Unakkum Enakkum
Unakkum Enakkum (transl. Between you and me), also known by its formal title Unakkum Enakkum ... Something Something,[1][2] is a 2006 Indian Tamil-language romantic comedy drama film directed by M. Raja. A remake of Telugu film Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana (2005), it stars Prabhu, Jayam Ravi and Trisha in the lead roles and an ensemble cast that includes Richa Pallod, K. Bhagyaraj, Geetha and comedians Santhanam and Ganja Karuppu in supporting roles. The score and soundtrack was composed by Devi Sri Prasad, who also scored the music in the original version of the film, whilst cinematography was handled by A. Venkatesh and editing by S. Suraj Kavee.
| Unakkum Enakkum | |
|---|---|
Theatrical poster | |
| Directed by | M. Raja |
| Story by | Veeru Potla |
| Based on | Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana (Telugu) |
| Produced by | T. Rama Rao, M. Raja |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | A. Venkatesh |
| Edited by | S.Surajkavee |
| Music by | Devi Sri Prasad |
Production companies | |
Release date |
|
Running time | 175 minutes |
| Country | India |
| Language | Tamil |
Plot
This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. (October 2021) |
The film starts with Muthupandi (Prabhu Ganesan) sitting alone in his jail cell when the police officer (Vijayakumar) comes to meet and talk with him. Muthupandi is getting released the next day and expresses his feelings of seeing his married sister Kavitha (Trisha) and his nephew. On the police officer's request, Muthupandi tells his own flashback.
Muthupandi took care of his only sister Kavitha, following their mother’s early death when they were young. Muthupandi lived in Panpoli, a remote village near Tenkasi and raised up Kavitha with a lot of care and affection. In the meantime, Muthupandi had an aversion towards arrogant and rich people in the society, as his father (O. A. K. Sundar), who was once rich, abandoned his mother (Sriranjini) following which she died due to depression.
Santhosh (Jayam Ravi) was the only son of a London-settled Tamil business tycoon named Krishnan (K. Bhagyaraj) and Janaki (Geetha). He came to Chennai along with Janaki to attend the wedding of his cousin Lalitha alias Lalli's (Richa Pallod) wedding. Lalli was Kavitha's best friend, and she too came to Chennai a few days before the wedding. Santhosh, a fun-loving person, developed an attraction immediately after seeing Kavitha, but Kavitha didn't reciprocate his feelings, and maintained a distance with Santhosh.
Slowly, Santhosh and Kavitha became good friends, and love later blossomed between them. Shalini alias Shalu (Tejashree) was the daughter of Santhosh’s uncle Ravichandran's (Cochin Haneefa) friend Jagadhalapradhaban alias JP (Manivannan), and she developed an infatuation towards Santhosh. Janaki got furious knowing about Santhosh and Kavitha’s love affair, as she thought that Kavitha was poor and from low societal status. On the day of Lalli’s wedding when they sent Santhosh away to buy some gifts for Lalli, Janaki and JP spoke ill of Kavitha and asked her to leave the place before Santhosh's return. When Kavitha was about to leave the place, Muthupandi suddenly arrived with his friend Karuppayya (Ganja Karuppu) and was shocked to see her condition. He got angry, scolded everyone there for hurting his sister, and also took her back to Panpoli. Santhosh, who was still upset as Kavitha left him, learnt from Lalli what has happened the previous day. He went to the room where Kavitha stayed and found her horse clay doll, her favourite doll which Muthupandi made for her and modified by Santhosh after Shalu broke it out of anger and jealousy. While waiting for a connecting flight in Dubai, Santhosh escaped from Janaki and went back to Tenkasi instead, with the idea of heading to Kavitha's village. When he arrived in the village, everyone got shocked. Muthupandi didn't like Santhosh because of Janaki’s attitude and thought that he too would ill-treat Kavitha in the future.
