Unnidathil Ennai Koduthen

Unnidathil Ennai Koduthen
Directed by	Vikraman
Produced by	G. Venugopal K. Muralidaran
Starring	Karthik Ajith Kumar Roja Ramesh Khanna
Music by	S. A. Rajkumar
Cinematography	M. S. Annadurai
Production company	Lakshmi Movie Makers
Release dates	14 August 1998 (1998-08-14)
Running time	165 mins
Country	India
Language	Tamil

Unnidathil Ennai Koduthen (English: I gave myself to you) is a 1998 Tamil film directed by Vikraman, starring Karthik and Roja in the lead roles, with Ajith Kumar in a guest appearance. Ramesh Khanna, Moulee and Madhan Bob played other supporting roles. The film went on to win critical acclaim and was declared a commercially successful venture at the box office.

Plot

Radha (Roja) is an illegitimate daughter who lives in her father's house as a maidservant with her step mother and father. The step mother's brother, Sanjay (Ajith Kumar) comes from Canada to visit Roja and her family. He said he likes her but needs at least 3 months to decide if she has the right qualities in a wife before he agrees to marry her. One day, two thieves Selvam (Karthik) and his friend steals a God statue from a temple and hide inside Radha's father's house while the elders are away. Radha finds them and lock them inside the house for 3 days. After 3 days, Radha gives Selvam some meaningful advice before he leaves. Selvam seems to have a liking of Radha and later he comes to know about Radha's story about her family and Sanjay. One day, her step mother throws her out of the house for accusing her of stealing her gold necklace and leaving a cigarette in a drawer. Selvam then finds a place for her in a hostel and makes many sacrifices in order to make her a famous singer. Finally, Radha's family accept her as a daughter and Sanjay is now ready to marry her, but who will Radha choose?

Cast

• Karthik as Selvam
• Ajith Kumar as Sanjay (guest appearance)
• Roja as Radha
• Ramesh Khanna as Selvam's friend
• Moulee as Viswanathan, Radha's father
• Sathyapriya as Radha's stepmother
• Madhan Bob as Radha's uncle
• Fathima Babu as Radha's aunt
• Sheela
• Vaiyapuri as Delhi
• K. Natraj
• Singamuthu as police constable
• Kovai Senthil as house owner
• R. Sarathkumar in a cameo appearance
• Kushboo in a cameo appearance
• K. S. Ravikumar in a cameo appearance
• Deva in a cameo appearance
• S. A. Rajkumar in a cameo appearance
• Gangai Amaren in a cameo appearance
• James Vasanthan in a cameo appearance

Production

After having a successful 1996 with the success of the Karthik starrer Gokulathil Seethai, Lakshmi Movie Makers began their sixth production and launched a film with director Vikraman in February 1997. The film was titled Unnidathil Ennai Koduthen and was set to feature Vijay in the lead role, but production delays meant that the actor was replaced by Karthik. Meena also revealed that she had to reject an offer to star in the leading female role due to date problems. Actress Swathi was initially approached to appear in a single song sequence for the film, but her refusal led to Anusha being chosen.

Ajith Kumar later revealed that his role in the film was initially supposed to be a full length role but the character underwent changes after the film started. He continued to play his part in the film due to his admiration for co-actor, Karthik. The success of Unnidathil Ennai Koduthen, later led to Karthik making a guest appearance in the Ajith-starrer Anantha Poongathe.

Release

The film became a commercially successful venture for producers Lakshmi Movie Makers. Unnidathil Ennai Koduthen went on to win five Tamil Nadu State Film Awards including that for Third Best Film as well as securing Vikraman the Best Storywriter award and Annadurai the Best Cinematographer award. Furthermore Karthik won the a Special Prize for his performances, while Roja was adjudged Best Actress in 1998. It also won three Cinema Express Awards for Best Film, Best Actor and Best Actress for the respective members in the film. The film gave a fresh lease in their careers to the lead pair, while Vikraman's work won him further recognition. Furthermore Ramesh Khanna, after his new gained recognition, was able to find a financier to make his directorial debut Thodarum. Indolink.com rated the film amongst the "best of 1998", revealing that the film ran over 200 days in theatres across Tamil Nadu.

Indolink.com gave the film an above average review mentioning that "All the actors perform their part well. The story places the characters in situations where they behave predictably or in some cases where they are not true to themselves. Other than that minor snitch, the movie is quite entertaining".

Remakes

The film's success led to a Telugu remake titled as Raja with Venkatesh and Soundarya in lead roles, where it enjoyed a similar reception. It was remade in Kannada as Kanasugara with V. Ravichandran. It was also remade in Bengali and Oriya as Shakal Sandhya and Mo Duniya Tu Hi Tu respectively.

Soundtrack

Unnidathil Ennai Koduthen
Soundtrack album by S. A. Rajkumar
Released	1998
Genre	Feature film soundtrack
Label	Lucky Audio

The soundtrack of the film was composed by S. A. Rajkumar, who also played a cameo as himself in the film alongside music directors Gangai Amaren and Deva. All songs, especially the song Edho Oru Paatu, became chartbusters, and are still popular in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

Track-list
No.	Title	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"Edho Oru Paatu"	Hariharan	4:26
2.	"Edho Oru Paatu"	Sujatha	4:26
3.	"Kaatrukku Thudivittu"	Unnikrishnan, K. S. Chithra	4:42
4.	"Malligai Poove Malligai Poove"	Unnikrishnan, Sujatha	4:26
5.	"Thottabedda Kuliru"	Hariharan	4:16
6.	"Vaanam Bhadiyen"	Sujatha	4:17

External links

• Unnidathil Ennai Koduthen at IMDb