Snegithiye

Snegithiye
Directed by	Priyadarshan
Produced by	Mukesh R. Mehta
Written by	Maharajan (Dialogues )
Screenplay by	Priyadarshan
Story by	Chandrakant Kulkarni
Starring	Jyothika Sharbani Mukherjee Tabu Ishita Arun Manasi Scott
Music by	Vidyasagar Sangeetharajan
Cinematography	Jeeva
Editing by	N. Gopalakrishnan
Studio	Surya Cine Arts
Release dates	2000
Running time	154 minutes
Country	India
Language	Tamil

Snegithiye (English:Oh Friend! (female) ) is a 2000 Tamil thriller film directed by Priyadarshan. The story is adapted from the 1999 Marathi film Bindhaast written by Chandrakant Kulkarni. The film notably features only female characters in the lead roles, played by Jyothika, Sharbani Mukherjee, Tabu and Ishita Arun and Deepika Padukone made debut in this film as jothika's friend. The music was composed by Vidyasagar. The film, released in 2000, proved unsuccessful at the box office. Originally planned to be made as a bilingual, in Tamil and in Malayalam, the film released first in Tamil only, while the Malayalam version, Raakilipattu, as well as the dubbed Hindi version, Friendship, released only seven years later.^[1][2][3]

Plot

Vani Subramaniyam (Jyothika), her best friend Radhika (Sharbani Mukherjee) and their friends are pranksters in a ladies' college. Like other college girls, they sing songs, break rules and wreak havoc. They also have a grudge against Gita (Ishita Arun), another girl from the college.

Lakshmi, Radhika's aunt, wants her niece to get married. To escape, Vani and Radhika fake a boyfriend whose name is Ramesh. However, this fantasy takes on a whole new meaning when a person named Ramesh calls and sends Radhika letters claiming to be her boyfriend. To end this nuisance, Vani and Radhika invite Ramesh to the hostel during the college dance program. Vani instructs Radhika to bring a gun for their safety.

Mysteriously, without them shooting him, Ramesh (Major Ravi) dies. At the same time, Radhika loses her chain. Suspicion eventually falls on the two friends. Gayathri (Tabu) is a man-hating police officer, and is put on the case. To make matters worse, Gita suddenly disappears. Vani and Radhika find themselves as fugitives, running from the law in a bid to prove their innocence. Meanwhile, the real killer is still on the loose.

Cast

Production

The original story idea for the film was taken from Marathi writer Chandrakant Kulkarni, who had made the successful Marathi film, Bindhaast, based on the story last year. Priyadarshan heard about the film and asked producer Mukesh Mehta to see it and decide whether he would like to produce the movie and thus Mehta went to Bombay, saw the film and liked it. However the producer reiterated that they have taken only the main thread from the Marathi story with the rest of the film, its sub-plots and the treatment are completely different from the original. Initially, it was planned as a Malayalam film with a cast familiar to the Kerala audience. But as Priyadarshan's excitement over the project grew, the canvas got wider and the producer decided to look for a bigger audience. Thus Jyothika, Sharbani Mukherjee and Ishita Arun, daughter of Ila Arun, stepped in to give it a more national flavour. Seasoned actresses like Manorama, Lakshmi, Lalitha, Sukumari, Mita Vasisht, Tabu and Dipti Bhatnagar also joined the all-female team. Cinematographer Jeeva and art director Sabu Cyril also joined the team and they shot 90 per cent of the film in a college in Mysore and the rest in Madras, also featuring live coverage of the Dussera festival of Mysore.^[4] The film was subsequently made simultaneously in Tamil and Malayalam with a title of Raakilipattu, while a Hindi version was also planned in 2000.^[5] The title of the Tamil version of the film was taken from a song from the 2000 Mani Ratnam film Alaipayuthey.^[6]

Jyothika prioritised her work in the project and thus delayed her schedules for Uyirile Kalanthathu in order to ensure the film was released as early as possible.^[7] The songs of the film were released at Devi Theatre with Kamal Haasan appearing as the chief guest.^[8]

Release

Snegithiye opened to positive reviews, & was a hit at the box office. However the film went on to inspire other film makers to produce all women ventures, with director Gnanasekharan announcing that his project, Aishwarya, starring Uma, Monal and Abhinayashree would be a "small-scale Snegithiye".^[9]

The film was dubbed and released in Hindi in 2007 as Friendship, but went unnoticed after arriving with very little publicity.^[10] Despite originally being planned in only Malayalam, that version only released in 2007.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack of the film was composed by Vidyasagar, was well received by the audience.^[11]

See also

• Raakilipattu

References

External links

• Snegithiye at the Internet Movie Database