''Thulluvadho Ilamai'' () is a 2002 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
teen drama film written by
Selvaraghavan
Selvaraghavan is an Indian film director, screenwriter, and actor who has directed and acted predominantly Tamil cinema, Tamil films and few Telugu cinema, Telugu films. He had his directorial debut with ''Thulluvadho Ilamai'' (2002). Still, hi ...
, with direction credited to his father
Kasthuri Raja. The film marks the acting debut of Selvaraghavan's younger brother
Dhanush
Venkatesh Prabhu Kasthuri Raja (born 28 July 1983), known professionally as Dhanush, is an Indian actor, filmmaker, lyricist and playback singer who primarily works in Tamil cinema. Having starred in Dhanush filmography, 50 films over his car ...
, who plays the lead role. It also stars newcomers
Abhinay
Abhinay Kinger is an Indian actor who has appeared in Tamil language, Tamil and Malayalam language films. He made his debut in the 2002 film, ''Thulluvadho Ilamai'' directed by Kasthuri Raja. He also appeared in advertisement of Oreo, Oreo Bis ...
,
Sherin
Sherin Shringar, known by her stage name Sherin or Shirin is an Indian actress, who has appeared in Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam and Telugu-language films. After making her debut in Kannada films, her notable films include '' Thulluvadho Ilamai ...
, Ramesh, Shilpa and Gangeshwari, while prominent film personalities
Vijayakumar,
Ramesh Khanna, and
Pyramid Natarajan play supporting roles.
The film depicts the story of six high-school classmates: three boys and three girls, coming from different strata of society, who have each their own problems in their respective families and escape from their homes, deciding to live together on their own with the help of an older friend of theirs.
While the soundtrack was composed by
Yuvan Shankar Raja
Yuvan Shankar Raja (born 31 August 1979), is an Indian composer and playback singer. He mainly scores music for Tamil films along with few Telugu, Kannada, and Hindi films. Considered a versatile composer, he is particularly known for his use o ...
,
Viji Manuel composed the score. The film was released on 10 May 2002.
It was remade in
Telugu as ''
Juniors'' (2003) with Sherin reprising her role.
Plot
Mahesh is the son of a
fisherman
A fisherman or fisher is someone who captures fish and other animals from a body of water, or gathers shellfish.
Worldwide, there are about 38 million Commercial fishing, commercial and Artisan fishing, subsistence fishers and Fish farming, fi ...
. He grows up seeing his parents always having sex or quarrelling. Pooja is the daughter of an orthodox and very strict businessman, who is always suspicious about her. Vishnu's father neglects his mother and instead has his maid as his paramour. Anitha's parents live abroad, concentrating merely on their work and business, having no time for their daughter and always neglecting her. Harish is regularly beaten up and mistreated by his sadistic father. These five people and another girl named Divya are high school students and best friends. When they find out that Anitha is addicted to drugs, they decide to run away from their homes along with Mani, a pavement bookseller and an older friend of theirs in order to rehabilitate her, but also as a result of their discontent and feeling of alienation from their respective families.
However, their attempts are a waste. They struggle to survive in the outside world. Being young and immature, their daily life becomes hell for them. They reside in a hotel and get caught by the police, who mistake them to be doing illicit activities. Rescued by Mani, they roam the streets and seek shelter in abandoned places. They try to make money for themselves after the cash they brought with them is taken by the inspector. Contacting their parents make their situation worse. All of them realise that their parents do not care about them at all and would not even bother to worry if they are dead. Feeling disappointed, they continue on their journey. Pooja and Mahesh, at a stage, get intimate, much to Divya's shock. When she questions Harish and scolds Divya, neither of them speak a word. Vishnu soon realises that the remaining money that he had went missing, and Anitha too is nowhere to be found. Suspecting her to have been going behind drugs, they start looking for her. Late at night, Vishnu, Mani, and Mahesh go looking for Anitha while Pooja and Divya stay with Harish.
The friends spot Anitha being brought by a man to be sell her as a prostitute and Harish fight them, only to get stabbed. Realising that they have no other way to survive 'safely' in this world, they decide to return home. They finally return to their school, where the principal lectures the students' parents, blaming them for the students' escape attempt and misbehavior. Hearing the principal's words and her father scolding her, Pooja consumes an unnamed acid from her school lab. Upon hearing this, Mahesh jumps from the second floor. Both are rushed to the hospital, where fortunately, they survive. Ignoring the parents, the rest of their class and batch mates get into the ICU to meet them. Happy that they are safe, they start laughing and mocking each other. The principal tells the parents that they are not worried about what happened and are happy. Feeling ashamed, the parents leave the children alone.
