Neethaane En Ponvasantham
Neethaane En Ponvasantham is a 2012 Indian Tamil-language romantic drama film co written, co produced and directed by Gautham Menon, featuring Jiiva and Samantha in the lead roles. The film is based on a story written by Reshma Ghatala, who produced the film alongside Elred Kumar, Jayaraman, Venkat Somasundaram and Menon. The cinematography was handled by M. S. Prabhu and Om Prakash. The film's background score and soundtrack were composed by Ilaiyaraaja which went on to become a chartbuster, and the soundtrack album sold a record 8.5 million units through various platforms on its release.
Neethaane En Ponvasantham tells the love story of Varun and Nithya through three stages of their life; their school days, college life and then in their late twenties. The venture was simultaneously shot in Telugu as Yeto Vellipoyindhi Manasu, which features Nani playing Jiiva's role, while the team also briefly filmed an incomplete Hindi version with Aditya Roy Kapoor, with Samantha playing the leading female role in all three versions. The film was released on 14 December 2012, receiving positive to mixed reviews from critics, before enduring a good run at the box office.
The film was praised for its ravishing music and the chemistry between the lead actors; Jiiva and Samantha were appreciated for their performances, although the film's screenplay was criticised. At the end of its theatrical run Neethane En Ponvasantham received a number of awards, including the Filmfare Award for Best Tamil Actress for Samantha.
Plot
The film begins with Varun gaining admission into an engineering college, with his best friend Prakash. He and his friends one day participate in a cultural programme, where Varun finds his childhood sweetheart Nithya participating in a dance show. He begins wooing her by singing on stage and later meets up with her and begins to reminisce their childhood. The film rewinds to their early days when both were aged eight, and shows the pair becoming friends after Varun had helped Nithya retrieve a book which had fallen while she had been playing. However, after a minor misunderstanding featuring Varun's brother, she decides not to meet Varun and makes a vow to never talk with him. However, the pair then meet again in their tenth standard, aged 15. Nithya initially hesitates to talk with Varun, but sheds her inhibitions once Varun breaks the ice between them, and resumes her friendship with him. Nithya is elected as a pupil leader in school and is in constant interaction with Deepak, another pupil leader and her classmate, much to the dismay of Varun. As a result, they have another fallout.The film moves to their current meeting in the college. Both forget their past misgivings and become friends again. This time, they fall in love. During the vacations, Nithya leaves India and Varun is left for himself. Varun's elder brother Harish who works in a software company, wants to marry his colleague and confesses the same to his parents. His parents oblige by offering to meet with the girl's parents. However, his parents are humiliated. Varun, in the process of consoling them, realises that despite their embarrassment, his brother and parents care about him rather than themselves. He then decides to take his studies more seriously and begins preparing for CAT. Nithya comes back to India and sees Varun not spending enough time with her due to his busy schedule. Nithya too initially understands his situation. However, when she learns that Varun is going to IIM Kozhikode, she proposes to go with him. Varun rejects her demand, saying that he is going to stay in a hostel, as staying in a rented house will be too expensive for his family and that he won't be able to concentrate in his studies if she stays with him. This leads to a heated argument between the two and eventually ends in another break-up.
After graduating from IIM and landing a job, Varun goes about finding Nithya. Accompanied by Prakash and Jenny, he goes to Manapad, where Nithya is working as a school teacher at a tsunami relief camp. Nithya refuses to talk to him even after many attempts by Varun to start a conversation. When he finally gets her to talk, she rejects his advances, saying that she is happy with her current position. Varun, disgusted at her rejection, leaves the place. After a few months, Nithya invites Varun to her sister's marriage. At the same time, Varun also mentions that he is about to get married and it is then that Nithya realises the magnitude of the deepening rift between them. Shocked and surprised at this sudden development, Nithya realises that she couldn't fully understand Varun and breaks down before her sister. However, to the surprise of Varun, she attends his reception, which makes him think twice about his marriage. With his father's help, he realises that he cannot devote his love and heart to anyone other than Nithya. So he breaks his engagement with the consent of his father and goes to Nithya's home to win back her confidence. Nithya too apologises to Varun about her past behaviour and they both share a kiss. The film ends with a note being shown that they are happily married, ever quarrelling with each other and loving each other.
