'' Ninaikkaadha Naalillai'' is a 2001 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, nati ...

-language drama film, directed by A. L. Raja and produced by K. Rajan. The film stars

R. Parthiban R. Parthiban (born 14 October 1958) is an Indian actor and filmmaker who works mainly in Tamil cinema. He has directed 15 films, produced 13 films and acted in more than 70 films. He started his career as assistant director for K. Bhagyaraj in ...

Rahman Rahman (Arabic: or ) may refer to: *Rahman, one of the names of God in Islam *Ar-Rahman, the 55th sura of the Qur'an People *Rahman (name), an Arabic male personal name **Short form of Abd al-Rahman *Rahman (actor) (born 1967), Indian actor *Rah ...

Devayani Devayani ( sa, देवयानी, translit=Devayānī) is a character in Hindu literature. She is described to be the daughter of Shukra, the acharya (preceptor) of the asuras, and his wife Jayanti, the daughter of Indra. She marries K ...

, and Kaveri. The film had musical score (soundtrack) 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 ...

. The movie was a flop at the box office. The film released on March 7.

Plot

Anbu (

) and Arun (

) are bosom buddies with Anbu being indebted to the wealthy Arun for various reasons. Anbu falls in love with Kavitha (

), whose close friend is Kausalya ( Kaveri). Arun soon develops a soft corner for Kausalya, whom he had never seen. Her lofty thoughts expressed in her letters to Kavitha had attracted him to her. Kausalya reads his messages to her sent through Kavita's letters and finds herself reciprocating to Arun's feelings. Arun has a near fatal accident and expresses his last wish to see Kavita. Anbu goes to get her, only to find her killed at the hands of the jealous suitor (Prabhukanth). With no way out, Anbu persuades Kavitha to play Kausalya so that his friend's final wish can be fulfilled. However, Arun comes out of the ordeal miraculously alive, and Kavita finds herself trapped in a situation that causes her much heartburn. How the matter is resolved with both the friends trying to play martyr forms the rest of the story.

Cast

as Anbu *

as Arun *

as Kavitha * Kaveri as Kausalya * Vadivelu as 'Aana Oona' Townmani * Radha Ravi as Kavitha's father * K. Rajan as Anbu's father *

T. S. B. K. Moulee T. S. B. K. Moulee (born: March 14, 1947 Thiruvidaimarudur Sambamoorthy Ganapathy Balakrishna Sastrigal Mouli) is an Indian film director, writer, playwright, thespian and actor known for his works in Tamil cinema and Telugu cinema. His celluloi ...

as Arun's father *

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 Arun's mother *Prabhukanth as Kausalya's uncle *

M. N. Nambiar Manjeri Narayanan Nambiar (7 March 1919 – 19 November 2008) was an Indian actor who worked predominantly in Tamil cinema, known mostly for his villain roles in an eight decade long career. He has also appeared in a few Malayalam films. ...

as Arun's grandfather * S. N. Lakshmi as Arun's grandmother *

S. S. Chandran S. S. Chandran (25 September 1941 – 9 October 2010) was an Indian comedy actor, producer, and politician from Tamil Nadu. He belonged to the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam party and was a Member of the Parliament representing Tamil N ...

as Kavitha's grandfather * Shanmugasundari as Kavitha's grandmother * Shanmugasundaram as Prabhukanth's father *

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 ...

as Office Waiter *

Bonda Mani Bonda Mani is an Indian actor who has appeared in Tamil language films. He has worked in comedy and supporting roles in over 270 films. Career Bonda Mani has described that his stage name is derived from his diet of bondas, when he was a stru ...

as Townmani's henchman *

Mayilsamy 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 ...

as Mayilsamy *Ram Saravana as Child artist

Soundtrack

Lyrics written by Kalidasan, Ponniyin Selvan,

Viveka ''Viveka'' ( sa, विवेक, viveka) is a Sanskrit and Pali term translated into English as discernment or discrimination. Viveka is considered as first requirement for the spiritual journey. The next requirement in the joureny in Vedanta, ...

, and Tholkappiyan.

Reception

Parthiban depicts impressively the character of the friend who puts friendship above love and suffers the consequences in silence. Devayani brings out the helplessness of the character effectively. Some of Vadivelu's comic escapades can be enjoyed. With the two hero subjects being the order of the day it is not surprising that most of the recently released films, have either a love triangle or friendship & sacrifice as its base. ''Ninaikkatha Naalillai'' has both the love triangle and friendship factors weaved in. Neatly crafted in the first half, the film lags a little in the second, and picks up pace in the closing scenes.

References

2001 films 2000s Tamil-language films {{2000s-Tamil-film-stub