Tamil
Tamil may refer to:
People, culture and language
* Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia
**Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka
** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...
-language
romantic action film
Romance films involve romantic love stories recorded in visual media for broadcast in theatres or on television that focus on passion, emotion, and the affectionate romantic involvement of the main characters. Typically their journey through da ...
Sadha
Sadaf Mohammed Sayed, known professionally as Sadha, is an Indian actress known for her work in Telugu, Tamil, and Kannada cinema, as well as Telugu television. She made her film debut with the Telugu film ''Jayam'' (2002), directed by Teja ...
and Gopichand in their first Tamil ventures respectively, with the latter two reprising their roles from the Telugu movie alongside an ensemble supporting cast including Rajeev, Pragathi, Nizhalgal Ravi,
Radha Ravi
Madras Rajagopalan Radhakrishnan Ravi mononymously called as Radha Ravi is an Indian actor and politician who played supporting roles throughout his career. He is the son of veteran actor M. R. Radha and the uncle of Vasu Vikram and half-brot ...
,
Nalini
Nalini (Devanagari: नलिनी) is a female gender Indian people, Indian given name, which means "lotus", "goddess Gayatri","mother of Vedas", "sweet nectar", "Amrit", Feminine "lily" in Sanskrit.''Baby Names''"Nalini" Retrieved on 9 January ...
,
Senthil
Senthil (born 23 March 1951) is an Indian comedy actor who works in Tamil cinema. He is famous for his comedian roles along with fellow actor Goundamani. The pair dominated the Tamil industry as comedians in the 1980s and 90s.Suman Setty. The music was composed by R. P. Patnaik.
The film released on 21 June 2003 to mixed reviews but was a sleeper hit. The success prompted Ravi to retain the film's title as a prefix to his stage name and changed in 2025. Till date, ''Jayam'' is the first and only Tamil film which Gopichand has acted.
Plot
The film begins with a flashback in the early 1980s, where a young Sujatha and Raghu are playing. Their fathers are best friends and have decided that Raghu and Sujatha would eventually get married in the future. As the two go to high school, Sujatha becomes an ideal student whereas Raghu becomes a good-for-nothing man. He steals money and gambles with grown-up, catching bad habits. Once, he beats Sujatha's classmate for being close with her while studying and he and Sujatha have a fallout, swearing to never meet again. Eventually, Raghu's family move away and as days go by both forget about each other.
Coming to the present, Sujatha grown up to be a beautiful young woman, who her father adores. On the outskirts of their village Pushpathoor lives Ravi. Ravi belongs to a poor family and was raised by his widowed mother. Ravi takes tuition for kids and runs errands around the village for money. He is an obedient and polite man. He has a group of friends and they all go to the same college as Sujatha and become her classmates. Initially Sujatha does not talk to him but after sometime, both fall in love. This is known to Sujatha's younger sister Kalyani. As days go by, Sujatha openly reciprocates Ravi's love. The two travel in the same compartment on the train and are spotted by Sujatha's family astrologer. He conveys the same to her father, who then forbids her to go to college and contacts his old friend to arrange Sujatha’s marriage with his son, Raghu.
Raghu had turned out to be an arrogant rogue and womaniser. He is persuaded by his mother to meet Sujatha, and Raghu comes to Pushpathoor to see her with no interest. However, when he meets Sujatha, he falls for her beauty and wants to marry her. When Sujatha conveys about her love for Ravi, Raghu threatens her. The wedding arrangements proceed. Ravi gets beaten up by Raghu in front of Sujatha and has his home invaded and trashed by Raghu's men who threaten his mother. Ravi's mother however wants her son to fight back and says should he die, it should be with victory and not like a coward. Heeding his mother's words, Ravi challenges Raghu and warns him that he and Sujatha will get married before 7 a.M try next morning. Enraged, Raghu tells the family to pull the wedding forward. Sujatha goes into the room to change, but she actually waits for Ravi after learning about his message. Ravi and Sujatha escape before Raghu arrives. After an intense chase, Ravi and Sujatha are cornered by Raghu and his men in the forest. Ravi and Raghu challenge each other in an intense
hand-to-hand combat
Hand-to-hand combat is a physical confrontation between two or more persons at short range (grappling distance or within the physical reach of a handheld weapon) that does not involve the use of ranged weapons.Hunsicker, A., ''Advanced Skills in ...
, where Ravi finally defeats Raghu. With Sujatha's father's approval, Ravi and Sujatha get married in presence of Raghu and her family members.
Cast
Soundtrack
The songs and background score were composed by R. P. Patnaik, marking his debut in Tamil cinema. For the Tamil remake, Patnaik replaced "Raanu Raanu" with "Thiruvizhannu Vantha" (based on "Gaajuvaka Pilla" from ''
Nuvvu Nenu
''Nuvvu Nenu'' () is a 2001 Indian Telugu-language romantic drama film directed by Teja, who co-wrote the script with Dasaradh. The film stars Uday Kiran and Anita in lead roles, with Tanikella Bharani, Telangana Shakuntala, Sunil, and ...
''), as the original was already remade as "Kai Kai Vekran" for '' Bagavathi''.
Release
''Jayam'' opened to mixed reviews, with a critic from
The Hindu
''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It was founded as a weekly publication in 1878 by the Triplicane Six, becoming a daily in 1889. It is one of the India ...
stating the film gave a sense of "
déjà vu
''Déjà vu'' ( , ; "already seen") is the phenomenon of feeling like one has
lived through the present situation in the past.Schnider, Armin. (2008). ''The Confabulating Mind: How the Brain Creates Reality''. Oxford University Press. pp. 167–1 ...
" but added that Raja's "treatment is interesting in patches". Visual Dasan of ''Kalki'' praised the performances of Ravi, Sadha and Gopichand, flashback in the beginning of the film but panned for forcibly adding double meaning dialogues, illegal affairs and plagiarised scenes from English films and concluded calling it another film from Telugu which came to get rid of Tamil identities from Tamil films.
The film went on to become a surprise success at the box office and prompted Ravi to adopt "Jayam" to his stage name as a prefix for a period, while their home production studio was renamed Jayam Company. The film collected 25 crores at the box office and became commercially successful.