''Uyirodu Uyiraga'' () is a 1998 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

romantic drama 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 and directed by Sushma Ahuja. The film stars

Ajith Kumar Ajith Kumar Subramaniam (born 1 May 1971) is an Indian actor who works predominantly in Tamil cinema. To date, he has starred in over 63 films, and won four Vijay Awards, three Cinema Express Awards, three Filmfare Awards South and three Ta ...

and Richa Ahuja, while

Sarath Babu Sathyam Babu Dixithulu (31 July 1951 – 22 May 2023), known by his stage name Sarath Babu, was an Indian actor who worked predominantly in Tamil and Telugu cinema. He appeared in more than 300 films, including in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and ...

Srividya Srividya (24 July 1953 – 19 October 2006), was an Indian actress best known for her work predominantly in Malayalam and Tamil films, along with few Telugu, Kannada and Hindi films. In a career spanning for 40 years, she had acted in more t ...

, Ambika, and

Mohan Sharma Mohan Sharma is an Indian film and television actor, film producer, director and screenwriter, who works in Cinema of South India, South Indian films. He has produced more than 15 films in Malayalam, Telugu, Tamil and Kannada. He became noted th ...

play supporting roles. The music was composed by Vidyasagar with cinematography by Aravind Kamalanathan and editing by

A. Sreekar Prasad Akkineni Sreekar Prasad is an Indian film editor known for his works across Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu and Assamese language films. In a career spanning more than 35 years, he has edited over 600 films. He is a recipient of nine National ...

. The film revolves around a couple's struggle to deal with the husband's terminal illness. The film was released on 21 November 1998 and failed at the box office.

Plot

The film details on how the parents of a young teenage boy Ajay, who is diagnosed with a chronic brain tumor, accept and deal with his sickness. Anjali does not have a brain tumor. Anjali's undeterred love for the optimistic Ajay, who is on the verge of death, is beautifully depicted throughout the film.

Cast

as Ajay * Richa Ahuja as Anjali *

as Chandrasekhar *

as Raji * Ambika as Anjali's mother *

as Anjali's father *

Sathyapriya Sathyapriya (born Sathyavathi; 4 March 1953) is an Indian actress who predominately works in Tamil and Kannada films along with few Telugu and Malayalam films. Career Some of her films are ''Pudhea Paadhai'' (1989), ''Chinna Gounder'' (1992), ...

as Nurse * Devipriya as Priya * Lavanya as Anjali's friend * Adade Manohar

Production

The director, Sushma Ahuja, originally wanted to make in Hindi but eventually filmed in Tamil with Ajith Kumar and Richa Ahuja, her daughter. Richa took up the offer, after another popular actress had opted out of the role due to date issues.

Singeetam Srinivasa Rao Singeetam Srinivasa Rao (born 21 September 1931) is an Indian film director, screenwriter, producer, composer, and actor. He is widely regarded as one of India's most versatile and innovative filmmakers. He has directed around sixty films across ...

, with whom Sushma worked on '' Pushpak'', encouraged her to take up this project. The film was reportedly based on a real event which had occurred in the early 1990s.

Soundtrack

The songs were composed by Vidyasagar, with lyrics by

Vairamuthu Vairamuthu Ramasamy (born 13 July 1953) is an Indian lyricist, poet, and novelist working in the Tamil film industry. He is a prominent figure in the Tamil literary world. A master's graduate from the Pachaiyappa's College in Chennai, he firs ...

Release and reception

The film was initially scheduled to release on 19 October 1998 to coincide with

Diwali Diwali (), also called Deepavali (IAST: ''Dīpāvalī'') or Deepawali (IAST: ''Dīpāwalī''), is the Hindu festival of lights, with variations celebrated in other Indian religions such as Jainism and Sikhism. It symbolises the spiritual v ...

, but was delayed by a month and released on 21 November. Kala Krishnan Ramesh from ''

Deccan Herald ''Deccan Herald'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper published from the Indian state of Karnataka. It was founded by businessman K. N. Guruswamy and launched on 17 June 1948. It is published by The Printers Mysore, a privately hel ...

'' drew particular praise to the role of Srividya, claiming the film was "a pleasant experience, the crowds cheered Srividya almost as much as Ajith". Ji 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 ...

'' praised the acting of Ajith, Srividya and Sarath Babu but panned Vidyasagar's background score. The film failed commercially, with Sushma Ahuja blaming the result on poor promotion. Two years after release, the producers were given a subsidy by the Tamil Nadu government along with several other films.

References

External links

* * {{Rotten Tomatoes 1990s Indian films 1990s Tamil-language films 1998 films 1998 romantic drama films Films scored by Vidyasagar (composer) Indian romantic drama films Tamil-language Indian films