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Friends (2001 film)

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Friends
Theatrical release poster
Directed bySiddique
Screenplay bySiddique
Based onFriends (Malayalam)
Produced byAppachan
StarringVijay
Suriya
Ramesh Khanna
Devayani
Vijayalakshmi
CinematographyAnandakuttan
Edited byB. Lenin
V. T. Vijayan
Music byIlaiyaraaja
Production
company
Swargachitra
Release date
  • 14 January 2001 (2001-01-14)
Running time
167 minutes
CountryIndia
LanguageTamil

Friends is a 2001 Indian Tamil-language buddy drama film, directed by Siddique and produced by Appachan. It is a remake of Siddique's own 1999 Malayalam film of the same name. The film stars Vijay, Suriya and Ramesh Khanna as friends, while Devayani, Vijayalakshmi, Abhinayashree, Sriman, Vadivelu, Charle, and Radha Ravi play supporting roles. The music was composed by Ilaiyaraaja, while Anandakuttan handled cinematography.

Friends released on 14 January 2001. It received positive reviews and became a commercial success.[1] This film also marked the second collaboration of leading actors Vijay and Suriya after Nerrukku Ner (1997) and was one of the most memorable performances in their careers.

Plot

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Aravindan, Chandru and Krishnamoorthy have been best friends since childhood. They value friendship above everything else, including family. Thus, Chandru resists the romantic overtures of Aravindan's younger sister Amudha. Chandru, an orphan, stays with Aravindan and is considered by Aravindan's parents as a second son. Some brushes with the law force Aravindan and Chandru to lie low in Chennai for a couple of days, where they and Krishnamoorthy take up jobs as painters in a mansion under contractor Nesamani, Krishnamoorthy's paternal uncle. Aravindan falls in love with Padmini, who lives in the mansion, though Padmini only considers him as a friend; nevertheless, she is grateful to him when he saves her from an accidental electrocution.

However, Padmini's cousin Abhirami has a crush on Aravindan and is enraged when she realises that he is in love with Padmini. Abhirami sends false letters to him in Padmini's name and makes him believe that his love is reciprocated. When Padmini suddenly gets engaged to another man, Chandru stands up for Aravindan’s love and insults Padmini in front of her entire family, causing her engagement to get cancelled. This makes Padmini decide to marry Aravindan, but with the intention to take revenge on Chandru by breaking his and Aravindan's friendship. But during their marriage, Aravindan and Padmini realise that Abhirami is behind all the mishaps which had taken place, and that Chandru is innocent. Padmini reconciles with Chandru, and Chandru's and Amutha's wedding is fixed.

Meanwhile, Gautham is Aravindan's cousin who lusts for Amutha. He plans to separate Aravindan and Chandru so that he can marry Amutha. He first sets Amutha's sari on fire while she is cooking in the kitchen. Chandru blames Padmini for the mishap as she was in the kitchen with Amutha at the time, even though Padmini is innocent, but no one, including Aravindan, believes Chandru. Gautham then turns his eye on the annual bullock race in which Chandru is taking part, by loosening the wheels on Chandru's cart with the intention to cause a serious accident and frame Padmini as the culprit, thus creating a wedge between Chandru and Aravindan. Unfortunately for Gautham, Aravindan decides to take part in the race in Chandru's place since Chandru is to be married, and manages to win despite using the broken bullock cart.

Chandru accuses Padmini of trying to kill him. Padmini threatens to leave the house if Aravindan remains friends with Chandru and does not throw him out of the house. Aravindan then reveals to her that he had accidentally killed Chandru's deaf-and-dumb younger brother Chinna in childhood, which traumatized him so much that he never told anyone about it. Since then, he has been looking out for Chandru out of the guilt that he had no one else in his life any more. Gautham overhears their conversation and makes this known by Chandru. Chandru fights with Aravindan, breaks their friendship and leaves the house. The family later find out that Gautham was responsible for the mishaps, prompting Aravindan to kick him out of the house. Aravindan tries to convince Chandru to return and marry Amutha, even if he cannot repair their friendship. However, in the process, Aravindan falls from a cliff despite Chandru's efforts to save him.

Five years later, Chandru is a Major in the Indian Army and has never returned to Aravindan's home since his presumed death. He receives a letter from Krishnamoorthy stating that Aravindan is not dead but in a vegetative state, not responding to anyone and only sitting in a corner. Chandru immediately leaves for Aravindan's house, where he also learns that Aravindan and Padmini have a young son whose name is Chandru, in tribute to their friendship. Meanwhile, Gautham, who has been torturing Padmini and Amutha since Aravindan went into the vegetative state, finds that Chandru has returned and beats him up. On hearing Chandru's cries, Aravindan wakes up and subdues Gautham and his goons. Ultimately, Aravindan, Chandru and Krishnamoorthy, as well as Padmini and Amutha, are reunited.

