Anantha Poongatre


Anantha Poongatre is a 1999 Indian Tamil-language romantic drama film written and directed by Raj Kapoor. The film stars Ajith Kumar and Meena in the lead roles, with Malavika in a supporting role and Karthik in a guest appearance. The film is based upon how respect can be mistaken as love by circumstances.
Anantha Poongatre was released on 27 May 1999. It received positive reviews and became a Super-Hit at the box office, winning the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Dialogue Writer and Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Film Portraying Woman in Good Light. The film was remade in Telugu as Subhakaryam and later in Kannada as Rajakumari.

Plot

Meenatchi is a widow living with her son, Nandu. Jeeva, who lives in the same colony, has been pining silently for her for the last four years. He runs an organization called A-to-Z, which can get anything done for anybody.
Jeeva follows Divya to get some information on her for her suitor but, she ends up falling for him and pursues him relentlessly. He avoids her, telling her that he is already in love with someone else, and when cornered, reveals that it is Meenatchi.
This leads to some surprising revelations about Meenatchi's past. The flashback is revealed. Meenatchi is a music student of Haridas. Haridas has a child, Nandu, whose mother, Banu, died giving birth to him. Their mutual respect is mistaken for romance by her father, Dharmalingam, who is a zamindar, and Haridas is killed in the fracas. Later, Meena vows to live like a widow, taking care of Haridas's child. However, that very day, Jeeva and his parents were about to see Meenatchi as a prospective bride. When Jeeva sees this scene unfold before his eyes, he starts admiring her courage. Despite his parents' protests, he assures Meenatchi's father that he would make her change her mind and that he would marry her. But Meenatchi's world turns upside down when Divya's father, a staunch supporter of love marriage, kidnaps Nandu and asks Jeeva to marry Divya. Jeeva of course accepts and things are then resolved in the climax.

Production

Filming of Anantha Poongatre began in early January 1999, shortly after Ajith Kumar completed shooting for his previous psychological thriller, Vaalee, which was released in the end of April 1999, and was completed in early May 1999, within a span of four months. Ajith grew thin beard for his role as Jeeva in this movie. During production, the producer M. Kajamydeen had attempted unsuccessfully to oust Ajith from the project and replace him with Prashanth. Initially Vindhya was assigned to play Malavika's role in the film, but due to her commitment to Sangamam, she was later dropped from the project. Sathyaraj was reported to play a cameo where he would appear in two scenes after the interval, this proved untrue.

Soundtrack

The music was composed by Deva.

Release and reception

The film was released on 27 May 1999. It won two Tamil Nadu State Awards with the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Dialogue Writer going to Shivaram Gandhi while it also won the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Film Portraying Woman in Good Light. The film was remade as Subhakaryam in Telugu and later in Kannada as Rajakumari.

Critical reception

K. N. Vijiyan of New Straits Times, writes "Generally go for this movie if you are an Ajith, Karthik or Meena fan. It has star value and good comedy". K. P. S. of Kalki praised Raj Kapoor's screenplay, performances of Ajith and Karthik and Deva's music but felt Meena and Malavika came and went and concluded saying due to routine plot and sentiments could not enjoy happiness in this breeze of happiness. D. S. Ramanujam of The Hindu wrote, "The triangle love tale takes enjoyable proportions thanks to the good handling of the plot by director Raj Kapoor", also appreciating the cinematography and dialogues.