Meyaadha Maan


Meyaadha Maan is a 2017 Indian Tamil-language romantic comedy film written and directed by Rathna Kumar in his directorial debut. The film stars Vaibhav and Priya Bhavani Shankar, with Vivek Prasanna, Indhuja Ravichandran, Arun Prasath and Amrutha Srinivasan in supporting roles.
Karthik Subbaraj presented the film and Kaarthekeyen Santhanam produced the film through their production house, Stone Bench Creations. The film's original soundtrack and score were jointly composed by Santhosh Narayanan and Pradeep Kumar, with the latter making his composing debut in Tamil cinema. The film focuses on 'Idhayam' Murali, a happy-go-lucky light music singer, and his relationships with his longtime, one-sided love interest Madhumitha, his sister Sudarvizhi and his best friend Vinoth.
Production was completed silently and the venture was first reported by the media during June 2017, with the film being shot primarily in Royapuram, Chennai. The film was released on 18 October 2017, coinciding with Diwali, and received positive critical reception.

Plot

Murali, also known as 'Idhayam' Murali by his friends as he is like the emotional lead character from the film, Idhayam, rings his friends, Vinoth and Kishore informing them that he is going to commit suicide, as he is not able to bear the engagement of his college mate, Madhu, whom Murali has feelings of one-sided love. In an attempt to stop his suicide, Vinoth and Kishore request Madhu to speak badly about Murali, which Madhu does hesitantly. On hearing this, Murali feels outraged and cancels his suicide attempt. He also believes that Madhu is a bad girl. However, he blabbers about Madhu and how he loved her which slightly moves Madhu. The marriage is postponed by a year.
One year later, life moves on and Kishore invites Vinoth and Murali for his wedding. However, Vinoth is injured in an accident, so, Murali attends the marriage and also performs with his music crew, "Meyadha Maan". Murali meets Madhu and they pick up a quarrel over a room allotment. Murali walks out of the marriage after understanding that both Vinoth and Kishore are hell bent in ensuring that he does not torture Madhu during the marriage. Madhu is pained to hear that Murali still does not know about the drama on that suicide night.
Meanwhile, Sudarvizhi, Murali's sister learns about her brother's one side love with Madhu and falls in love with Vinoth. She ensures a fall out with Vinoth as he refuses to see her other than a sister. Murali learns that Sudarvizhi is in love with Vinoth and happily assures her that he will ensure that she is married to Vinoth. Vinoth does not know about Sudarvizhi's love and feels that she had quarrelled with him as she was suffering from trauma due to a fever and a headache.
One day, Vinoth meets Madhu and thanks her for her noble gesture. Suddenly Madhu falls down unconscious. Vinoth admits her in a hospital and is rushing to fetch money for her treatment. Murali is suspicious that Vinoth has fallen in love with someone and follows him to the hospital. Murali gets upset when he sees his friend aid the treatment of Madhu, who he believes is his sworn enemy. Subsequently, Murali comes to know about the drama played by Vinoth and attacks him furiously for making him believe that Madhu is a bad girl. In a jiffy, he starts rejoicing as he realises that Madhu is not a bad girl and is still not married.
Few days later, Murali finds Madhu falling unconscious and brings her home safely. Soon, Madhu and Murali bury the past and develop a friendship which enrages Madhu's father. Madhu's brother invites Murali for a family function to show him his place. Murali gleefully accepts the invitation. While he enthralls Madhumitha and children by his presence, Madhu's parents are irritated by his presence. Madhu comes to Murali's home the next day to shout at him for accepting the veiled invitation from his family. However she bonds with Sudarvizhi easily and has a good time at Murali's house. Suddenly, Vinoth brings in a marriage alliance for Sudarvizhi. Murali rejects the alliance saying that he has decided to marry his sister to Vinoth. This shocks Vinoth and he is even shocked to see Madhu in Murali's house. Vinoth walks away angrily from Murali's house.
Madhu persuades Murali to talk with Vinoth and gives an idea to unite Vinoth and Sudarvizhi. The idea works well and Vinoth reciprocates Sudarvizhi's love. Eventually Madhu informs Murali that she is in love with Murali. Madhu's father finds them as a pair and he hastens Madhu's arranged marriage ceremony with a different groom. Murali and Madhu plan to stop the marriage by having premarital intercourse, but they both pick up a quarrel while executing their plan in midway and part ways. Madhu gets ready for marriage, while Murali vows to complete Sudarvizhi's marriage before her marriage. After a few interesting twists and turns, Vinoth marries Sudarvizhi and Madhu reveals that she got pregnant by Murali through the earlier plan of stopping the arranged marriage ceremony. Madhu later ends up in attempting to commit suicide as Murali refuses to marry her. As the credits roll, Madhu and Murali sign the marriage papers in the register office and the movie ends with Murali singing on stage with his wife Madhu recording his performance from the audience area.

