Unnai Thedi

Plot

Raghupathy (Ajith Kumar), studying in Australia, goes to New Zealand with a friend and runs into Malavika. They start off having petty fights but end up falling in love. But circumstances force them to separate without exchanging any information about each other.

Back home, Ajith makes friends with Karan and chances upon his family photograph which surprisingly includes his mother (Srividya), who as far as he knew had no relations. But on questioning, his mother reveals that she was part of a large family (three brothers and a sister) but had been sent out of the family after deciding to wed someone of her own choice. Ajith travels to the village as Karan's friend and soon endears himself to the members of his family. Turns out Malavika is the daughter of one of the brothers too. But when he learns that Karan wishes to marry her, he decides to bow out. But Karan, on knowing about their romance, wishes that they get together.

The family elders too agree to Ajith marrying Malavika but refuse to let the alliance go any further after learning that Ajith is Srividya's son. Ajith too agrees to sacrifice his love since he does not want to wed Malavika and cause even more friction in the already fractured family. How Ajith eventually reunites the separated family and weds Malavika forms the crux of the film.

Production

The original plot point was recommended by Singampuli, one of Sundar C's assistant director and Sundar wrote the script of the film within a week, before discussing the line with actor Ajith Kumar. Ajith was initially unimpressed but agreed to do the love story anyway, mentioning that if the film became a success he would feature in a future film to be directed by Singampuli. The film began its shoot in late 1998 with scenes being canned in Australia and in Christchurch, New Zealand as well as India. The producers initially approached Laila to play the lead role, however she refused to commit to any other films until the release of her Kallazhagar. Subsequently she was replaced by newcomer Shweta Konnur, who was given the stage name of Malavika by the director.

Release

The film became the first of several successful films that Ajith Kumar had featured in throughout 1999, while the successful chemistry between the lead pair prompted another them to sign another film together, Anantha Poongathe. The film was later dubbed into Telugu as Premato Pilicha, while the movie was remade in Bengali as Bandhan.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack of the film was composed by Deva, was well received by the audience.