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''Aanandham'' () is a 2001 Indian Tamil-language
drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...
written and directed by N. Lingusamy and produced by
R. B. Choudary Ratanlal Bhagatram Choudary is an Indian film producer who has worked in several film industries, predominantly in Tamil and Telugu along with a few films in Malayalam and Hindi. He is the founder of the production company Super Good Films. C ...
. The film features an ensemble cast including Mammootty, Murali, Abbas, Devayani, Rambha, Sneha,
Delhi Ganesh Delhi Ganesh is an Indian actor who mostly acts in supporting roles in Tamil cinema and serials. He has acted in more than 400 films from 1976 to present. Before films, he was a member of the Delhi-based theatre troupe, ''Dakshina Bharata Natak ...
and
Srividya Srividya (24 July 1953 – 19 October 2006), also known as Sreevidya, was an Indian actress best known for her work predominantly in Malayalam and Tamil films, along with few Telugu, Kannada and Hindi films. In a career spanning for 40 years, ...
. Arthur A. Wilson handled cinematography, while S. A. Rajkumar composed the film's score and soundtrack. The film opened on 25 May 2001 to positive reviews, and became one of the highest grossing Tamil films of the year. It was remade in Telugu as ''
Sankranti Sankranti ( sa, संक्रान्ति ''saṁkrānti or saṅkramaṇa'') means transmigration of the Sun from one zodiac to another in Indian astronomy. Each Sankranti is marked as the beginning of a month in the sidereal solar calen ...
'' (2005) .


Plot

Thirupathisamy owns a provisional store and is the eldest among four brothers, and all live together in a home along with their parents. Thirupathi is widely respected by everyone in the family and was responsible for bringing back their family to a good state after financial troubles a few years back. He marries Bharathi, who is responsible and kind. Madhavan is the second son in the family who assists Thirupathi in managing their provisional store. He is innocent and marries his relative Renuka, but she is short-tempered and picks up quarrels often. Kannan is the third son in the family, and he goes to college where he falls for his classmate Viji. Viji is the only daughter of a rich arrogant man Thavasi. Surya is the youngest son and studies in college. Renuka feels that only Thirupathi is respected by everyone and not Madhavan because Tirupati manages the provisional store while Madhavan just assists him. She keeps insisting Madhavan to start a separate provisional store, which he does not accept as that would separate him from his brothers. Thavasi learns of Viji's love towards Kannan and warns him to forget her. Kannan gets a job and leaves to Delhi as he does not want to marry Viji against her father's wishes. One day, Renuka begins a quarrel at home saying that Thirupathi has a separate savings account in the bank and takes money from the account without the knowledge of other family members. Thirupathi feels bad hearing this. Suddenly, Renuka and Madhavan's daughter faints and is rushed to hospital. It is revealed that the child was suffering from a serious disease which only Thirupati knew before, and he was saving money to meet out the medical expenses without informing others, as they will worry if they get to know about the child's disease. Renuka realises her mistake knowing this and apologises to Thirupathi for her harsh behaviour towards him and Bharathi. Later, they start a rice mill. Thirupathi learns of Kannan's love towards Viji and goes to meet Thavasi with a marriage proposal. Thavasi agrees for the wedding, but on a condition that Kannan should stay along with Viji in his home as he does not want to send his daughter to another home after wedding. Thirupathi agrees to the condition but does not inform this to Kannan as he will not agree. On the day of marriage, everyone insults Bharathi for not having a child for many years and everyone learns this except Kannan and leaves the house and Kannan learns of the condition, cancels the wedding, and comes back to his home to meet his family members. Following him, Viji also comes, asking him to marry her against her father's wishes. Thirupathi convinces the couple that if they get married without Thavasi's permission, then it will be a big blow to Thavasi's status in society, and they should not be the reason behind that. He also convinces Viji to leave to her home immediately before anyone could know about this. When they step out of the home, they see Thavasi with a group of men to attack Thirupathi's family. But he has overheard Thirupathi's conversation with Viji, realises his good nature, and agrees for their wedding. Finally, Kannan and Viji get married happily, and Viji lives along with everyone in a joint family in Thirupathi's home.


Cast

* Mammootty as Thirupathisamy, eldest son of the family * Murali as Madhavan, second son * Abbas as Kannan, third son * Shyam Ganesh as Surya, youngest son * Devayani as Bharathi, Thirupathi's wife * Rambha as Renuka, Madhavan's wife * Sneha as Viji, Kannan's love interest *
Delhi Ganesh Delhi Ganesh is an Indian actor who mostly acts in supporting roles in Tamil cinema and serials. He has acted in more than 400 films from 1976 to present. Before films, he was a member of the Delhi-based theatre troupe, ''Dakshina Bharata Natak ...
as the four brothers' father *
Srividya Srividya (24 July 1953 – 19 October 2006), also known as Sreevidya, was an Indian actress best known for her work predominantly in Malayalam and Tamil films, along with few Telugu, Kannada and Hindi films. In a career spanning for 40 years, ...
as Ranganayagi, the four brothers' mother * Vijayakumar as Thavasi, Viji's father *
Sashikumar Subramani Sashikumar Subramony, better known as Sashi Kumar, is an Indian actor who has worked in Tamil language films, stage and serials. He made a breakthrough as an actor with his performances in Mani Ratnam's ''Kannathil Muthamittal'' (2002) and Balu ...
as Srinivasan, Renuka's younger brother * Poonam Singar as Susheela *
Periyar Dasan Dr. Periyar Dasan or Dr. Abdullah (born Seshachalam; 21 August 1949 – 19 August 2013) was an Indian scholar, professor, eminent speaker, and activist from Tamil Nadu. He propagated atheism and rationalist ideologies for most part of his lif ...
as Accountant * Sethu Vinayagam as Susheela's father * Bava Lakshmanan as Grocery stall manager * Ilavarasu *
Besant Ravi Besant Ravi (born R. Ravi Kumar; 1 June 1970) is an Indian actor and stunt choreographer. He has played antagonistic supporting roles in Tamil, Hindi and several other Indian language films. Early life Besant Ravi, who was born and brought up ...