Cast
- Jiiva as Varun Krishnan
- Samantha as Nithya Vasudevan
- Santhanam as Prakash
- Vidyullekha Raman as Jenny
- Ravi Prakash as Harish
- Ravi Raghavendra as Krishnan
- Sriranjani as Nithya's mother
- Anupama Kumar as Varun's mother
- Christine Thambuswamy as Vidya Vasudevan
- Abhilash Babu as Deepak
- Abhishek Jain
- Arjun Rajkumar
- Rajkumar Pichumani as Varun Friend
- Ashwathy Ravikumar as Radhika
- Dhanya Balakrishnan as Nithya's friend
- Kavita Srinivasan
- Kota Prasanth
- Preethi Rajendran
- Rajesh Trakkia
- Sahithya Jagannathan as Nithya's friend
- Shriya Sharma as Kavya Vasudevan
- Swetha Shekhar
- Vaidyanathan
- Vetri
- Vivek Pathak
- Nani as a train passenger
- VTV Ganesh as Ganesh
- Sathish Krishnan as a dancer at Vidya's wedding
- Khushi Jain
- Maanav
- Saran
Production
Development
After agreeing terms with RS Infotainment to direct their next venture, Gautham Menon co-wrote a screenplay based on a story by Reshma Ghatala. The director then met Jiiva to discuss a potential collaboration in May 2011 for his next venture, which would begin following the completion of his current project Ekk Deewana Tha. Menon then cast Jiiva in the Tamil version of a bilingual film that he had originally planned to make featuring Ram and Samantha. Film editor Anthony, cinematographer Manoj Paramahamsa and composer A. R. Rahman were all touted to be a part of the film; however M. S. Prabhu replaced Paramahamsa and in December 2011 sources indicated that Rahman too would probably not work for this film, owing to his other commitments. Reports subsequently suggested that Harris Jayaraj may work with Menon again, but the composer dismissed those few days later. Menon clarified that he never announced any music director for the film and that he wanted to keep it as a surprise. In late January 2012, Ilaiyaraaja confirmed that he would be working with Gautham Menon.A Telugu and a Hindi version, titled Yeto Vellipoyindhi Manasu and Assi Nabbe Poorey Sau, were also being simultaneously made, with Nani in the former and Aditya Roy Kapoor playing the lead role in the latter, while Samantha played the female lead in all versions. Initial suggestions indicated that the film was also set to be titled Nithya, after Samantha's character in the film, but this turned out to be untrue. The title was revealed through the first publicity posters to be Neethaane En Ponvasantham, inspired by a song from the 1982 film Ninaivellam Nithya. An official announcement was made by the producers of the film, RS Infotainment, that a photo shoot was planned in August and the film would also shoot portions across the United Kingdom. To prepare for his role, Jiiva had to lose weight for the film and had to undertake diet regimens and work out sessions to get in shape for the character. Furthermore, it was revealed that he would sport three different looks in the film as the film encompasses 15 years. Ravi Raghavendra and Anupama Kumar were added to the cast to play Jiiva's parents, while Santhanam was also chosen to play a college student in the film. Film historian Mohan Raman's daughter Vidyullekha Raman, a theatre artist, made her acting debut in this film as the female lead's friend.
Filming
The film had been set to begin the first schedule on 15 August 2011 but delays led to it only starting fortnight later. It eventually commenced the initial shoot from 29 August 2011 with a photo shoot held and publicity posters were released the following week. The team shot across Chennai in the first week of the first schedule, with scenes filmed at the cinema multiplex Mayajaal and at a coffee shop, Cafe Coffee Day, on the East Coast Road. Many scenes were shot in SSN College of Engineering near Kelambakkam, a college in Chennai, where Jiiva's character was shown to be studying. The film was shot alongside the two other versions, with the film shooting the same scene thrice with the various casts. In late August 2012, important scenes were canned in Kalpakkam.The Hindi remake of the film was temporarily stalled, following the box office failure of Ekk Deewana Tha and Menon noted he planned to observe the reception of the Tamil and Telugu versions and then probably go ahead with its remake in Hindi after completing pending projects. However, Gautham Menon insisted that only Aditya's dates had been a problem and that instead the team would go ahead with the Tamil and Telugu release while postponing the Hindi version. Although statements were released by Photon Kathaas suggesting the venture was set to resume, it has been indefinitely shelved.