Alai Payuthey is a 2000 Tamil romantic drama film directed by Mani Ratnam which stars Madhavan Ranganathan and Shalini Ajith in the lead roles while Swarnamalya, Aravind Swamy, Kushboo Sundar, Jeyasudha Kapoor, Ravi Prakash, V. Nadharajan, Venu Aravinth, Vivek and Karthik Kumar play other pivotal roles. The cinematography was handled by P.C. Sriram while A. Sreekar Prasad did the editing. Farah Khan who had earlier worked with Mani Ratmam in Iruvar was signed up to do the choreography. The film carries a popular soundtrack which was composed by the Academy Award winning composer A.R Rahman and the lyrics were written by ''Kaviperarasu'' Vairamuthu. The late G. Srinivasan who was Mani Ratnam's elder brother produced the film.
The film revolves the story of a troubled couple who fell in love and got married against their parent's wish.
Karthik (Madhavan Ranganathan) and Shakthi (Shalini Ajith) are two young individuals from different class of family. Karthik, a computer engineering graduate, is son of a famous criminal lawyer named Varadharajan (V. Nadharajan) while Shakthi, a medical student, is daughter of a railways employee named Selvaraaj (Ravi Prakash). They both meet for the first time at a wedding and later begin to meet on suburban trains frequently. They both fall in love, but Shakthi denies to get married to him without her parent's consent. Karthik's parents meet Shakthi's parents and ask for their consent to a marriage between Karthik and Shakthi, but eventually disagree because of misunderstandings and cancel the wedding plans. Shakthi breaks up with Karthik and decides to move on.
Shakthi later goes to a medical camp in another city and Karthik decides to go after her. While Shakthi is at the medical camp and Karthik is traveling to find her, they both realize that they miss each other so much that they can not live without each other. When Karthik arrives the medical camp, Shakthi hugs him and asks him to marry her. They both get secretly married at a temple and begin to live with their parents.
One day when Raghu (Venu Aravinth) and his family come to ask Shakthi's parents to a marriage between him and Shakthi's elder sister Poorni (Swarnamalya), his father asks Selvaraaj for his consent to a marriage between Shakthi and his younger son (Karthik Kumar) as well. Shakthi denies and tells the truth that she is already married to Karthik. Both Shakthi and Karthik get kicked out of their house and they move together to an apartment and begin to live their married life.
After several months Shakthi meets her mother (Jeyasudha Kapoor) and Poorni on a suburban train. She gets to know that her father is about to die. She asks Karthik to come with her to go and visit her sick father, but Karthik denies because her father slapped him before. Shakthi then decides to not go to a house where people do not respect Karthik, but Karthik changes his mind and they both decide to go and visit her father the next day.
The next day they get to know that Selvaraaj is dead. Her mother gets angry, tells Shakthi to get out of the house and the relationship between the two young lovers begins to walk on the edge. Misunderstandings gradually turn out to be suspicions and the silence begins to speak.
The couple stop talking, but Karthik re-arranges the wedding plans for Poorni and Raghu to win back Shakthi's heart. One day when Shakthi gets to know that Poorni and Raghu are going to get married and that Karthik was behind everything, she decides to go to Karthik's office to meet him and ask for apology. On the way to Karthik's office Shakthi gets into an accident and is taken to the hospital. Shakthi is admitted at the hospital and fights for her life while in Karthik's mind Shakthi is missing. He has no clue about where she is. How Karthik finds Shakthi forms the crux of the story.
Madhavan Ranganathan (credited as R. Madhavan in films) made his debut as a big screen actor with this movie and quickly got everybody's attention because of his acting skills and his look. Both him and Shalini were faithful to their roles and they had a beautiful chemistry throughout the film. The film had great visuals and colorful locations which not only made the couple to look beautiful, but the whole movie beautiful. It did not surprise me that the film carries a popular soundtrack. With A.R Rahman's music and ''Kaviperarasu'' Vairamuthu's lines you can be 100% sure and say that the soundtrack will definitely be a hit and this soundtrack did not fail to win everybody's heart. It is still popular all over the world. Songs like ''Endrendrum Punnagai'', ''Pachai Nirame'' and ''Snegithane'' have turned out to be nowadays youngster's favorite songs when it comes to Tamil Cinema Music. If you ask for my opinion I would say that this album is the finest work by both A.R Rahman and Vairamuthu.
