''Raasaiyya'' is a 1995 Indian

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

romance film Romance films involve romantic love stories recorded in visual media for broadcast in theatres or on television that focus on passion (emotion), passion, emotion, and the affectionate romantic involvement of the main characters. Typically their ...

written by R. Selvaraj which is the directorial debut of his younger brother R. Kannan, and produced by

T. Siva T. Siva is an Indian film actor, producer and distributor in Chennai, India. He has produced 23 films including '' Saroja'' and ''Kanimozhi''. He owns the production company, Amma Creations. He is best known for '' Deiva Vaakku'', '' Aravindhan' ...

. The film stars

Prabhu Deva Prabhu Deva (born 3 April 1973) is an Indian dance choreographer, film director, producer and actor who has worked predominantly in Tamil language, Tamil, Hindi and Telugu language, Telugu language films also appeared in few Kannada and Malayal ...

and Roja. It revolves around the life struggle and love life of the character played by the title character. The film was released on 24 August 1995, and failed at the box office.

Plot

Raasaiyya lives with his grandfather, Rathnavel, a kind-hearted and honest man in a small town in rural Southern India. Rathnavel is very easy-going and permits Raasaiyya to indulge in many precocious activities. When young and beautiful Anitha comes to stay for a few days with Rathnavel, both Raasaiyya and she fall in love with each other and would like to marry. But Raasaiyya is unable to assert himself, and Anitha's marriage is arranged with a NRI groom settled in the United States. Rathnavel would like to present a decent dowry for Anitha, which includes a priceless diamond necklace. Unable to bear his separation from his sweetheart, Rasaiya decides to tell Rathnavel about this, but before he could do so, he finds out that his biological mother, Pandiamma, is still alive, but will not have anything to do with him. Watch what happens when Raasaiyya finally meets her and finds out the secret why she abandoned him in his childhood.

Cast

Production

''Rasaiyya'' marked the directorial debut of R. Kannan, younger brother of screenwriter R. Selvaraj who wrote the story of this film. The film's title was named after

Ilaiyaraaja Ilaiyaraaja (born R. Gnanathesikan) is an Indian musician, composer, arranger, conductor, orchestrator, multi-instrumentalist, lyricist and playback singer popular for his works in Indian cinema, predominately in Tamil cinema, Tamil in addition ...

's real name. After listening to the script by Selvaraj, Ilaiyaraaja objected to Kannan directing and instead suggested

Bharathiraja Bharathiraja ( born 17 July 1941) is an Indian film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor who works mainly in the Tamil film industry. Making his debut in 1977 with ''16 Vayathinile'', he is known for realistic and sensitive portrayals of ...

, but producer T. Siva noted that Kannan refused to budge.

Soundtrack

The music was composed by Ilaiyaraaja, with lyrics by Vaali. Ilaiyaraaja's daughter

Bhavatharini Bhavatharini Raja (23 July 1976 – 25 January 2024) was an Indian playback singer and composer. She was the only daughter of noted composer Ilaiyaraaja and sister of Yuvan Shankar Raja and Karthik Raja. Starting her career in the 1990s, she mo ...

made her solo singing debut with this film.

Release and reception

K. Vijiyan of ''

New Straits Times The ''New Straits Times'' is an English-language newspaper published in Malaysia. It is Malaysia's oldest newspaper still in print (though not the first), having been founded as a local offshoot of Singapore-based ''The Straits Ti ...

'' called the story ordinary, and said the film was strictly for fans of Prabhu Deva and Roja. R. P. R. of ''

Kalki Kalki (), also called Kalkin, is the prophesied tenth and final incarnation of the Hinduism, Hindu god Vishnu. According to Vaishnavism, Vaishnava cosmology, Kalki is destined to appear at the end of the Kali Yuga, the last of the four ages i ...

'' wrote that sentiment, heroism, dance and songs, comedy and other spices are all there, but everything in its separate route; while mixing all together, the screenwriter heavily messed up, so after the break it feels like one person can sit casually on the three chairs and watch it. ''

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 ...

'' praised the dance choreography, performances of Vijayakumar and Vadivelu, Ilaiyaraaja's music and Rajarathnam's cinematography. The film became a box-office failure.

References

External links

* * {{Rotten Tomatoes 1990s Indian films 1990s romance films 1990s Tamil-language films 1995 directorial debut films 1995 films Films scored by Ilaiyaraaja Indian romance films Tamil-language Indian films