Santhosh apologized to Muthupandi for the misunderstandings and requested him to get Kavitha married to him. Hence Muthupandi came with a challenge. He allotted an acre of agricultural land to Santhosh and asked him to do farming there. Santhosh, in order to prove his love for Kavitha, challenged him that he would cultivate one more bundle in the end. When Muthupandi agreed, Santhosh started work, although he didn't know farming. Santhosh tried hard to do farming, and somehow, he managed to learn cultivation. Krishnan came to Tenkasi to confront Kavitha and Muthpandi and bring back Santhosh. He saw Santhosh living a typical farmer's life, and eating plain rice with chilli powder and got triggered emotionally. He tried to convince Santhosh and asked him to come back to London. When Santhosh said that he believed in his love for Kavitha and didn't wish to return, Krishnan went to confront Kavitha, who was the cause for his son's condition.
Krishnan overheard Kavitha's conversation with her servant and realized that she too had been sleeping on the floor despite cold conditions and proper bed and was eating the same food as Santhosh. Krishnan felt overwhelmed thinking about the young lovers and blessed Kavitha. He also told her that their true love would win and asked her to stay strong.
Meanwhile, JP and Shalu wanted Santhosh to lose so that he would return. They sought help from a local goon named "Mark" Mayandi (Kalabhavan Mani) to distract Santhosh. Also, there was a factionist named Sivaji (Kadhal Dhandapani), a local rich man in the village. His son wanted to marry Kavitha at any cost. The cultivation was completed, and rice grains were bundled in both Santhosh and Muthupandi’s farms.
One night, when Sivaji's son tried to burn Santhosh's land, it backfired, and Mayandi intervened the chaos and got burned on his back. He also set the shed on fire where Santhosh was staying. Everyone tried to extinguish the fire and Santhosh rescued Muthupandi from a near accident due to the fire. Also, he saved Kavitha’s horse doll. On the day before the counting, Mayandi took a few bundles from Santhosh and placed it along with Muthupandi’s so that Santhosh would lose the challenge. The next day, Muthupandi revealed to his guardian, a railway manager (Moulee) that he added extra bundles in Santhosh's so that he could win. He also revealed that Santhosh was the right match for his sister. Santhosh won the challenge as he had cultivated more compared to Muthupandi, following which he agreed for their wedding.
Sivaji and his son got angry upon seeing this. His son planned to forcefully marry Kavitha. JP and Mayandi also got angry, and they plotted to murder Muthupandi. They kidnapped Kavitha but were beaten up by Santhosh and Muthupandi. A fight erupted in which Sivaji’s son was killed by Santhosh, who saved Kavitha, while JP and Sivaji were violently defeated by Muthupandi. When police arrived at the spot, Muthupandi took the blame for the murder and requested Santhosh to marry Kavitha and lead a happy life. He got jailed for seven years.
Now Muthupandi completes telling his story and the officer gets surprised for seeing such a golden personality. When he asks him why is he telling the truth a day before completing his sentence, Muthupandi says that he wants his sister to stay happy forever with the man she loves. The officer feels proud of him and blesses him.
When Muthupandi gets released, he gets shocked upon seeing Santhosh and Kavitha still unmarried and waiting for him in wedding attire. Santhosh and Kavitha were waiting to conduct the marriage only after Muthupandi is released. Muthupandi feels proud of them. Also, Janaki realizes her mistake and apologizes to Muthupandi. In the end, Santhosh and Kavitha are married. Also, it is hinted that Muthupandi and his servant maid Valli (Mallika) finally develop love for each other.