Like Mani Ratnam's earlier films this film does not have focus on politics, terrorism and today's society. This film explores a marriage life and learns the audience about how important the word ''sacrificing'' is when it comes to marriage. I am sure that every married couple who love their life-partner from the bottom of their heart will enjoy this film and learn the meaning of true love. Alai Payuthey will definitely be one of the best romantic drama films in Tamil Cinema's history for the next 20-30 years. According to me this is the finest work by Mani Ratnam till date.
Verdict: Alai Payuthey... A treat of love!
The film revolves the story of a troubled couple who fell in love and got married against their parent's wish.
Karthik (Madhavan Ranganathan) and Shakthi (Shalini Ajith) are two young individuals from different class of family. Karthik, a computer engineering graduate, is son of a famous criminal lawyer named Varadharajan (V. Nadharajan) while Shakthi, a medical student, is daughter of a railways employee named Selvaraaj (Ravi Prakash). They both meet for the first time at a wedding and later begin to meet on suburban trains frequently. They both fall in love, but Shakthi denies to get married to him without her parent's consent. Karthik's parents meet Shakthi's parents and ask for their consent to a marriage between Karthik and Shakthi, but eventually disagree because of misunderstandings and cancel the wedding plans. Shakthi breaks up with Karthik and decides to move on.
Shakthi later goes to a medical camp in another city and Karthik decides to go after her. While Shakthi is at the medical camp and Karthik is traveling to find her, they both realize that they miss each other so much that they can not live without each other. When Karthik arrives the medical camp, Shakthi hugs him and asks him to marry her. They both get secretly married at a temple and begin to live with their parents.
One day when Raghu (Venu Aravinth) and his family come to ask Shakthi's parents to a marriage between him and Shakthi's elder sister Poorni (Swarnamalya), his father asks Selvaraaj for his consent to a marriage between Shakthi and his younger son (Karthik Kumar) as well. Shakthi denies and tells the truth that she is already married to Karthik. Both Shakthi and Karthik get kicked out of their house and they move together to an apartment and begin to live their married life.
After several months Shakthi meets her mother (Jeyasudha Kapoor) and Poorni on a suburban train. She gets to know that her father is about to die. She asks Karthik to come with her to go and visit her sick father, but Karthik denies because her father slapped him before. Shakthi then decides to not go to a house where people do not respect Karthik, but Karthik changes his mind and they both decide to go and visit her father the next day.
The next day they get to know that Selvaraaj is dead. Her mother gets angry, tells Shakthi to get out of the house and the relationship between the two young lovers begins to walk on the edge. Misunderstandings gradually turn out to be suspicions and the silence begins to speak.
The couple stop talking, but Karthik re-arranges the wedding plans for Poorni and Raghu to win back Shakthi's heart. One day when Shakthi gets to know that Poorni and Raghu are going to get married and that Karthik was behind everything, she decides to go to Karthik's office to meet him and ask for apology. On the way to Karthik's office Shakthi gets into an accident and is taken to the hospital. Shakthi is admitted at the hospital and fights for her life while in Karthik's mind Shakthi is missing. He has no clue about where she is. How Karthik finds Shakthi forms the crux of the story.
Madhavan Ranganathan (credited as R. Madhavan in films) made his debut as a big screen actor with this movie and quickly got everybody's attention because of his acting skills and his look. Both him and Shalini were faithful to their roles and they had a beautiful chemistry throughout the film. The film had great visuals and colorful locations which not only made the couple to look beautiful, but the whole movie beautiful. It did not surprise me that the film carries a popular soundtrack. With A.R Rahman's music and ''Kaviperarasu'' Vairamuthu's lines you can be 100% sure and say that the soundtrack will definitely be a hit and this soundtrack did not fail to win everybody's heart. It is still popular all over the world. Songs like ''Endrendrum Punnagai'', ''Pachai Nirame'' and ''Snegithane'' have turned out to be nowadays youngster's favorite songs when it comes to Tamil Cinema Music. If you ask for my opinion I would say that this album is the finest work by both A.R Rahman and Vairamuthu.
Like Mani Ratnam's earlier films this film does not have focus on politics, terrorism and today's society. This film explores a marriage life and learns the audience about how important the word ''sacrificing'' is when it comes to marriage. I am sure that every married couple who love their life-partner from the bottom of their heart will enjoy this film and learn the meaning of true love. Alai Payuthey will definitely be one of the best romantic drama films in Tamil Cinema's history for the next 20-30 years. According to me this is the finest work by Mani Ratnam till date.
Verdict: Alai Payuthey... A treat of love!