Aanandham is a 2001 Indian Tamil-language family drama film written and directed by N. Lingusamy and produced by R. B. Choudary. The film features an ensemble cast including Mammootty, Murali, Abbas, Devayani, Rambha, Sneha, Delhi Ganesh and Srividya. Arthur A. Wilson handled cinematography, while S. A. Rajkumar composed the film's score and soundtrack. The film opened in May 2001 to positive reviews, prompting remakes in other Indian regional languages.
Plot
Thirupathisamy owns a provisional store and is the eldest among four brothers, and all live together in a home along with their parents. Thirupathi is widely respected by everyone in the family and was responsible for bringing back their family to a good state after financial troubles a few years back. He marries Bharathi, who is responsible and kind. Madhavan is the second son in the family who assists Thirupathi in managing their provisional store. He is innocent and marries his relative Renuka, but she is short-tempered and picks up quarrels often. Kannan is the third son in the family, and he goes to college where he falls for his classmate Viji. Viji is the only daughter of a rich arrogant man Thavasi. Surya is the youngest son and studies in college. Renuka feels that only Thirupathi is respected by everyone and not Madhavan because Tirupati manages the provisional store while Madhavan just assists him. She keeps insisting Madhavan to start a separate provisional store, which he does not accept as that would separate him from his brothers. Thavasi learns of Viji's love towards Kannan and warns him to forget her. Kannan gets a job and leaves to Delhi as he does not want to marry Viji against her father's wishes. One day, Renuka begins a quarrel at home saying that Thirupathi has a separate savings account in the bank and takes money from the account without the knowledge of other family members. Thirupathi feels bad hearing this. Suddenly, Renuka and Madhavan's daughter faints and is rushed to hospital. It is revealed that the child was suffering from a serious disease which only Thirupati knew before, and he was saving money to meet out the medical expenses without informing others, as they will worry if they get to know about the child's disease. Renuka realizes her mistake knowing this and apologizes to Thirupathi for her harsh behavior towards him and Bharathi. Later, they start a rice mill. Thirupathi learns of Kannan's love towards Viji and goes to meet Thavasi with a marriage proposal. Thavasi agrees for the wedding, but on a condition that Kannan should stay along with Viji in his home as he does not want to send his daughter to another home after wedding. Thirupathi agrees to the condition but does not inform this to Kannan as he will not agree. On the day of marriage, Kannan learns of the condition, cancels the wedding, and comes back to his home to meet his family members. Following him, Viji also comes, asking him to marry her against her father's wishes. Thirupathi convinces the couple that if they get married without Thavasi's permission, then it will be a big blow to Thavasi's status in society, and they should not be the reason behind that. He also convinces Viji to leave to her home immediately before anyone could know about this. When they step out of the home, they see Thavasi with a group of men to attack Thirupathi's family. But he has overheard Thirupathi's conversation with Viji, realizes his good nature, and agrees for their wedding. Finally, Kannan and Viji get married happily, and Viji lives along with everyone in a joint family in Thirupathi's home.
The director Linguswamy revealed that the film was inspired by moments in his life and through a series of incidents his mother had narrated to him. Thus when director Rajakumaran convinced R. B. Choudary to give Linguswamy an opportunity, he narrated the stories and he found the producer had found them highly appealing. The director had previously assisted Vikraman in Vaanathaippola, another family drama on brothers. Linguswamy originally wanted to title the project, Thirupathi Brothers, which he later went on to name his production house. Another early working title for the film was Thamirabharani. Ramya Krishnan was initially signed on to play heroine but Mammooty cast his doubts over her involvement after the pair had fallen out on the sets of a previous Malayalam film, and she was subsequently replaced by Soundarya. Devayani was initially supposed to feature as Murali's pair in the film, but after Soundarya opted out, she was given the role of Mammooty's pair. Shooting was held at locations in Chennai, Ooty and Mettupalayam among other places.
Release
Aanandham opened to positive reviews in May 2001, with a critic noting that "it is a promising work from the debutant director". The film went on to win the Filmfare Award for Best Tamil Films in the 2002 ceremony as well as being honoured as the BestTamil Film at the Cinema Express Awards. Aanandham also received two awards from the Tamil Nadu State, winning third best film and Best Actress for Sneha, who was also recognized for this film alongside her work in Virumbugiren and Punnagai Desam. Newspaper, The Hindu also listed the film amongst the best of 2001. Producer R. B. Choudary launched another film titled Samudhiram on family bonding soon after this film's release, with the new film featuring Sarathkumar, Murali and Manoj as brothers. A Telugu remake was released in 2005 as Sankranthi by Muppalaneni Shiva, starring Venkatesh, Srikanth, Sharwanand, Sneha and Arti Agarwal in lead roles.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack of the film was composed by S. A. Rajkumar, was well received by the audience.
