Anantha Poongathe

Anantha Poongathe (Tamil: ஆனந்த பூங்காற்றே) is a Tamil film directed by Raj Kapoor and starring Karthik, Ajith Kumar, Meena and Malavika in the lead roles. The film is based upon how respect can be mistaken as love by circumstances and the film subsequently opened to positive reviews, securing two state awards.^[1]

Plot

Meenakshi (Meena) is a widow living with her son Nandu. Jeeva (Ajith), living in the same colony, has been pining silently for her for the last 4 years. He runs an organization called A-to-Z, which can get anything done for anybody.

Jeeva follows Divya (Malavika) get some information on her for her suitor but she ends up falling for him and pursues him relentlessly. He avoids her, telling her that he is already in love with someone else and when cornered, reveals that it is Meenakshi.

This leads to some surprising revelations about Meenakshi's past, Meenakshi is a music student of Haridas (Karthik). Haridas has a child, whose mother (Bhanupriya) died giving birth to him. Their mutual respect is mistaken for romance by her father (Vijayakumar) and Haridas is killed in the fracas. Later Meena vows to live like a widow, taking care of Karthik's child. However, that very day, Jeeva and his parents were about to see Meenakshi as a prospective bride. When Jeeva sees this scene unfolding before his eyes, he starts admiring her courage. Despite his parents' protests, he assures Meenakshi's father that he would make her change her mind and that he would marry her. But Meenakshi's worl turns upside down when Divya's father, a staunch supporter of love marriage, kidnaps Nandu and asks Jeeva to marry Divya. Jeeva of course accepts and things are then resolved in the climax.

Cast

• Karthik as Haridas
• Ajith Kumar as Jeeva
• Meena as Meenaxi
• Malavika as Divya
• Manivannan
• Vadivelu
• Vijayakumar
• Rajan P. Dev
• Manobala
• Madhan Bob
• Mayilswamy
• Ambika
• Kovai Sarala
• Bhanupriya in a guest appearance

Production

During production, the producer Kaja Mohideen had attempted unsuccessfully to oust Ajith Kumar from the project and replace him with Prashanth.^[2] The producer and Ajith later clashed following the failure of their action film, Jana in 2004.

Release

The film won two Tamil Nadu State Awards with the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Dialogue Writer going to Shivaram Gandhi while it also won the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Film Portraying Woman in Good Light. The film was later remade in the Kannada language in 2007.^[3]

Soundtrack

References