Hamesha'' () is an Indian Hindi-language romance film written and directed by Kailash Surendranath. It stars Akshaye Khanna and Sonali Bendre as its main cast, and other supporting actors. The film is a remake of the Tamil film ''May M ...

'' (2022).

Plot

Sandhya is the only daughter of big shot who always controls her life and schedules her activities. When she finds out he has planned to get her married with a US immigrant, she decides to run away from her family to Madras. Due to some unfortunate events, Sandhya loses her money because of a young photographer Eeshwar and now she is stuck with him until he repays her cash. As the story unfolds, her family finds her in Madras and love blossoms between the two.

Cast

as Eeshwar *

as Sandhya * Manorama as Aandal *

Kaka Radhakrishnan T. V. Radhakrishnan, better known as Kaka Radhakrishnan ( – 14 June 2012) was an Indian actor who acted in Tamil language films from the year 1940. He is also notable for having introduced his childhood friend, Sivaji Ganesan, into films. Car ...

as Sadha Sivam *

Janagaraj Janagaraj is an Indian actor who has appeared in over 200 films predominantly in Tamil cinema as a comedian or in supporting roles. He also starred in few Malayalam, Telugu and Hindi films. Early life Janagaraj was born to Vadivelu and Muthul ...

as Captain * R. Sundarrajan as All in All Ayyasamy *

P. C. Ramakrishna P. C. Ramakrishna is a veteran theatre actor and voice artist based in Chennai, India. He has acted in several plays, such as '' Anna Weiss'', '' Dance Like A Man'', '' The Good Doctor'' and provided voice-overs to numerous advertisements, docume ...

as Rangarajan, Sandhya's father * Rajeshkumar as Rajeshkumar *

Pandu In the Hindu epic ''Mahabharata'', Pandu ( sa, पाण्डु, Pāṇḍu, pale) was a king of the Kuru Kingdom. He was the foster-father of the five Pandava brothers, who were the boons bestowed upon his wife Kunti by a number of deities ...

as Police constable *

Anand Krishnamoorthi Anand Krishnamoorthi is an Indian film sound designer, sound editor and production sound mixer. Early life Anand first appeared in Mani Ratnam's film Anjali and later made appearances in several other films, notably May Madham, Sathi Leela ...

as Thirugnana Sambanthan (Calcutta) *

Oru Viral Krishna Rao Oru Viral Krishna Rao was an Indian actor and comedian who appeared in Tamil-language films. A recipient of the state government's Kalaimamani award, Rao got the nickname ''Oru Viral ''Oru Viral'' () is a 1965 Indian Tamil-language mystery fil ...

as Colony resident *

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 Ramasamy *

S. N. Lakshmi Sennalkudi Narayana Lakshmi (1927 – 20 February 2012) was an Indian actress, who appeared in supporting roles, often playing roles of a mother or grandmother in films. A recipient of the state government's Kalaimamani and Kalaiselvam awards, ...

as Sandhya's grandmother *

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 ...

Sathyapriya Sathyapriya is an Indian actress. She has acted in over 350 films, and played the heroine in a few of them. She made her debut in ''Manjal Mugame Varuga'' opposite Vijayakumar in Tamil. Her notable films include ''Besuge'', ''Dharmasere'', ''H ...

as Female pimp *

Pasi Sathya Pasi Sathya is an Indian actress who has worked predominantly in Tamil cinema and television. She has worked in popular movies like ''Veedu'', '' Magalir Mattum'', ''Pudhupettai''. She made her debut in the National award-winning Tamil film, '' ...

as Poongodi *

A. V. Ramanan A. V. Ramanan (Aravamudan Venkata Ramanan) is a Tamil television host, singer and an actor. He became a household name in Tamil Nadu during his hosting of the famous Sun TV program ''Saptha Swarangal''. He is married to playback singer Uma Rama ...

