''Pooveli'' () is a 1998 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, na ...

-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- ...

directed by Selva. An unofficial remake (with Indian twist) of ''A Walk in the Clouds'' (1995), the film stars Karthik, Abbas,

Kausalya Kausalya () is the senior queen-consort of Kosala in the Hindu epic ''Ramayana''. She is the mother of Rama, the titular hero of the epic, and the senior wife of Dasharatha, who ruled Kosala from its capital of Ayodhya. In some later accou ...

and

Heera Rajagopal Heera Rajagopal (born 29 December 1971) is a former Indian actress who has appeared in a number of Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi language films. Career As a military brat, Heera shifted to schools across different states in Indi ...

. The film's score and soundtrack are composed by Bharathwaj while lyrics by Vairamuthu.

Plot

The movie opens with the main characters revealing their thoughts on love. Maha (

) feels one must love before the wedding while Shalini ( Heera) feels love is for after the wedding. Radha Ravi is totally opposed to love and feels it is a way in which children cheat their parents while Murali ( Karthik) is totally for it. Murali follows Shalini around expressing his love for her. But when she insults his love, he promises he wouldn't trouble her again and that one day, she would understand him and come to him. He runs into Maha, his classmate in school, who has recently lost her lover in an accident. To force her father to accept her love, she had already told him that she was married. Circumstances force her uncle to think Murali is her husband and they go back to her house in the village. Their plan is for Murali to earn the displeasure of the members of her household so that he can leave, but his plans backfire and earn him their love and affection. As he continues living there, he starts to like having a family around and also falls in love with Maha. The only black sheep in their family is

Anandaraj Anandaraj (born May 15, 1959) is an Indian actor. He has acted in villain roles in several Tamil films and has appeared in over a two hundred films in different languages including Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi. Career Anandaraj was bor ...

, who keeps troubling them. Maha's grandmother ( Manorama), finds out the arrangement between her and Murali, but since she likes Murali, plays a trick to get them both married. Shalini, who has meanwhile developed feelings for Murali, shows up at the village before the wedding creating doubts in the minds of the other. This leads to some confusion and problems, which are cleared in the climax.

Cast

* Karthik as Murali * Abbas as Arun *

as Mahalakshmi / Maha * Heera as Shalini * Radha Ravi as Maha's Father as Chidambaram Pillai * Manorama as Maha's grandmother *

Nizhalgal Ravi Ravichandran Samanna (born 16 April 1956), known professionally as Nizhalgal Ravi, is an Indian film, television and voice actor who works mainly in Tamil cinema. He has performed in Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu films and television series. He s ...

as Chidambaram's Brother *

Charle Velmurugan Thangasamy Manohar (born 6 March 1960), professionally credited as Charle, is an Indian actor who works in Tamil cinema. He has acted in more than 800 Tamil films as a comedian and supporting actor. He was named after the English co ...

as Chidambaram Brother's Brother-in-law *

as Maha's aunty Husband * Rajasekaran as Arun's Father

Soundtrack

Music is composed by Bharathwaj. Soundtrack contains 10 songs. Lyrics written by Vairamuthu.

Release

The film became a blockbuster and completed a 100-day run, with the makers of the film coming together soon after to make another production, '' Rojavanam''.

won the

Filmfare Best Actress Award The Filmfare Award for Best Actress is given by ''Filmfare'' as part of its annual Filmfare Awards for Hindi films, to recognise the female actor who has delivered an outstanding performance in a leading role. The award was first given in 1954 ...

for her performance in the film while Karthik went on to win the Tamil Nadu State Film Award Special Prize.

Critical reception

Indolink wrote:"has its good moments with consistent screenplay". Balaji wrote:" nice movie without a single boring moment". A reviewer from ''

Deccan Herald ''Deccan Herald'' is an Indian English language daily newspaper published from the Indian state of Karnataka. It was founded by K. N. Guruswamy, a liquor businessman from Ballari and was launched on 17 June 1948. It is published by The Print ...

'' wrote "''Pooveli'' prompts one to look at the possibility that the life of the city may be excluding us from fuller pastures, possibilities with more life."

Remake

The film was remade in Telugu in 1999, as ''

Alludugaaru Vachcharu ''Alludugaaru Vachcharu'' () is a 1999 Telugu-language drama film, produced by Sunkara Madhu Murali, Mullapudi Brahmanandam under the M.R.C & Melody Theaters banner and directed by Ravi Raja Pinisetty. It stars Jagapati Babu, Kausalya, Heera R ...

'' with

Jagapathi Babu Veeramachaneni Jagapathi Rao Chowdary (born 12 February 1962), professionally known as Jagapathi Babu (), is an Indian actor known for his works predominantly in Telugu cinema. He has also appeared in a few Tamil, , Kannada and Malayalam films. ...

playing the lead role while

, Abbas and Heera reprised their roles from the original in Telugu.

References

External links

* {{Four Steps in the Clouds 1998 films Tamil films remade in other languages 1990s Tamil-language films Films scored by Bharadwaj (composer) Indian romantic drama films 1998 romantic drama films Films directed by Selva (director) Films based on Four Steps in the Clouds