Amruthavarshini (film)

Amruthavarshini is a 1997 Indian Kannada-language romantic drama film written, photographed and directed by Dinesh Baboo. It stars Suhasini, Sarath Babu and Ramesh Aravind. Nivedita Jain appears in a cameo role. It features Ramesh Arvind playing a negative role for which he was widely praised. The film revolves around the three central characters of a husband (Sharath), wife (Suhasini) and a friend (Ramesh) who intrudes into the couple's life and turns their life into tragic events.

The film was produced by Bharathi Devi under the banner Chinni Chitra. Upon release, the film was declared a musical blockbuster hit with all the songs of the soundtrack composed by Deva becoming evergreen hits. The songs of the film continue to be favorites among the Kannada audience. The film was one of the highest grossers at the box-office for the year 1997. The film was awarded with multiple State Awards and Filmfare Awards, particularly for the story and acting.

The film was subsequently dubbed in Telugu with same title name and in Tamil as Uyirinum Melaaga. In Malayalam, the film was remade as Mazhavillu (1999) by the same director.

Plot
Hemanth heads an advertising firm and is happily married to Veena. His childhood friend and poet Abhishek Bharadwaj visits him and stays with the family for a while. Abhishek is depressed due to the death of his girlfriend, Shruti, due to cancer. Before her death, Shruthi had asked Abhishek to promise her that he would marry another girl after her death. A prolonged stay at Hemanth's leads to Abhishek becoming obsessed with Veena due to her strong resemblance to Shruthi. Hemanth learns of this but does not reveal it to Veena.

A few days later, the three, together with employees of Hemanth's firm, take a trip to Kodaikanal. Abhishek happens to drive Hemanth to a cliff by an off-road vehicle for the latter to photograph the sunset. Once there, Hemanth chides Abhishek over his advances towards Veena and asks him to return home before things worsen. However, Abhishek, in an attempt to kill him, puts the vehicle's gears on neutral hoping it would run him down the cliff. Hemanth survives the hit but is left hanging off the cliff, but is not saved by Abhishek.

Veena is distraught over her husband's death. Friends of Hemanth request Abhishek to stay with Veena at her residence until she recovers. However, Veena learns of Abhishek's intentions and confides in her friend, Dr. Vimala. She has also got hold of the negatives from her husband's motorised camera and develops them only to find that all of her husband's final moments were captured, including Abhishek watching on as he asked for help. However, she pretends to have moved on and suggests that she is ready to share her life with Abhishek and announces before her friends that she would marry him. A day later, she asks him to take her to the cliff where Hemanth died as it was his long-cherished dream to take photographs from there. Once there, she confronts and reveals that she knows what transpired on that fateful day before handing over a trembling Abhishek the developed photographs. She then kills her self by leaping from the cliff, in front of him, as a revenge.

Production
Dinesh Baboo prepared the story in 1979. In 1987-88, he met Suhasini Maniratnam and narrated the story of Amruthavarshini; however, that meeting ended up in the film Suprabhatha (1988). Suhasini called Dinesh Baboo while he was in Kerala about producer Jayashreedevi, who was looking for a director-cum-cinematographer for their next venture. Baboo did not like the director's script and he told her the story of Amruthavarshini. Palani Senapathy made his debut as sound designer.

Soundtrack
Deva composed the music for the film and the soundtrack, with lyrics of the tracks penned by K. Kalyan. The soundtrack album has nine tracks. The male version of the song "Tunturu" appears for only 30 seconds in the movie — after climax during the end credits.

Reception
A critic from Rediff.com wrote that "What appears in print to be a trite, thrice-told tale reveals, on celluloid, an ability to grip, to carry the viewer along on a tide of emotions ranging from the soft through the turbulent into the increasingly darker shades. And a lot of the credit goes to the three major performers, with Suhasini showing no sign of rust from her layoff. What is interesting is the way the film -- by no means a whodunit, because you know right at the outset that Arvind is the culprit -- keeps you nailed, your sympathies oscillating between Arvind and Suhasini till the very end".

Awards and honors

 * It won the Arya Bhata Award and was also screened at the Indian Panorama Festival.
 * Filmfare Award for Best Film – Kannada 1997 - B. Jayashree Devi
 * Filmfare Award for Best Actor – Kannada 1997 - Ramesh Aravind
 * Filmfare Award for Best Music Director – Kannada 1997 - Deva
 * Karnataka State Film Award for Best Screenplay
 * Karnataka State Film Award for Best Editor - Kemparaj
 * Screen Award for Best Actress (Kannada) – Suhasini Maniratnam