All these are told in a flashback where Mahesh, now in the military, comes back to his school and recalls the memories. He had not disturbed Pooja after that and does not know where his friends are now. Assuring himself that they would have been well off as he is now, he gets interrupted by the principal. But the principal does not recognise Mahesh and walks off. Mahesh tells himself that the principal does not remember him as he would have seen many students in all these years.
Cast
Production
Selvaraghavan
Selvaraghavan is an Indian film director, screenwriter, and actor who has directed and acted predominantly Tamil cinema, Tamil films and few Telugu cinema, Telugu films. He had his directorial debut with ''Thulluvadho Ilamai'' (2002). Still, hi ...
, son of director
Kasthuri Raja, had written the script and also directed the film. When his family faced financial pressures in the early 2000s with his father was out of work, and subsequently, they decided to put their remaining earnings into the film.
The film began production during September 2000. It was the debut film of Selvaraghavan's younger brother
Dhanush
Venkatesh Prabhu Kasthuri Raja (born 28 July 1983), known professionally as Dhanush, is an Indian actor, filmmaker, lyricist and playback singer who primarily works in Tamil cinema. Having starred in Dhanush filmography, 50 films over his car ...
.
According to
Prashanth
Prashanth Thiagarajan (born 6 April 1973), known professionally as Prashanth, is an Indian actor, businessman, playback singer and film producer known for his works predominantly in Tamil cinema. Besides Tamil films, he has also appeared in f ...
, he was the original choice for Dhanush's role, but refused as he found it unsuitable due to his age.
Post-filming, the producers found it difficult to find a distributor. Director
R. Madhesh later purchased and released the film. Post-release, Selvaraghavan stated that he had also directed the film but was forced to credit his more established filmmaker father as the sole director, to help the project find a distributor.
Magizh Thirumeni, who worked as an assistant director, backed this claim, saying Kasthuri Raja spent two weeks directing the film, but later handed over direction to Selvaraghavan due to his dissatisfaction with the output, and "teenage angst" was not his comfort zone.
Music
The soundtrack was composed by
Yuvan Shankar Raja
Yuvan Shankar Raja (born 31 August 1979), is an Indian composer and playback singer. He mainly scores music for Tamil films along with few Telugu, Kannada, and Hindi films. Considered a versatile composer, he is particularly known for his use o ...
, marking the first collaboration of the Yuvan Shankar Raja-Selvaraghavan duo, which would later go on to become one of the most successful combos in Tamil cinema.
Viji Manuel composed the film score on Yuvan Shankar Raja's request who had to leave for London on an urgent work. The soundtrack initially featured 7 songs overall, later a second CD was released which included 3 additional short tracks. The song "Theenda Theenda", based on the
Carnatic raga
A Carnatic raga refers to ''ragas'' used in Carnatic music. It has several components: a primordial sound (''nāda''), tonal system (''swara''), pitch (''śruti''), scale, ornaments ('' gamaka''), and important tones.
Origins and history Carnati ...
Reetigowla, had two versions, a female solo and a duet version. The lyrics were written by
Pa. Vijay except one song, was written by Selvaraghavan.
Release and reception
''Thulluvadho Ilamai'' was released on 10 May 2002. Tulika of ''
Rediff.com'' called the film "an example of moviemaking smarts", adding, "Sitting in a movie theatre watching someone else live out their problems and find solutions, helps".
Visual Dasan 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 ...
'' called the film "above average". After taking a small opening, the film began to get teen audiences to cinema halls for its adolescent themes. It subsequently went on to become a
sleeper hit
In the entertainment industry, a sleeper hit refers to a film, television series, music release, video game or other entertainment product that was initially unsuccessful on release, but eventually became a surprise success. A sleeper hit may have ...
.
Legacy
The success of the film prompted Kasthuri Raja to launch a film titled ''Theenda Theenda'', inspired by the song from the film, but it was shelved. The film was later remade in
Telugu as ''
Juniors'' (2003), with Sherin reprising her role. The film's success resulted in similar themed films releasing the following year like ''
Kurumbu'' and ''
Ilasu Pudhusu Ravusu'' (2003).
Notes
References
External links
*
*
{{Selvaraghavan
2000s coming-of-age drama films
2000s Indian films
2000s Tamil-language films
2000s teen drama films
2002 films
Films about juvenile sexuality
Films directed by Kasthuri Raja
Films scored by Yuvan Shankar Raja
Films with screenplays by Selvaraghavan
Indian coming-of-age drama films
Indian teen drama films
Tamil films remade in other languages
Tamil-language Indian films