Youth (film)

Youth
Directed by	Vincent Selva
Produced by	Poornachandra Rao
Written by	Prasanna Kumar (dialogues)
Story by	Trivikram Srinivas
Starring	Vijay Shaheen Khan Vivek Yugendran
Music by	Mani Sharma
Cinematography	Natarajan Subramaniam
Editing by	V. T. Vijayan
Distributed by	Lakshmi Productions
Release dates	19 July 2002 (2002-07-19)
Running time	168 minutes
Country	India
Language	Tamil

Youth is a 2002 Tamil film directed by Vincent Selva, which is a remake of the Telugu film, Chiru Navvuto (2000). Vijay and Shaheen Khan appeared in the lead roles while Yugendran, Vivek, Manivannan and Sindhu Menon play other pivotal characters. The film opened to mixed reviews and was an average grosser.^[1]

Plot

On his wedding day, Shiva (Vijay) discovers that his cousin and bride, Aruna, has run away because she does not want to marry a cook. But he takes it lightly and moves to Chennai with the girl's brother (Shyam Ganesh) to look for a job. One night, he saves Sandya from some goons. In gratitude, she kisses him. Shiva starts to fall in love with Sandya. After several occasions where they bumped into each other, Shiva harbours hope that she too reciprocates his affections.

However at Sandya's birthday party, she announces her engagement to computer engineer, Pratap (Yugendran). Shiva is devastated at the news and leaves the room quietly. Sandya finds him standing alone at the swimming pool. She asks him about his impression of Pratap and is shocked when Shiva reveals to her that he loves her. Sandya declares that she only feels friendship towards him and tells him to stop loving her.

After receiving a telephone call, Shiva goes to the police station and finds Aruna. She had eloped to be with her lover. However, he later abandoned her and left her penniless. With no one to turn to, Aruna attempted suicide. Shiva takes her back home to take care of her. Aruna's brother was still angry and calls up their parents. Shiva speaks up for Aruna and gets the family to forgive her. Before returning to the village, Aruna meets Pratap and discovers that Sandya's fiance is actually the lover who abandoned her.

On the eve of Sandya's wedding, she finally understands that she loves Shiva and tells her father (Manivannan) that she does not want to marry Pratap. Her father refuses to cancel the wedding and gives Shiva a cheque for 10 million to get the latter to leave Sandya. Sandya runs away on her wedding day to look for Shiva and confesses to him that she loves him too. She wants to elope with Shiva but he brings her back to the wedding venue.

Before the ceremony starts, he calls Pratap into a room and closes the door. When the door reopens, Shiva and Pratap had changed clothes. Shiva is now in the groom's attire while Pratap is in ordinary clothes. Shiva marries Sandya in the end. On their wedding night, Shiva reveals to Sandya what happened between Pratap and him in the room.

Cast

Production

The film is a remake of the 2000 Telugu film Chiru Navvuto starring Venu and Shaheen Khan. The film was also made in Kannada as Premmake Sai in 2001 with Ravichandran and Shaheen.^[2] Despite appearing in only four feature films, three of Shaheen's films have featured her reprising the role of Sandhya.^[3] Some scenes were shot at Hyderabad where a song too was shot on a lavish set erected, and it had Vijay dancing with about a hundred dancers. Some stunt scenes were later shot at Chennai, at the Vauhini Studios, at the AVM Studios, a lavish set costing a cool Rs. 12 lakhs, was erected resembling a waterfall, with trees and grass around. A song was shot on the lead pair here. Some of the songs were shot in Canada.^[4] Director Mysskin worked as an assistant director for this film.^[5]

Release

Critics from The Hindu gave the film a positive review, stating that "just as you settle down to watch the happenings with interest, things get mundane". In regard to performances, the critic mentions that "Vijay is so used to this romantic sojourn that the essay comes without effort", while it was cited that Shaheen Khan's "magical screen presence is definitely missing".^[6] Entertainment portal, Bizhat.com, described the film as "a heartless love story, which is far from entertaining" adding that "to call the venture a disaster would be an understatement" and that "Vincent Selva’s inept direction and lacklustre performance from the lead cast make Youth a flick that one would recommend only to sworn enemies".^[7]

Soundtrack

The film's soundtrack is composed by Mani Sharma.^[8] The song, "Aal Thotta Boopathy", featured Simran in an item number.

References