Cast
- Prabhu as Muthupandi, Kavitha's elder brother
- Jayam Ravi as Santhosh
- Trisha as Kavitha, Muthupandi's younger sister and Santhosh's love interest, later wife
- K. Bhagyaraj as Krishnan, Santhosh's father
- Geetha as Janaki, Santhosh's mother
- Richa Pallod as Lalitha "Lalli", Kavitha's best friend and Santhosh's cousin
- Santhanam as Arivazhagan "Arivu", Santhosh and Lalitha's cousin
- Cochin Hanifa as Ravichandran, Lalitha's father and Santhosh's Maternal uncle
- Manivannan as Jagadhalapradhaban "JP", Ravichandran's friend
- Tejashree as Shalini "Shalu", JP's daughter
- Kalabhavan Mani as "Mark" Mayandi, a local goon
- Dhandapani as Sivaji, a rich man
- Mallika as Valli, Muthupandi's love interest, later wife
- Ganja Karuppu as Karuppayya, Muthupandi's friend
- Kadhal Arun Kumar as Arun
- T. S. B. K. Moulee as Krishnayya (railway station master)
- Vijayakumar as Police Officer
- Livingston as Ram
- Aravind Akash as Lalli's blackmailer
- Walter Philips as Young Muthupandi
- Sriranjini as Santhi, Muthupandi and Kavitha's mother
- Sachu as Grandmother
- Nancy Jennifer as Santhosh's cousin
- O. A. K. Sundar as Muthupandi and Kavitha's father
Production
After two successful remakes, Raja opted to remake successful Telugu film Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana (2005) with his brother Ravi in lead role alongside Trisha reprised her role from original. Prabhu was signed on to play Trisha's brother after unsuccessful negotiations with several other actors.[3][4] Mohan was offered the role of Jayam Ravi's father, but he declined the offer and the role went to K. Bhagyaraj.[5]
The film was initially titled Something Something Unakkum Enakkum, but removed the English prefixes to exploit the Tamil Nadu Government's then rule of entertainment tax exemption for films with Tamil titles.[6][7][8]
Music
The film has six songs composed by Devi Sri Prasad who retained and reused all the tunes from the original Telugu film except for "Paripoke Pitta", which was replaced with "Kozhi Veda Kozhi".
| No. | Song | Singers | Lyrics |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Aagayam" | S. P. Balasubrahmanyam | Na. Muthukumar |
| 2 | "Kiliye Kiliye" | Jassie Gift | |
| 3 | "Kozhi Veda Kozhi" | Naveen, Priya Himesh | Viveka |
| 4 | "Pooparikka Neeyum" | Shankar Mahadevan | Na. Muthukumar |
| 5 | "Something Something" | Tippu | P. Vijay |
| 6 | "Unn Paarvaiyil" | Karthik & Sumangali | Kabilan |
Release
The film opened to positive reviews in July 2006, with Behindwoods.com noting Raja "should be applauded for hand picking a cast that makes the movie worth watching", while remarking that "it has everything that can well set the box office collections soaring".[9] Likewise Sify added the film was "like a saccharine coated candy floss champion that is superbly packaged".[10] The Hindu stated "Raja has a way of making remakes successful".[11] The venture went on to become profitable, and scored the third straight success for the actor-director duo.[12]
References
- ^ . www.chennaionline.com. Archived from the original on 1 November 2006. Retrieved 19 April 2022.
- ^ "15 Years of 'Unakkum Enakkum': Five lovable scenes from Jayam Ravi and Trisha's romantic drama". The Times of India. 27 July 2021. from the original on 27 July 2021. Retrieved 20 January 2022.
- ^ "Something..Something: Will it work?". Rediff.com. 31 December 2004. from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 28 December 2015.
- ^ "Will it be a success story in Tamil? – CHEN". The Hindu. 14 April 2006. Retrieved 28 December 2015.
- ^ "Tamil Cinema News | Tamil Movie Reviews | Tamil Movie Trailers - IndiaGlitz Tamil". from the original on 8 October 2017. Retrieved 23 January 2018.
- ^ "No more tax exemptions?". from the original on 1 October 2016. Retrieved 27 September 2016.
- ^ "Now, The 'T' Certificate". from the original on 1 October 2016. Retrieved 27 September 2016.
- ^ "Only films with Tamil names get tax waiver, says TN govt". The Times of India. from the original on 28 December 2016. Retrieved 4 October 2016.
- ^ "Something Something Review – Finally Jeyam Ravi had got his another break and Trisha is all set to rule again!!". Behindwoods.com. from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 28 December 2015.
- ^ . Sify.com. Archived from the original on 24 December 2015. Retrieved 28 December 2015.
- ^ "From London with love – Unakkum Enakkum – CHEN". The Hindu. 28 July 2006. from the original on 4 March 2017. Retrieved 28 December 2015.
- ^ "Success begins at home – MADS". The Hindu. 8 September 2006. from the original on 28 November 2020. Retrieved 28 December 2015.
External links
- Unakkum Enakkum at IMDb