''Manam Kothi Paravai'' () is a 2012 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

romantic comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typic ...

film written and directed by

Ezhil Ezhilmaaran known as Ezhil is an Indian film director who works in the Tamil film industry. He has won 2 Tamil Nadu state awards. He made his directorial debut with the 1999 romantic film '' Thulladha Manamum Thullum'' starring Vijay and S ...

, starring

Sivakarthikeyan Sivakarthikeyan (born 17 February 1985), also referred to as SK, is an Indian actor, singer, film producer, lyricist, and television presenter, who works predominantly in Tamil films. He has also won a Tamil Nadu State Film Award, four Ediso ...

and

Athmiya Rajan Athmiya Rajan is an Indian actress who works predominantly in Malayalam- and Tamil-language films. Personal life Athmiya was born in Kannur, Kerala. She completed her graduation in Nursing from Shree Devi College of Nursing, Mangalore. She ma ...

D. Imman Immanuel Vasanth Dinakaran (born 24 January 1983), better known as D. Imman, is an Indian film composer and singer, predominantly working in Tamil cinema. Also worked in Kannada, Malayalam, Telugu language, Telugu, and Hindi film industry. His ...

has scored the music. The film opened to moderate reviews from critics, but it was the first commercial hit in Sivakarthikeyan's career. The film was remade in

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 ...

as ''

Anjada Gandu ''Anjada Gandu'' () is a 1988 Indian Kannada-language romantic comedy film produced by B N Gangadhar under the banner of ANS Productions and written and directed by Renuka Sharma. The film stars Ravichandran and Khushbu in the lead roles alo ...

'' (2014) and in

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 ...

as ''Vinavayya Ramayya''.

Plot

Kannan (

) is a carefree youth who assists his father Ramaiah (

Ilavarasu Ilavarasu is an Indian cinematographer and actor, who works in the Tamil film industry. He started his career as a cinematographer and worked for 13 films, winning a Tamil Nadu State Film Award for one of them. He, however, became better known ...

) in his construction business. He spends time with his friends Nalla Thambi (

Soori Soori is a common South Indian name that may refer to : Films * ''Soori'' (2001 film), an Indian Telugu film starring J. D. Chakravarthy and Priyanka Upendra * ''Soori'' (2003 film), an Indian Tamil film starring Vignesh and Parthiban People * P ...

), Modu Mutti (

Singampuli Singampuli is an Indian actor and director. After making '' Red'' (2002) and '' Maayavi'' (2005), he has made a career appearing in supporting roles in films. Career Singampuli was born and brought up in Theni, Periyakulam and after studying e ...

), and M. R. Kishore Kumar. Kannan is in love with his neighbour Revathy (

), whose father and uncles are the most dreaded goons in the village. They are both childhood friends. He gets a shocker when he decides to reveal his love to Revathy. Her family has arranged her a marriage with an influential man. To avoid the arranged marriage, Kannan's friends from Mumbai (Nayar (

Srinath Narayana Swamy (born 28 December 1944), known by his stage name Srinath, is an Indian actor and film producer who works predominantly in Kannada cinema. He holds the position of vice-president of the Kannada television channel Udaya TV. He is ...

) and

Chaams Chaams (born 17 July 1970) is an Indian actor and comedian who has appeared in Tamil language films. His birth name is Swaminathan. He has predominantly appeared in supporting roles, notably in Crazy Mohan dramas and playing one of the several ...

) kidnap Revathy. There is a twist in the tale. Revathy declares she has no romantic interest over Kannan. "He is just a friend", says the girl at first. But later reveals that she loves Kannan too, so much so that if others knew it, it'd be a problem to him and prove to be a risk to his life. Meanwhile, the bride-to-be's family searches frantically to find their girl. They get hold of Kannan and his friends. Revathy and Kannan are separated. After two years, Kannan returns from Oman after having worked as a site engineer there, to meet his love. He meets her with avidity and they talk for a while when she asks him to leave immediately, for fear that her father would harm him. Kannan, still a passionate lover, asks Revathy if they could marry, now that she's not married to anybody else. Revathy's father barges in unexpectedly and asks Kannan to leave the house, but with Revathy.