* Marthandan as Mad man *

Vellai Subbaiah Vellai Subbaiah was an Indian actor who had appeared in more than 500 films and 1000 stage plays. He featured mostly in comedy roles and also minor roles. He is well known for his dialogue, "Thirumba Thirumba pesura nee..." in the movie Nesam ...

as Customer * Jaya Prahasam as Gurusamy *

Mounika Vijaya Rekha known by her stage name Mounika is an Indian film and television actress who appeared in South Indian cinema, South Indian films and Tamil television drama, Tamil television serials. She was the third wife of director Balu Mahendr ...

in a special appearance in song "Aadipaaru Mangatha" *

Silk Smitha Vijayalakshmi Vadlapati (2 December 1960 – 23 September 1996), better known by her stage name Silk Smitha, was an Indian actress and dancer who worked predominantly in Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi films. Smitha was part of seve ...

in a special appearance in song "Palakattu Machanukku"

Production

The film marks

's Tamil film debut. She was encouraged to audition for the film by

Mani Ratnam Gopala Ratnam Subramaniam (born 2 June 1956), known professionally as Mani Ratnam, is an Indian film director, screenwriter, and producer who predominantly works in Tamil cinema and few Hindi, Telugu and Kannada films. Ratnam has won six Nat ...

. The song "Madrasa Suthi" was filmed in Marina Beach.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was composed by

with lyrics 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 ...

. Rahman reused the songs in ''May Maadham''s

remake ''

'' (2022), and the

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

dub ''Hrudayaanjali''. The song "Margazhi Poove" is set in

Hindolam Hindōḷaṃ is a rāgam in Carnatic music (musical scale of South Indian classical music). It is an ''audava'' rāgam (or ''owdava'' rāgam, meaning pentatonic scale). It is a ''janya'' rāgam (derived scale), as it does not have all the sev ...

raaga, while "Enmel Vizhundha Mazhaithuli" is set in

Kapi Kapi, Kapı, or KAPI may refer to: Places * Kapi, Estonia, a village in Estonia * Kapı, Karataş, a village in Turkey * a possible old volcanic eruption site near Krakatoa People * Mari Kapi (1950–2009), Papua New Guinean judge * Mustafa Ka ...

. In a 2018 interview, Vairamuthu recalled that after he had written most of the lyrics for the song "Margazhi Poove", Rahman wanted him to write further lyrics for "a short tune that plays between the BGM". Vairamuthu felt it was impossible to fit words into the tune but Rahman remained adamant. Though irritated, Vairamuthu accepted the challenge and found the perfect lyrics: "Venba... Paadivarum Vandukku/ Senthaen... Thandhuvidum sempookkal/ Konjam... Paadavarum Pennukku/ Sandham... Thandhuvidum Mynahkkal".

Release and reception

''May Maadham'' was released on 9 September 1994. Malini Mannath of ''

The Indian Express ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932. It is published in Mumbai by the Indian Express Group. In 1999, eight years after the group's founder Ramnath Goenka's death in 1991, the group was split betw ...

'' wrote on the same day, "Despite its flaws, ''May Maadham'' is an engaging little film that is worth viewing". ''Indolink'' wrote "Its A.R.Rehmaan who again comes to the rescue in this love story that loses direction to say the least. A simple story of love that doesnt have any unnecessary opposition (thank heavens) should have been more efficiently handled as there isnt much scope for melodrama here. So the director decided to adopt a tongue-in-cheek attitude, with Crazy Mohan's script coming in handy, but after the half way stage, it fails to grip you and you just wait there for it to end". Thulasi of ''

Kalki Kalki ( sa, कल्कि), also called Kalkin or Karki, is the prophesied tenth and final incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu. He is described to appear in order to end the Kali Yuga, one of the four periods in the endless cycle of exist ...

'' appreciated the film for Sreeram's cinematography, Rahman's music, Mohan's dialogues and the cast performances. The film was commercially unsuccessful, breaking GV Films' success streak that began in 1990. The film was subsequently dubbed in

under the title ''Hrudayanjali'' in 1998. It was remade in

as ''

'', which was not released until 2022 on YouTube, despite being shot around 1999-2000.

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1990s romantic musical films 1990s Tamil-language films 1994 directorial debut films 1994 films 1994 romantic comedy films Films scored by A. R. Rahman Films set in Chennai Films shot in Chennai Films shot in Ooty Indian remakes of American films Indian romantic comedy films Indian romantic musical films Tamil films remade in other languages