Poove Unakkaga (film)

Poove Unakkaga is a 1996 Indian Tamil-language romantic comedy film written and directed by Vikraman. The film stars Vijay and Sangita in the lead roles. Murali, whom Vikraman worked with in Pudhu Vasantham (1990), makes a song appearance in the film.

Poove Unakkaga released on 18 February 1996. The film received critical acclaim and it was the first blockbuster and a major breakthrough in Vijay's career. It ran over 270 days in theatres at the time of release. The film was remade in Telugu as Subhakankshalu (1997), in Kannada as Ee Hrudaya Ninagagi (1997) and in Hindi as Badhaai Ho Badhaai (2002).

Plot
Sadasivam and Stephen were family friends for generations until the time when Sadhasivam's daughter Janaki falls in love with Stephen's son Robert. Both families oppose since they belong to different religions. The couple elopes and gets married, which leads to the families abandoning them. Thus, enmity is created between the two families, and they start hating on each other. Vasudevan is Sadhasivam's son, and Moses is Stephen's son.

After 25 years, both families receive a letter from Raja, who is born to Robert and Janaki and who is also visiting the families. Both families get furious seeing the letter and they decide not to permit him to stay in their homes. Raja comes to the town along with his friend Gopi but is shocked that he is not allowed inside both houses. Also, Vasudevan and Moses ask the entire street to not let any house for rent to Raja and Gopi. Velangiri lives along with his wife, and he permits Raja to stay in his house.

Though Sadhasivam and Stephen do not welcome Raja, they long to see their grandson from far. The Same is the case with their wives Ranganayaki and Rosy. Raja understands that only Vasudevan and Moses are still angry, while the other family members just pretend to be angry. So he decides to unite the family. He gets close with his grandparents slowly. Ranganayaki and Rosy want to get Raja married. To escape, Raja lies that he is already married to a girl named Nirmala Mary aka Nimmy.

To Raja's shock, suddenly one day, Nirmala arrives at Velangiri's home introducing herself as Raja's wife. Raja gets confused and cannot reveal the truth as that would further disturb the progress he has made with the families. Nirmala plays pranks on Raja and Gopi, which always irritates them. One day, Raja pretends to try to make love with Nirmala, so that she will reveal her true identity. Nirmala reveals that she is actually Priyadarshini aka Priya, the daughter of Robert and Janaki. She also says that the only man who stays in touch with her family in the town is Velangiri, from whom they get frequent updates about the happenings. Now, Priya questions Raja's intention behind trying to unite both families.

Raja reveals a flashback. He is an orphan who lives along with Gopi in Chennai. Next to his house, there is a girls’ hostel. Nandhini is Vasudevan's daughter, and she stays in the hostel. Raja gets attracted seeing Nandhini and befriends her. Slowly, friendship blossoms into love for Raja. When Raja is about to convey his love towards Nandhini, he gets shocked to know that she is already in love with Lawrence, Moses's son. As there already exists enmity between the two families, the couple fears whether their love would be accepted by their family members.

Raja, upon knowing about the problem, decides to help the couple unite with the approval of their family members. He takes the responsibility of convincing both families and disguises himself as the son of Robert and Janaki. Priya gets surprised knowing Raja's intention of getting the family united despite knowing the fact that Nandhini is in love with Lawrence. Priya gets attracted towards Raja and falls for him but does not express it.

Meanwhile, both families get to know that Nandhini and Lawrence are in love, and they get furious again. But Raja takes the couple somewhere and brings them back after a few hours. However, Nandhini gets converted to Christianity while Lawrence gets converted to Hinduism. Raja makes the family members realize that love is eternal and it knows no religion and caste. Both families get convinced listening to Raja's words and they agree for the wedding between Lawrence and Nandhini.

On the day of the wedding, both Robert and Janaki arrive and the family members happily welcome them and they also apologize for keeping them away for 25 years. Both families mention that it was their son Raja who was responsible for reuniting the families. Robert and Janaki get surprised and reveal that they have only one child, which is a daughter named Priyadarshini. Priya reveals that Raja is Nandhini's friend and has come to unite the families so that they can get married. Both families feel proud seeing Raja, and they suggest getting Priya married to him. However, Raja denies, saying that he has already fallen in love with someone (Nandhini) and he can never fall in love with another girl. The film ends with Raja leaving the house and walking away alone.

Soundtrack
The music was composed by S. A. Rajkumar in his 50th film as a composer.

Reception
Ananda Vikatan rated the film 43 out of 100. Kalki praised Vikraman for giving the old love caste plot a new treatment while also praising the performances of actors, humour and climax dialogues, but found Rajkumar's music as the only drawback. The Hindu wrote, "The crux of the theme might have figured in some  movies but  the intensity the mounting situations generate in  Supergood Films'  Poovae  Unakkaga makes director Vikraman one  of  the intelligent figures in the industry, his dialogue and screenplay, based  on  his  story,  making the  main  characters  gain  extra dimensions".