Cast

Director Rathna Kumar was asked by Karthik Subbaraj to develop his short film Madhu into a feature-length film for his production studio, Stone Bench Creations. Madhu featuring actors Sananth, Roshni Abraham and Vivek Prasanna, was earlier included as one of the six stories in Stone Bench Creations' anthology film Bench Talkies – The First Bench, which had a theatrical release in March 2015. Rathna Kumar initially had no intentions of making Madhu into a feature film and had developed it only for his portfolio, but obliged to Subbaraj's request as producers were not keen on listening to his other scripts. Rathna Kumar set the film in North Chennai as he was inspired by the creative talents of people in the Royapuram and Kasimedu area, where he found several singers, lyric writers and percussionists during his visits to the areas. The film's lead character runs a light music troupe, making the setting of Royapuram apt for the script. The lead character's shyness to talk to his lover, meant that Rathna Kumar chose to give the character the name of 'Idhayam' Murali, derived from the timid character made famous by the late actor Murali in Kathir's romantic drama Idhayam.
Rathna Kumar wrote the first draft of the feature film keeping Sananth, who had starred in the short film, in mind. However, the producers opted against signing a relative newcomer and chose Vaibhav to portray the lead role. To prepare for his role, Vaibhav observed the emotions and body language of real stage singers by watching videos. As Roshni Abraham had chosen not to become a feature film actress, Rathna Kumar then discussed the leading female role with Sai Pallavi, who opted against signing the film. He subsequently announced a casting call online, following which television actress Priya Bhavani Shankar got in touch. Following a successful audition, she was selected to play the leading role of Madhumitha, with Rathna Kumar stating that her on-screen "image" worked for the film. Priya later revealed that she was keen to do the film as it had the backing of Karthik Subbaraj, whose work she liked. Indhuja Ravichandran was selected to be a part of the film after impressing the director with her work in other short films, and was initially worried about her future work and image if she portrayed the sister of Vaibhav's character, before agreeing to star in the film. Vivek Prasanna was the only lead actor to retain his role from the short film. The film's composer Santhosh Narayanan was keen to allow his long-time collaborator Pradeep Kumar to also work on the film as a co-composer, and played a role in bringing him into the project.
The film's shoot progressed silently in Royapuram, Chennai and was first revealed to the media only after ninety percent of the shoot was completed. Stone Bench Productions had made the film alongside their commitments for another film directed by Karthik Subbaraj, titled Mercury starring Prabhu Deva. The teaser trailer of the film was released by actor Dhanush through his Twitter handle in late July 2017. As a part of the film's promotions, the makers dubbed the film as "Royapurathu La La Land" and released posters and captions on the trailer to depict the film in that particular way.

Soundtrack

The film's soundtrack and score were jointly composed by Santhosh Narayanan and Pradeep Kumar, with the latter making his debut as a composer in Tamil films. Prior to the release of the album, the "Thangachi Song" was released as a single to coincide with the Hindu festival of Raksha Bandhan on 7 August 2017. A second single, "Enna Naan Seiven" was also then released on 25 August 2017. The full album, containing seven tracks, was released by Think Music India on 27 September 2017.
The album was launched at Loyola College, Chennai with the cast and crew in attendance. The album received positive response from critics. The critics from Behindwoods.com gave the album 3 out of 5 stars, saying that "Santhosh Narayanan is at his usual best" and that "it was a fitting debut for Pradeep Kumar as music director". Likewise, Karthik Srinivasan of Milliblog.com wrote "the Santhosh-Pradeep combo wins again". Post-release, the "Thangachi Song" and "Address Song" garnered popularity.

Release

Meyaadha Maan was initially set for release on 17 November 2017, but as some Tamil films that were scheduled for Diwali got delayed, the producers and distributors felt that moving the release forward to coincide with the festival would garner larger audiences. They also felt that spillover audiences from the other high-profile release, Mersal, would instead choose to see Meyaadha Maan. Subsequently, the film had a theatrical release across India on 18 October 2017. The satellite rights of the film were sold to Zee Tamil.
Positive feedback from critics and audiences, resulted in a steady growth in the number of screens across Tamil Nadu, Malaysia and Singapore within days of the film's release. The film also benefited from positive word-of-mouth and ended up as a commercial success at the box office.