Malarinum Melliya

Malarinum Melliya (English: Softer than flower) is a 2008 Tamil romantic drama film directed by P. S. Selvaraj. The film features Vignesh and Varshini in lead roles, with Sivachakravarthi, Periyar Dasan, P. S. Selvaraj, Joy, Dhadha Muthukumar, Muthukalai and Nellai Siva playing supporting roles. The film, produced by Sugumari Rajamanokaran, had musical score by Soundaryan and was released on 9 May 2008. Actor Vignesh's voice was dubbed by dubbing artist Shekar and he won the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for his work.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

Plot

A school teacher (P. S. Selvaraj) enters the village to take up the vacant teacher's post in the village school. Upon his arrival, the school teacher is intrigued to see the villagers gathered in front of a large house. The village cartman (Periyar Dasan) tells him that the old man Elango, who is the village leader and respected by people, is between life and death, and the cartman the village tells the man's life story.

In the past, Sundaravadanam (Sivachakravarthi) was a rich village chief, whom the villagers held in high esteem and he loved his village as much as his family. Being Sundaravadanam's eldest son, Elango (Vignesh) had a lot of responsibilities and followed in his father's footsteps. Sundaravadanam was against love marriage, for him the family honour came first and he only believed in arranged marriage. Elango then fell under the spell of the bubbly girl Sandhya (Varshini), daughter of the local temple priest (Dhadha Muthukumar). Elango declared his love to Sandhya, after initial refusal, she reciprocated. Sundaravadanam, who punished so many lovers before, found that hard to swallow that his own son was in love. Sundaravadanam then humiliated Sandhya's father in public. Instead of eloping, Elango decided to argue with his father to convince him to accept for the marriage. Sundaravadanam and Elango's mother Kamala shocked by the words of their son died of heart attack. Elango was obliged to become the new village chief as per the village's rule. The villagers then beat up Sandhya and her father for tarnishing the image of the village. Sandhya and her father left the village, but before Sandhya left, she told to Elango that her love was pure and faithful. Elango then remained single, he worked hard for the good of his family and village.

Back to the present, Sandhya arrives to see his aged lover Elango who is battling for life. Sandhya remained single, she loves Elango so much that she could not get married to another man. The film ends with Sandhya feeding cow's milk to Elango (Thalaikoothal) to end his sufferings and they both die.

Cast

Production

Vignesh was chosen to play the lead role, while Varshini was selected to play the daughter of a temple priest who fell in love with Vignesh. The film was shot in Pudukkottai, Kodaikanal, Aranthangi, Nattarasankottai, Tiruchirappalli, Thanjavur, Sriperumbudur and Chennai.^[6] In the middle of July 2007, it was reported that Vignesh and Varshini shared a kiss in the film. The film director P. S. Selvaraj wanted a kiss scene between the two, feared of asking the actress, P. S. Selvaraj whispered in Vignesh's ear to kiss her and he kissed Varshini without her consent.^[7] Varshini clarified about the controversy the next month, she said that the film director later reshot the kiss scene with her approval.^[8][9]

Soundtrack

The film score and the soundtrack were composed by film composer Soundaryan. The soundtrack, released in 2007, features 5 tracks with lyrics written by Muthu Vijayan, Kavimugil, Seerkazhi Sirpy and Balamurugan. Rama Narayanan, Kalaipuli G. Sekaran and Karthi attended the audio launch, and Karthi released the audio.^[10][11][12]

Release

The film had a low-key release on 9 May 2008 and flopped at the box-office.^[9] A critic from Nowrunning.com rated the film 2 stars out of 5 and wrote, "Films with new or up and coming artistes are generally not talked about much. Malarinum Melliya, set in the rural background, is one such film, but deserves critical acclaim".^[1]

References