May Maadham
May Maadham is a 1994 Indian Tamil-language romantic musical film directed by Balu and produced by G. Venkateswaran via GV Films. The film stars Vineeth and Sonali Kulkarni, and has music by A. R. Rahman. It is based on the 1953 American film Roman Holiday. The film was released on 9 September 1994.Plot
Sandhya is living under full control of her businessman father Rangarajan who tries to bring her up as a disciplined homely girl and one day fixes her marriage with a US-based businessman who also loves Sandhya very much. Sandhya finds out one day that her spouse-to-be us guy is bald and by making him buy coconut drink she runs away by catching a running train. The train reaches Madras but Sandhya's bag get accidentally taken by Shekar's assistant who after seeing thousand rupees inside Sandhya's bag takes away the money and enjoys a night party. Sandhya comes with a policeman and catch Shekar who now only knows of the bag mistakenly took and sees no money inside when Sandhya asks for money and Shekhar's assistant tells all spend at party, Shekhar assures Sandhya that she will be given her money back, as Sandhya tells she is hungry Shekhar takes her to a hotel but runs away without paying. The hotel owner makes Sandhya do the hotel work the whole night. The next day Shekhar who is a photographer is going to get money as he has to take photos for a wedding and this time Sandhya comes and destroys the film roll inside the camera after which Shekhar is fired out with no money. Now Shekar has to sell his old car that is very old and not working properly, mainly to pay money back to Sandhya, after bargaining money with a customer Shekhar walks away after telling the costumer to pay money to Sandhya, sandhya's photo gets seen by a fashion studio and asks shekhar's master to get the girl so the master meets Shekhar and offers money and shekhar walks away to find Sandhya and sees sandhya giving tea for the local people and gets more friends. Sandhya sees her big photo cut out infront of the fashion studio and asks shekhar how her photo came out like this that is danger to her as her father Rangarajan is searching her to marry her against her wish and while entering the fashion studio sees her father and so comes out and goes far away from where they used to live, Shekhar takes her to mahabalipuram temple and show a mouth like opening where as Shekhar says whoever tells truth they can put their hand and withdraw the hand and so Shekhar puts his hand inside and after scaring Sandhya takes out the hand, Sandhya who was emotionally disturbed after getting happy by Shekhar finally tells she also put her hand inside the mouth like opening but her hand gets stuck and she falls unconscious, horrified Shekhar carries Sandhya to a hospital and after check up while coming out Rangarajan is seen in front and Rangarajan tells sandhya have brain fever needs costly treatment that he only can give and after sandhya gets cured will marry her to Shekar, Shekar accepts and so Rangarajan carries Sandhya with her to his house but next day sandhya is seen in wedding engagement arrangements and Rangarajan tells give one wedding invitation card to Shekhar also to make him understand how dangerous he is. Shekhar totally shattered gets advised by his assistant to catch captain who is a drunkard in deep drinking habit due to his love failure, captain takes Shekar in his helicopter to sandhya's house and takes away Sandhya after telling that Rangarajan is not a true businessman as he changed the terms he talked with Shekhar regarding marriage and now arranging marriage to someone but Rangarajan still enraged points revolver but Shekar walks away to helicopter, now the us businessman bridegroom at the side moves the revolver gripped hand away and tells better the love more for Shekar be granted and walks away, film ends with helicopter flying away and Shekar and Sandhya married at their local area.Cast
Production
was initially considered to play the lead role before Vineeth was cast. The film marks Sonali Kulkarni's only Tamil film to date. She was encouraged to audition for the film by Mani Ratnam. The song "Madrasa Suthi" was filmed in Marina Beach.Soundtrack
The soundtrack was composed by A. R. Rahman with lyrics by Vairamuthu. Rahman initially wanted to include a rap song, at a time when the genre was still nascent in India, but scrapped the song as he felt it did not suit the score. The song "Margazhi Poove" is set in Hindolam raaga, while "Enmel Vizhundha Mazhaithuli" is set in Kapi. In a 2018 interview, Vairamuthu recalled that after he had written most of the lyrics for "Margazhi Poove", Rahman wanted him to write further lyrics for "a short tune that plays between the BGM". Vairamuthu felt it was impossible to fit words into the tune but Rahman remained adamant. Though irritated, Vairamuthu accepted the challenge and found the perfect lyrics: "Venba... Paadivarum Vandukku/ Senthaen... Thandhuvidum sempookkal/ Konjam... Paadavarum Pennukku/ Sandham... Thandhuvidum Mynahkkal". Rahman reused the songs in the Hindi film Love You Hamesha.Release and reception
May Maadham was released on 9 September 1994. Malini Mannath of The Indian Express wrote on the same day, "Despite its flaws, May Maadham is an engaging little film that is worth viewing". Thulasi of Kalki appreciated the film for Sreeram's cinematography, Rahman's music, Mohan's dialogues and the cast performances. The film was commercially unsuccessful, breaking GV Films' success streak that began in 1990. The film was subsequently dubbed in Telugu under the title Hrudayanjali in 1998.