Cast

as Kannan *

as Revathy *

Ravi Mariya S. Ravi Mariya (born August 4, 1979) is an Indian film director and actor who works primarily in Tamil cinema. He appears in villain and supporting roles. Career Ravi Mariya's directorial debut was meant to be ''Nee Naan Kaadhal'' starring Pras ...

as Natraj, Revathy's brother *

as Ramaiah *

as Modu Mutti *

as Nalla Thambi *

as Nayar *

Aadukalam Naren Narayanan (better known as Aadukalam Naren) is an Indian actor who has appeared in Tamil and few Telugu films, mainly in supporting roles. He made his début in 1997 film '' Raman Abdullah'' but he got noticed for his role in the 2011 film, '' ...

as Revathy's father *

Vennira Aadai Moorthy Vennira Aadai Moorthy (born 25 July 1936) is an Indian actor and comedian in Tamil cinema. He has starred in many Tamil films and television serials as a comedian and also played supporting roles. He is a lawyer by education, and holds a B.L. ...

as Nayar's grandfather *

Vanitha Krishnachandran Vanitha Krishnachandran is an Indian film and television actress. She acted during the 1980s in nearly 170 films in Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada and Telugu films along with several Malayalam and Tamil Television serials. Personal life Vanitha wa ...

as Thirumathi *Sugunthan as Landlord *

as Kannan's friend * M. R. Kishore Kumar as Kannan's friend *Jay Kumar *Anbarasan

Production

Producer Ambeth Kumar and Ranjeev Menon are friends of director Ezhil. When they asked him how the shooting of Manam Kothi Paravai was proceeding, he made them listen to the songs tuned by D. Imman. Impressed, they decided to produce it. It was initially expected that

Yuvan Shankar Raja Yuvan Shankar Raja or Abdul Haliq (born 31 August 1979) is an Indian film score and soundtrack composer and singer-songwriter. He mainly scores music for Tamil films. Considered a versatile composer, he is particularly known for his use of We ...

, whom

had worked with in his previous release ''

Deepavali Diwali (), Dewali, Divali, or Deepavali ( IAST: ''dīpāvalī''), also known as the Festival of Lights, related to Jain Diwali, Bandi Chhor Divas, Tihar, Swanti, Sohrai, and Bandna, is a religious celebration in Indian religions. It i ...

'', would compose the music, but as the budget of this film could not afford to have Yuvan as the music composer, Ezhil opted for

. After the lead role in

Marina A marina (from Spanish language, Spanish , Portuguese language, Portuguese and Italian language, Italian : ''marina'', "coast" or "shore") is a Dock (maritime), dock or basin with moorings and supplies for yachts and small boats. A marina dif ...

and an important role in the recently released 3,

is taking up a full-fledged lead role again for Manam Kothi Paravai. The film, which is set in a village, has been shot at Ezhil's native place Kayathur, near Mayavaram and Siva Karthikeyan's Thiruvizhimizhalai.

Soundtrack

The music of ''Manam Kothi Paravai'' was scored by

. The soundtrack was released on 12 April 2012, which features 8 tracks with lyrics written by

Yugabharathi Yugabharathi is a Tamil poet and lyricist. His birth name was "Santhanam Desan" and he was known as "Santhanam" by his family and friends. During the early 1990s when he began writing poems for magazines he started using the pen name "Yugabharat ...

Universal Music Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as just Universal Music) is a Dutch– American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum, Netherlands and its ...

is back in the Tamil market after a 30-year hiatus with 'Manam Kothi Paravai'.

Critical reception

Behindwoods wrote: "Imman has a winner with this movie". Milliblog wrote: "Manam Kothi Paravai’s soundtrack surpasses anything that composer Imman has produced so far, including his most famous soundtrack, Mynaa. The tunes and music he puts together here demonstrate a maturity not seen in the composer’s work so far and makes for fantastic listen."''The Hindu'' wrote:"MKP is a comedy it turns serious and when you settle down for the drama, matters turn ludicrous. Consistency in treatment is a casualty". Sify wrote:"On the whole the film fails to deliver". Behindwoods wrote:"Manam Kothi Paravai moves at a very relaxed pace. With not too many events packed into it, the movie might come across as a long haul if you are looking for a love story that is both entertaining and endearing. Parts of it are entertaining and parts of it, endearing".

The Times of India ''The Times of India'', also known by its abbreviation ''TOI'', is an Indian English language, English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by The Times Group. It is the List of newspapers in India by circulation, t ...

rated 2.5 out of 5 stars stating "Ezhil seems to have tried to do a Kalavani here but those familiar with his repertoire will realize he is more comfortable with melodrama".''IndiaGlitz'' rated 0 out of 5 stars stating "On the whole, the movie may resemble the likes of 'Kalavani' and 'Uthamaputhiran'. But forget the lengthy second half and some clichéd sequences, 'Manam Koththi Paravai' will stick to your hearts".

The New Indian Express ''The New Indian Express'' is an Indian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper published by the Chennai-based Express Publications. It was founded in 1932 as ''The Indian Express'', under the ownership of Chennai-based P. Varadarajulu Naid ...

stated "A romantic comedy low on humour".

References

{{Ezhil Films shot in Ooty 2012 films Tamil films remade in other languages 2010s Tamil-language films Films directed by Ezhil