Kadhal Kottai () is a 1996 Indian Tamil-language romance film directed by Agathiyan. It stars Ajith Kumar and Devayani, with Heera, Thalaivasal Vijay, and Karan in supporting roles.
The film was a major commercial success and also won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Tamil, the National Film Award for Best Direction as well as the National Film Award for Best Screenplay for Agathiyan. It garnered positive critical acclaim upon release on 12 July 1996 and ran for over 270 days at the box office, becoming a silver-jubilee film. The film was remade in Kannada as Yaare Neenu Cheluve, in Hindi as Sirf Tum, and in Bengali as Hothat Brishti.
Plot
Kamali, a graduate, lives with her sister Malliga and brother-in-law Shekar in Kotagiri, and is searching for a job. While visiting Madras, her purse is stolen and she fears she has lost her academic credentials. Suriya, an orphaned, carefree man who works in Jaipur, finds the purse and sends it back to her, and a love develops through letters. They agree to love each other without meeting, as she sews and sends a gift pack containing a lotus embroidered woollen sweater for him to wear when they meet for real. Suriya is soon transferred to Madras and stays with Siva, his new colleague. Kamali too comes to Madras to find a job and stays with her friend Jensi. Neya, Suriya's new boss, is immediately smitten by him, but her repeated attempts in gaining his love and affections fails as he is staunch about his love for Kamali. In the meantime, Suriya and Kamali run over upon each other without knowing who they really were, resulting in negative perception and misunderstanding. Refusing a job offer which would move her to Singapore, making it difficult for her to find Suriya, Kamali moves back to her home in despair.
Unable to withstand the advances of Neya, Suriya quits his job and gets sheltered by his friend Paneer, an auto rickshaw driver, who arranges him an auto rickshaw to drive for a living. Jeeva, a wealthy businessman, expresses his interest in marrying Kamali to Shekar, but Kamali excuses herself to consider her as prospective bride when she meets Jeeva in private and shares her unflinching love for Suriya, who even allows her to meet him for one last time. Shekar, who initially dissuades Kamali's love finally gives in and allows her to go to Madras half-heartedly. Upon arriving in Madras, which is experiencing severe monsoon, Kamali finds out that Jensi and the other hostel mates are not in town. Pinning hopes, she boards the Suriya's auto rickshaw, without knowing that it is him, and searches for him desperately. At the end of the day, both of them get refreshed at his place, where he dons the sweater gifted by her, covering it with his uniform. As Kamali plans to head home, depressed, Suriya helps her to board the Nilgiri Express. As the train departs, Suriya removes his shirt after tea spills over it. Kamali notices the sweater, deboards the train and the pair finally unite, as Paneer and Jensi look on and rejoice.
Cast
Ajith Kumar as Suriya
Devayani as Kamali
Heera as Neya
Raja as Jeeva
Karan as Siva
Manivannan as Kaliyaperumal
Thalaivasal Vijay as Paneer
Rajeev as Sekhar
Sabitha Anand as Malliga, Kamali's sister
Pandu as Ramasamy
Indhu as Kamali's friend
Ra. Sankaran as Church Father
LIC Narasimhan as Train passenger
Ramji in a special appearance
Rani in the song "Vellarikka"
Production
The basic theme of the film was inspired from Purananuru literature on the relationship between King Kopperum Chozhan and poet Pisirandhaiyar, though they never met but they developed a strong relationship until their deaths. Agathiyan initially wanted to make his directorial debut with this subject since no producer were willing to produce the film, he made few films and earned his breakthrough with Vaanmathi. Post its success, he chose Ajith, the actor from that film to play the leading role with Sivasakthi Pandian agreeing to produce the film.
Anju was the first choice for the lead actress, but declined due to her commitments to Arunachalam, resulting in Devayani being cast. Agathiyan had asked Devayani to change her glamorous on screen image for the film, and Devayani duly agreed with the film becoming the start of several other similar roles for her. The film was initially titled Nila Nila Odi Vaa before it was renamed Kadhal Kottai. Raja was initially reluctant to act, but joined the cast at the director's insistence.
Soundtrack
The music was composed by Deva and lyrics written by Agathiyan and Ponniyin Selvan.