Production

The director Linguswamy revealed that the film was inspired by moments in his life and through a series of incidents his mother had narrated to him. Thus when director Rajakumaran convinced
R. B. Choudary Ratanlal Bhagatram Choudary is an Indian film producer who has worked in several film industries, predominantly in Tamil and Telugu along with a few films in Malayalam and Hindi. He is the founder of the production company Super Good Films. C ...
to give Linguswamy an opportunity, he narrated the stories and he found the producer had found them highly appealing. The director had previously assisted
Vikraman Vikraman is an Indian film director primarily working in Tamil cinema. Career 1990–1994 He worked as an assistant to actor and director R. Parthiban in '' Puthiya Pathai'' (1989), which was the latter's debut film as a director and an act ...
in '' Vaanathaippola'', another family drama on brothers. Linguswamy originally wanted to title the project, ''Thirupathi Brothers'', which he later went on to name his production house. Ramya Krishnan was initially signed on to play heroine but Mammooty cast his doubts over her involvement after the pair had fallen out on the sets of a previous Malayalam film, and she was subsequently replaced by
Soundarya K. S. Sowmya (18 July 1972 – 17 April 2004), better known by her stage name Soundarya, was an Indian actress who worked predominantly in Telugu films and has also worked in Kannada, Tamil, Hindi and Malayalam films. She was regarded as one o ...
. Devayani was supposed to feature as Murali's pair in the film, but the actor was reluctant as Devayani had appeared as his sister in another film in the same period, '' Kannukku Kannaga'' (2000). After Soundarya opted out, Devayani was given the role of Mammooty's pair. Tarun was initially supposed to play the fourth brother in the film and make his acting debut in Tamil cinema, but the role was later altered and Shyam Ganesh was cast. Shooting was held at locations in Chennai, Ooty and Mettupalayam among other places. The team faced criticism after litter, including chicken bones, were left on the ground following a shoot sequence held at the Kamakshi temple, Kancheepuram. Subsequently, the government intervened and prevented any further shoots to take place at temples.


Soundtrack

The soundtrack was composed by S. A. Rajkumar.


Release and reception

''Aanandham'' opened to positive reviews. Malini Mannath of ''Chennai Online'' noted that "it is a promising work from the debutant director", but was mildly critical of its similarities to ''Vaanathaippola''. ''
Ananda Vikatan ''Ananda Vikatan'' is a Tamil-language weekly magazine published from Chennai, India. History and profile ''Ananda Vikatan'' was started by Late Pudhoor Vaidyanadhaiyar in February 1926 as a monthly publication. The issue for December 1927 wa ...
'' rated the film 44 out of 100. Abbas' performance in the film was praised by critics. The film won the
Filmfare Award for Best Film – Tamil The Filmfare Best Film Award is given by the ''Filmfare'' magazine as part of its annual Filmfare Awards South for Tamil (Kollywood) films. Winners Nominations 1970s *1972 - '' Pattikada Pattanama'' *1973 - '' Bharatha Vilas'' *1974 - ''Dikkat ...
, and the Cinema Express Award for Best Film – Tamil. ''Aanandham'' also won in two categories the Tamil Nadu State Film Awards: Third Best Film and
Best Actress Best Actress is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organisations, festivals, and people's awards to leading actresses in a film, television series, television film or play. The first Best Actress aw ...
for Sneha, who was also recognised for this film alongside her work in '' Virumbugiren'' and ''
Punnagai Desam ''Punnagai Desam'' () is a 2002 Indian Tamil-language drama film directed by K. Shajahan. The film was produced by R. B. Choudary under the production banner Super Good films. The film stars Tharun, Sneha, Kunal, Hamsavardhan, Dhamu and P ...
''. Gowri Ramnarayan, writing for ''
The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the secon ...
'', also listed the film amongst the best of 2001.


Box office

The film was both a commercial and critical success. It was one of the biggest hits of Mammootty in Tamil cinema and also one of the highest grossing Tamil films of the year.


Other versions

A Telugu remake was released in 2005 as ''
Sankranti Sankranti ( sa, संक्रान्ति ''saṁkrānti or saṅkramaṇa'') means transmigration of the Sun from one zodiac to another in Indian astronomy. Each Sankranti is marked as the beginning of a month in the sidereal solar calen ...
''. A TV series inspired by ''Aanandham'', titled ''
Pandian Stores ''Pandian Stores'' is a 2018 Indian Tamil language television series airing on Star Vijay. The show stars with an ensemble cast includes Sujitha, Stalin, V J Chitra, Kumaran Thangarajan, Hema Rajkumar, Venkat Renganathan, Saravana Vickram and ...
'', premiered in 2018.


References


External links

* {{Authority control 2000s Tamil-language films 2001 drama films 2001 films Films directed by N. Lingusamy Films scored by S. A. Rajkumar Indian drama films Tamil films remade in other languages