Cast

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Production

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After appearing together for the first time in Nerrukku Ner (1997), Vijay and Suriya came together again in this film, a remake of the 1999 Malayalam film Friends.[2] Meena was approached to play the female lead as she did the original Malayalam version. Due to dates problem, she could not be part of it.[3][4] Later Jyothika was signed along with Suvaluxmi to play the lead actresses in the film but soon backed out due to date problems and were replaced by Devayani and new girl Vijayalakshmi from Mysore.[5] Shooting was held in a fast pace on Tamil Nadu locations (Ooty, Pollachi, Pazhani, Coimbatore, Udumalaipettai and Chennai).[5] Suriya revealed though his previous films did not do well he agreed to do this film as one of the lead actors since his character has importance despite people warning him not to do a dual hero subject.[6]

Soundtrack

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The music was composed by Ilaiyaraaja. Lyrics of the songs were penned by Palani Bharathi.[7] Chennai Online wrote "Though the album is not very brilliant, it is full of melody and has a couple of pleasant numbers."[8]

Track listing
No.TitleSinger(s)Length
1."Thendral Varum"Bhavatharini, Hariharan05:03
2."Kuyilikku Koo Koo"Hariharan, S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, Shankar Mahadevan05:06
3."Rukku Rukku"Vijay Yesudas, Sowmya Raoh, Yuvan Shankar Raja04:30
4."Manjal Poosum Vaanam"Sujatha, Devan05:08
5."Manjal Poosum Vaanam" (film version)Sujatha, Srinivas 
6."Penkaloda Potti"Sujatha, Hariharan05:02
7."Poonkatrae"Hariharan05:26
8."Vaanam Perusuthan"Vijay Yesudas, Arunmozhi, S. P. Balasubrahmanyam05:10
Total length:40.55

Release and reception

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Friends was released on 14 January 2001, Pongal day.[9] Malathi Rangarajan of The Hindu stated, "With friendship as the theme, Siddique presents a decent entertainer, which of course could have been crisper."[10] Shilpa Kannan from Zee TV noted "at last, we have one thoroughly enjoyable picture this year" and "except for the end, which is a bit melodramatic, Friends is an excellent movie for debutant director Siddique."[11] Ananda Vikatan rated the film 42 out of 100.[12] Krishna Chidambaram of Kalki felt the director separated two halves differently calling the first half as enjoyable but felt the second half as sentimental and the both should have been equally mixed.[13] Malini Mannath of Chennai Online wrote "It is a fairly engaging entertainer with the first part moving at a fast pace with ribtickling humour and slapstick comedy thrown in. The second half has a jerky narration, the smooth transition of the original somehow missing in the remake".[14] Despite facing competition with Ajith Kumar's Dheena, Friends emerged a commercial success, running for more than 175 days in theatres and became a hit for the careers of Vijay and Suriya.[15] The film was nominated for the Filmfare Award for Best Film – Tamil.[16]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "10. Friends (2001) | Top 20 Best Films of Vijay". Behindwoods. Archived from the original on 5 May 2019. Retrieved 5 May 2019.
  2. ^ "Ilayathalapathy Vijay thanks Suriya for his sweet gesture". India Today. 30 April 2021. Archived from the original on 30 April 2021. Retrieved 30 April 2021.
  3. ^ "Director தான் கெட்ட வார்த்தை பேச சொன்னார்" – Actress Meena Interview | Vijay | Karoline Kamakshi (in Tamil). Galatta Tamil. 3 December 2019. Archived from the original on 27 June 2022. Retrieved 3 December 2019 – via YouTube.
  4. ^ "Guess Why Actress Meena Never Acted As Thalapathy Vijay's Heroine!". Astro Ulagam. Archived from the original on 22 October 2021. Retrieved 8 June 2021.
  5. ^ a b "Friends". Cinematoday2.itgo.com. Archived from the original on 24 June 2012. Retrieved 24 May 2012.
  6. ^ "நான் ஃபீனிக்ஸ் அல்ல... ஃபாலரோப்!" (PDF). Kalki (in Tamil). 30 October 2005. pp. 68–71. Retrieved 4 July 2024 – via Internet Archive.
  7. ^ "Friends / Seenu". AVDigital. Archived from the original on 31 May 2023. Retrieved 31 May 2023.
  8. ^ "Music review of 'Friends'". Chennai Online. Archived from the original on 18 October 2004. Retrieved 26 October 2023.
  9. ^ "Thala v/s Thalapathy battle begins". Sify. 10 January 2014. Archived from the original on 30 December 2019. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
  10. ^ Rangarajan, Malathi (26 January 2001). "Film Review: Friends". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 30 December 2019. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
  11. ^ Kannan, Shilpa. "Fun, friends and some misunderstandings". Zee Next. Archived from the original on 8 April 2001. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
  12. ^ சார்லஸ், தேவன் (22 June 2021). "பீஸ்ட் : 'நாளைய தீர்ப்பு' டு 'மாஸ்டர்'... விஜய்க்கு விகடனின் மார்க்கும், விமர்சனமும் என்ன? #Beast". Ananda Vikatan (in Tamil). Archived from the original on 8 October 2021. Retrieved 7 December 2021.
  13. ^ சிதம்பரம், கிருஷ்ணா (4 February 2001). "பிரெண்ட்ஸ்". Kalki (in Tamil). p. 65. Archived from the original on 24 February 2023. Retrieved 19 July 2023 – via Internet Archive.
  14. ^ Mannath, Malini. "Film: Friends". Chennai Online. Archived from the original on 19 August 2003. Retrieved 26 August 2023.
  15. ^ "Tamil actor Vijay completes 26 years in the industry. Take a look at his journey, in pictures". Times Now. 3 December 2018. Archived from the original on 31 May 2019. Retrieved 31 May 2019.
  16. ^ "The 49th Annual Filmfare Awards - South | Nominees". Indiatimes. Archived from the original on 19 April 2015. Retrieved 1 June 2023.
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