Pre Release
Originally announced with pre release stills in websites in early 1997, the movie was 3 years in the making, considered to be a fairly long production time in the Indian film industry. The soundtrack of this movie, to be done by ace music composer AR Rahman was hyped about as being unique, different and novel based on the 5 elements of nature. In addition to the music, the cast of the movie included two reigning lead stars of Tamil cinema of the 1990s Arjun and Meena and their director Vasanth whom also carved a niche for himself in the cinema world known for off-beat, character-based storylines at the time.
The title branding of the movie was another contributing factor to the fan hype on the net projecting it to be a novel "musical based love story" by avid fans of AR Rahman. Though bits of news about the movie were released over time in entertainment magazines and tabloids, much of its production was generally low profile. At some point due to the long delay in its release, unconfirmed news was circulating that production has been shelved due to financial constraints.
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Plot
Karthikeyan (Arjun), is a photographer cum editor working in Indian Express Chitra (Meena) is a bank employee. Both reside at Mumbai. Karthi meets Chitra in the bank she works while opening a bank account. While returning back to home Karthi again meets her in a train. He offers his seat but Chitra does not want to accept it. Again during a train strike he invites her to travel in same auto to reduce expenses, but Chitra nose cuts him. When Chitra hesitated to travel in same train with Karthik he becomes angry and explains that he talked to her just because both are from same nativity and he says he will never talk to her anymore. After some days Chitra volunteerly talks to him. Karthi in return accompanies her to police station to get back her snatched hand bag. Karthi invites Chitra to his home to meet his parents.
Karthi's parents likes Chitra and all become friends. Karthi's mother requests Chitra to tell karthi to get married. When she convey his parent's wish, Karthi explains about his wife who died in a train accident. Karthi comes to know about Chitra and her husband Sri Kanth who died in same train accident. Chitra adopted a boy Shiva as per her husband's wish.Karthi's parents wish both of them to get married.
Chitra's son shiva moves close to Karthi and his family, while Chitra tries to prevent relations with Karthi. Karthi's father (Nagesh) understands Karthi's interest towards Chitra and he meets and requests her to marry Karthi. But she refuses and once for all avoids Karthi. Karthi understood her intention and he stayed away from her. Chitra meanwhile gets confused regarding second marriage due to the trouble given by her neighbour's husband and Shiva's passion for Karthi. Chitra's neighbour once uttempts to rape her but she manages to escape. Karthi who heard about it attacks the man for misbehaving and makes him to vacate Mumbai. Chitra decides to marry Karthi for herself and her son and she calls him to meet at the station to express her decision. While returning home she meets her mother-in-law (Lakshmi) who once upon a time opposed the marriage of her son Sri Kanth with her. Chitra's mother-in-law requests her to come and live with her as she is very lone after her husband's death. Chitra then decides to leave with her mother-in-law. But she is not dared to meet Karthi and she leaves without informing him. Karthi and his family are very much disappointed by this.
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After some months Chitra panics on seeing a news at television about bomb blast at Mumbai Indian Express and verifies Karthi's safety. Karthi leaves for Coonoor on an official assignment. There he meets Chitra with her mother-in-law. Chitra introduces him to her and tells about Karthi's wife's death in the same train accident where her son died. On hearing this, Chitra's mother-in-law invites Karthi to have lunch with them, the next day. This delights Shiva. Shiva eagerly waits for Karthi and leaves school well before but struck up in traffic jam for a long time. Meanwhile Chitra explains about her decision to marry him and later changed it as her mother-in-law requested her to live with her. Karthi leaves without meeting Shiva to catch the train. This disappoints Shiva and when Chitra tried to console him he blames her that she did not keep up the promise that he, Chitra, Karthi and his parents to live together. Chitra's mother-in-law hears this and understoods the meaning of it and she realised the mistake she did. She catches Karthi at railway station and requests him to marry Chitra. Karthi and Chitra leave to Mumbai and get married which delights Karthi's parents.
The soundtrack features 5 songs composed by A. R. Rahman, with lyrics by Vairamuthu. The songs were inspired by the elements of the world.
The soundtrack was well received by music fans upon its initial release and has been hailed as an ingenious piece of work by A. R. Rahman and appeared in the list of top selling soundtracks in its opening week. The film background score also done by A. R. Rahman manages to seamlessly flow into the story and draws the viewer into the scene. The soundtrack has been acknowledged as one of A. R. Rahman's best works.
Three songs were later reused in a bollywood movie Lakeer – Forbidden Lines
Trivia
Actor Arjun primarily known for action roles had attempted a totally off beat role in this film and probably the only one which showed him in a restrained performance.
A lot of care had gone into Meena’s make-up and acting in this film.
Actor Arjun having played a news reporter in "Mudhalvan", a smash hit thriller, repeated a similar role as a photo journalist in this film a year later.
Arjun and Meena came together for a 2nd time in this film. Both last appeared together in lead roles in 1994.
A. R. Rahman and Vasanth came together for the first time in this film.
The music was reused later in the Hindi language film, "Lakeer" (2004)
The film was dubbed into Telugu as Rhythm and was recognized only due to its music by A.R. Rahman
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