Sillunu Oru Kaadhal

Plot

Kundavi (Jyothika) was brought up in a small village called Ambasamudram. She, along with her two friends, decide to have a love marriage. However she is not so successful. Her father arranges her marriage to Gautham (Surya Sivakumar) against her wishes. Both look gloomy during the wedding due to obvious reasons.

Six years later in Mumbai they have a 5-year-old daughter Ishwarya 'Ishu' Gautham (Shriya Sharma) and live as a happily married couple. Gautham works as the chief mechanic at an automobile company and goes to New York City for a short period. During this time, Kundavi comes across Gautham's old college diary. Gautham wanted to be an engineer from a young age and forced his father's brother to pay for a seat in Coimbatore for mechanical engineering. From the second year of college he is the don. In college, he is attracted to Ishwarya (Bhumika Chawla), whose father is a Coimbatore MP. Gautham and Ishwarya fall in love and decide to get married. At the registrar's office after Gautham ties the knot, Ishwarya's father and his men beat him up, separating the lovers and sending Ishwarya off to Australia. At the end of the diary, Gautham writes a note: "If I have one wish, it would be to live with Ishwarya happily at least for one day."

Gautham returns from New York and finds his wife changed. She works late and avoids him. She finds Gautham's lost love Ishwarya, who had just returned from Australia. Ishwarya has become a modern girl in contrast to the demure salwar kameez girl she was in college. Kundavi asks Ishwarya to visit them and she tells her husband that he should live happily with Ishwarya for a day and that for that one day, she and their daughter do not exist for him, and leaves Gautham with Ishwarya.

That day Gautham spends with Ishwarya, Kundavi imagines them to have a good time and eventually fall in love with each other all over again. When she gets back home, dreading, she finds her husband alone at home. She asks about his day with Ishwarya, and he gives her a letter written to Kundavi from Ishwarya. In it, Ishwarya says that within five minutes of speaking to him, Gautham mentioned 'Kundavi' so many times that she realised that he loved his wife very much and is leading a very happy life. She wishes the couple a happy life and leaves, never to return.

In the end, Gautham confesses that he has hidden the secret of loving someone so that Kundavi doesn't get hurt as any girl wouldn't bear her husband's love being shared. However, unlike others, Kundavi has brought the girl her husband loved in order to make him happy. They then cry in happiness and hug each other while Diwali fireworks blossom. Their daughter Ishwarya also joins them at the end and the film ends with a happy family celebrating Diwali.

Cast

Production

Reports emerged in August 2005 that Suriya and Jyothika would come together for a project titled Jillendru Oru Kadhal based on a real life story which formed the script of A. C. Durai, while newcomer Krishna would direct it. The team signed up A. R. Rahman to compose the film's music while Asin was selected for another key role in the film after her successful pairing with Suriya in Ghajini. However, by the time the film was launched in December 2005, Bhumika Chawla had replaced Asin.

The film was shot extensively in Rajamundari, Vizag, with some portions in Mumbai, Coimbatore and Chennai, while a song was shot in Switzerland masquerading it as New York. Initially touted as an August 2006 release, the film was delayed to avoid a clash with Jyothika's other film Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu.She was nominated for Best Actress Category at Filmfare Awards for both of the Films "Sillunu Oru Kaadhal" & Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu.

Release

The satellite rights of the film were sold to Kalaignar TV. The film was censored on 4 September 2006 and was given with a "U/A" certificate, with some dialogue muting. The film opened across 207 screens worldwide on 8 September 2006, three days before the wedding of the lead pair Suriya and Jyothika. The film received a large opening, and became a superhit at boxoffice . Critics primarily labelled the film as a disappointment as a result of the high levels of publicity it received prior to release. The Hindu gave the film a negative review, claiming that "The most talked about movie of the year, Studio Green's "Sillunu Oru Kadhal" featuring Suriya and Jyotika, arrives only to disappoint", further stating, "it lacks a strong cohesive script to bind the elements".

The film was later dubbed and released in Telugu as Nuvvu Nennu Prema.

Soundtrack

The film features a soundtrack composed by A. R. Rahman with lyrics penned by Vaali. The music for the film was released on 2 August 2006 by K. M. Musiq and a day later in India by Star Music. The music was highly appreciated. The songs "Munbe Vaa" and "New York Nagaram" were chart toppers on the Tamil music channels and radio. Especially, "New York Nagaram" was termed as one of the best efforts by Rahman. He won the Filmfare Best Music Director Award for the soundtrack and Shreya Ghoshal won the Filmfare Best Female Playback Award (Tamil) and Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Female Playback for the song "Munbe Vaa". The Telugu version of the album was titled Nuvvu Nenu Prema.