Minnale

Minnale (English: Lightning) (Tamil: மின்னலே) is a 2001 Tamil film written and directed by Gautham Menon. It is a stylized romantic and musical comedy. The film stars Madhavan, Abbas, Reema Sen, Vivek and Nagesh. The film's score and songs are composed by Harris

Plot

The movie opens in an engineering college in Ooty. Samuel (Abbas) is a computer engineering student, and is one of the top and good students in the college, while Rajesh (R. Madhavan) is a mechanical engineering student and is a rowdy in the college. A mutual problem between the two groups puts Sam and Rajesh at loggerheads and both of them pull pranks on each other to get the other in trouble. It culminates into a fist fight but is broken soon. They both graduate from the School soon and hope to never to see each other ever again in their lives and Samuel goes abroad for higher studies.

A few years later, Rajesh has becomes responsible and mature and has settled into a nice office job as a software engineer. Rajesh lives with his librarian grandfather Subbuni (Nagesh), who means the world to him and he even turns down a very lucrative job assignment in Singapore to be with his grandfather. Rajesh, on a trip to a friend’s wedding in Bangalore, comes across Reena (Reema Sen) and is smitten by her beauty but doesn’t get to meet her. To his pleasant surprise he sees her again in Chennai but is again unable to meet her and is disappointed.

A friend of Rajesh, Chockalingam (Vivek), spots Reena’s friend in a market one day and recognizes her from the wedding pictures in Bangalore earlier. Together with Rajesh, they pry on the girl for more information on Reena and learn her phone number and that she is engaged to be married to someone named Rajiv, whom she has never met but has only spoken on the phone. Goaded by his grandfather and his friends, Rajesh decides to enter Reena’s life pretending to be Rajiv. Within a few days of hanging out with each other, both fall in love with each other and couldn’t be happier. But before Rajesh could tell Reena the truth, the real Rajiv had come to Chennai and both their families gather together. Reena is shocked to learn that the person she loves is not Rajiv.

Rajesh comes clean with Reena and pleas to be forgiven but Reena is adamant that she doesn’t want to talk to Rajesh anymore. So Rajesh and his friends decide to meet Rajiv and ask him to break up the engagement with Reena. They are surprised to learn that Rajiv a.k.a Rajiv Samuel is the same bitter enemy of Rajiv from his College. Rajiv becomes enraged when he learns the truth but believes that Reena was duped and refuses to break up the engagement. After repeated attempts to talk to Reena fail and when Rajiv and Reena’s wedding is fixed, Rajesh sadly accepts this.

Heartbroken and unable to live in the city anymore, he accepts a low paying job overseas and plans to leave. Reena, finally realizes that even though she was duped by Rajesh, she had indeed fell in love with him. Rajiv senses this on the eve of their wedding. Just before Rajesh boards his plane, Rajiv appears and says that they are still bitter enemies but he couldn’t marry a girl who doesn’t love him. Reena appears and embraces Rajesh.

Cast and crew

Cast

• Madhavan as Rajesh Shivakumar
• Abbas as Rajiv Samuel
• Reema Sen as Reena Joseph
• Vivek as Chockalingam (Rajesh's friend)
• Nagesh as Subbuni (Grandfather)
• N. Krishna as a Lorry Driver

Crew

• Director: Gautham Menon
• Music: Harris Jayaraj
• Cinematography: Rajasekhar
• Editing: Suresh Urs
• Playback Singers: Unnikrishnan, Bombay Jayashree, Harish Raghavendra

Production

• The film was initially titled O Lala.

• The filming was done in Chennai,Ooty and Malaysia

• The film was later dubbed into Telugu as Cheli

Box Office

• The film grossed $2 million at the box office.
• This was then remade in Hindi as Rehna Hai Tere Dil Mein directed by Gautham Menon and starring Madhavan, Dia Mirza and Saif Ali Khan, but apart from a few centers the film was not well received by the audience.^{[citation needed]}
• However, film music director Harris Jeyaraj, who made his debut in this film in both Hindi and Tamil, turned out to be the most sought after music directors in the Tamil film scene after his mesmerizing music in the films Majunu, Vettaiyadu Velaiyadu, Samy and others.^{[citation needed]}
• It should be noted that although the film didn't turn out to be a hit in Hindi, the music was well acclaimed by the Bollywood personalities like the director Subhash Ghai.^{[citation needed]}
• The director of Sillunu Oru Kaadhal, N. Krishna made a cameo appearance in the film as a lorry driver.

Soundtrack

1. Azhagiya Theeye (Harish Raghavendra, Timmy)
2. Iru Vizhi (Devan)
3. Maddy Maddy (Timmy , Karthik)
4. Nenjai Poopol (Harris Jayaraj)
5. Oh Mama Mama (Shankar Mahadevan, Tippu)
6. Pooppol Poopol (Tippu, Karthik)
7. Vaseegara (Bombay Jayashri)
8. Venmathiye Venmathiye Nillu (Roop Kumar Rathod, Tippu)
9. Verenna Verenna Vendum (Unnikrishnan , Harini)

Minnale
Directed by	Gautham Menon
Produced by	Dr. Murali Manohar
Written by	Gautham Menon Vipul Shah
Starring	Madhavan Abbas Reema Sen Vivek Nagesh N. Krishna
Music by	Harris Jayaraj
Release date(s)	14 February 2001
Running time	150 mins
Language	Tamil