Minnale

Sam and Rajesh are students at an engineering college in Ooty. While Sam is a top-performing student and is popular with the college faculty staff and students, Rajesh is notorious for his mildly violent/misogynistic behaviour. There is a constant tussle between these two personalities and mutual problems between the two groups puts Sam and Rajesh at loggerheads throughout their college days. Upon graduating, Sam and Rajesh decide never to see each other ever again. Sam goes to the United States for his higher studies while Rajesh decides to stay in India.

Two years later, Rajesh settles in an IT job and teaches Software Engineering to the Engineering trainees. He lives with his librarian grandfather Subbuni in Aminjikarai. Rajesh turns down a lucrative job assignment in Singapore to be with Subbuni as he is very attached to him. Rajesh, on a trip to Bangalore to attend a friend's wedding, comes across a stranger dancing in the rain with the kids on the street and is almost instantly smitten by her when he sees her face lit by the flash of a lightning bolt. He runs into the same stranger again at his friend's wedding reception but cannot muster enough courage to approach her and share his feelings. He manages to learn that the stranger is Reena Joseph, the bride's friend and works at Bangalore's Ford branch as a chartered accountant. Back in Chennai, while Rajesh is still contemplating taking another trip to Bangalore, he casually notices a Ford office cab and to his pleasant surprise sees Reena getting off the cab, but an ensuing goof-up with his friend Chockalingam results in them both losing track of her in the mall close by.

Chockalingam spots Reena's friend Vasuki in a vegetable market and calls Rajesh to get there as soon as possible. Both Rajesh and Chockalingam trick Vasuki to learn Reena's phone number and that Ford has transferred her from Bangalore to Chennai. When they spill the beans to let Vasuki know that Rajesh is madly in love with Reena, Vasuki angrily reveals Reena's parents have arranged for a suitor and it will be a waste of Rajesh's time to pursue Reena. With the help of the phone number though, Rajesh finds Reena's house and also stalks her to learn her suitor's name is Rajiv, living in Seattle and that she has never seen him before. Goaded by his grandfather and his friends, Rajesh decides to enter Reena's life pretending to be Rajiv. Within a few days of hanging out with each other, both fall in love with each other, and Reena accepts Rajesh's proposal to get married. But before Rajesh can reveal the truth about his identity, the real Rajiv comes to Chennai and both their families get together and Reena is completely shocked and breaks up with Rajesh after she learns that the person she is in love with is an impersonator.

Rajesh comes clean with Reena and pleads to be forgiven but Reena is adamant that she does not want to talk to Rajesh anymore. So Rajesh and his friends decide to meet Rajiv and ask him to break up the engagement with Reena. They are surprised to learn that Rajiv is Sam (his full name is Rajiv Samuel). Sam becomes enraged upon learning of Rajesh's actions but believes that Reena was duped and refuses to break up the engagement. Rajesh decides to tell Reena the truth and wants her forgiveness. Although he successfully tells Reena the truth, she does not forgive him. She says that she loves Sam instead and has an arranged marriage with her. He once again stalks Reena at a restaurant and Sam witnesses this and says if Rajesh wants to talk to her, he should talk to her once before they get married. Sam also claims that Rajesh was a rogue in college and he expected him to change, but he is still the same and now harassing people. Rajesh takes that as an insult and pushes him. Reena stops the fight and yells at Rajesh to leave her alone once again. Rajiv threatens to kill Rajesh if he sees him at the same place as her. Chockalingam supports Rajesh and claims that he should beat his college foe. One of Rajesh's friends says that it's alright if he doesn't get her, but Sam definitely shouldn't get her. Rajesh decides to do the challenge. Sam goes to a parking lot, but he finds all of Rajesh's friends in the parking lot too and they start beating him up. Chockalingam thinks that Sam is asking them to parcel him to America. The former calls Rajesh to beat him up. He tries to beat him up, but due to Sam's warning, Rajesh lets him go. Once he realises that Sam and Reena's wedding is fixed, Rajesh sadly accepts the truth. Heartbroken and unable to live in the city anymore, he plans to leave. Reena finally realises that though she was duped by Rajesh, she had indeed fallen in love with him. Sam senses this on the eve of their wedding. Just before Rajesh boards his plane, Sam appears and brings Reena to him and he also says that they are still enemies, but he cannot marry a girl who does not love him. Sam wishes Reena well and tells her and Rajesh to be happy and leaves. Reena and Rajesh are finally reunited.

Gautham Menon launched a Tamil romantic film O Lala in 2000 with the project eventually changing producers and title into Minnale with Madhavan, who was at the beginning of his career, being signed on to portray the lead role.[3] About the making of the film, Menon revealed that he found it difficult as the team was new to the industry with only the editor of the film, Suresh Urs, being a prominent technician in the industry.[4] Menon had come under further pressure when Madhavan had insisted that Menon narrated the story to his mentor, Mani Ratnam, to identify if the film was a positive career move after the success of his Alaipayuthey. Despite initial reservations, Menon did so and Ratnam was unimpressed; however Menon has cited that he thought that Madhavan "felt sorry" and later agreed to continue with the project.[4]

Miss World 1999, Yukta Mookhey was considered to play the film's heroine during July 2000, but a delay meant that she was replaced with Reemma Sen, who appeared in her first Tamil film.[5] Minnale also saw Madhavan collaborating with Abbas for second time after Kannada film Shanti Shanti Shanti. Post-release, Abbas felt that his scenes had been cut from the film and accused Madhavan of playing a role in editing his sequences out from the film.[6]

The film was advertised as a Valentine's Day release in 2001 but was released on February 2, 2001 and upon release it went on to become a large success commercially. Madhavan became extremely popular among the youth after the release of Alaipayuthey, but had a setback as his next film flopped. Minnale made him once again popular among the youth. Savitha Padmanabhan of The Hindu claimed that the film had a "lot of verve and vigour" and that it was "sure to go down well" with the "yuppie, college-going youngsters".[7] The movie was dubbed into Telugu under the name Cheli and also performed well at the box office; though the version was not officially made.[8]

The success of the film led to producer Vashu Bhagnani signing Menon on to direct the Hindi language remake of the film, Rehnaa Hai Terre Dil Mein, which featured Madhavan reprising his role. The Hindi version gained mixed reviews and subsequently went on to become an above average grosser at the box office.[9] However, the film belatedly gained popularity through screenings on television and subsequently developed a cult following amongst young audiences and the actors released a video thanking the film's admirers for their adulation on the fifteenth anniversary of the film's release.[10][11]

The music and background score were composed by Harris Jayaraj. The audio cassette of the film was released in Chennai at a function in January 2001, where the songs were also screened.[12] Upon release, the soundtrack received critical acclaim and was a major contributor to the film's commercial success.[13] Harris Jayaraj won his first Filmfare Best Music Director award in Tamil. The song "Vaseegara" is set in Natabhairavi raga[14] and marked the debut of poet Thamarai as a film song lyricist.

All songs except Ivan Yaaro and Iru Vizhi Unadhu (Ore Nyabagam) were reused in the film's Hindi version Rehnaa Hai Terre Dil Mein by Harris himself.

All tracks are written by Bhuvana Chandra.

• Minnale on IMDb
• Minnale at Rotten Tomatoes