Love Birds is a 1996 Indian Tamil-language romantic drama film directed by P. Vasu. The film stars Prabhu Deva and Nagma with Raja, Vadivelu and Sarath Babu playing other pivotal roles. The film's score and soundtrack composed by A. R. Rahman was highly successful. The film was released on 15 January 1996 and had an average performance commercially.[1] It is a remake of the 1986 Kannada film Ratha Sapthami for which Vasu was the co-screenwriter.[2][3]
| Love Birds | |
|---|---|
 Title card | |
| Directed by | P. Vasu |
| Written by | P. Vasu |
| Based on | Ratha Sapthami |
| Produced by | Pyramid Natarajan |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | M. C. Sekar |
| Edited by | P. Mohanraj |
| Music by | A. R. Rahman |
Production company | Pyramid Films |
Release date |
|
Running time | 160 minutes |
| Country | India |
| Language | Tamil |
Plot
editAfter accidentally meeting, Mridula (Nagma) and Arun (Prabhu Deva) fall in love. The young couple both come from affluent families, and so, to test whether they will be suited for a long-term relationship, they both decide to live together. However, a few months into their relationship, Arun and Mridula get in an accident and Arun dies. A devastated Mridula is unable to get over his absence, and before long starts seeing Arun in strange visions everywhere she goes. Her family eventually decide that relocating to another country might help Mridula move on, and so they send her to the UK. Once she arrives there, she meets Mano (Raja), a young man attracted to her. She knows that her parents expect her to fall for Mano. But as she can't move on, she runs away. She meets David who looks exactly like Arun. She follows him and finds out where he lives and works. Whenever she tries to talk to him, he denies his relationship with her and says he doesn't know her. However, she later finds out that her father had Arun sent away as he had helped with Arun's sister's marriage and had threatened to let it all go downhill for her. Arun moves to the UK in hopes that he can forget about Mridula but he can't and when he meets her, he realises this. When Mridula's father finds out Arun is still alive, he tries to kill him. However, he realises his mistake and lets the lovebirds reunite.
Cast
edit- Prabhu Deva as Arun/David
- Nagma as Mridula
- Vijayakumar as Rathnakumar
- Sarath Babu as Prakash
- Manorama as Susheela
- Raja as Mano
- Vadivelu as Raja
- Vennira Aadai Moorthy as Professor
- Santhana Bharathi as College principal
- Raviraj as Professor
- Chinni Jayanth as Arun's friend
- Delhi Ganesh as Ramalingam
- Veera Pandiyan as Student
- H. Ramakrishnan as Susheela's husband
- LIC Narasimhan as Raghupathy
- Dhamu as Dhamu, Arun's friend
- Meena Kumari as Sheela, Arun's sister
- Vittal Rao as Vittal
- Apache Indian in a special appearance
- P. Vasu in a cameo appearance
- Vijay Sethupathi (uncredited) as an audience member in Cultural Competition[4]
Production
editPrabhu Deva was signed to work on the film after working in Shankar's 1994 hit Kadhalan, and his pair from that film, Nagma, was also signed on. British Indian musician Apache Indian was also signed on to sing and dance for a music video in the film.[5]
The film was predominantly shot across London, with scenes also canned at Buckingham Palace and at a Hilton Hotel. The producers had earlier location scouted in the city and took music director, A. R. Rahman along to get a feel of the city.[6]
Soundtrack
editThe soundtrack was composed by A. R. Rahman, with lyrics by Vairamuthu for the original Tamil version, by Sirivennela Seetharama Sastry for the Telugu version and by P. K. Mishra and Mehboob for the Hindi version.[7] The song "Malargaley" is set to the raga Hamir Kalyani.[8][9]
All lyrics are written by Vairamuthu
| No. | Title | Singer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Come On Come On" | Mano | 5:17 |
| 2. | "Malargaley" | K. S. Chithra, Hariharan | 7:15 |
| 3. | "Naalai Ulagam" | Unnikrishnan, Sujatha Mohan | 7:26 |
| 4. | "No Problem" | Apache Indian, A. R. Rahman | 6:11 |
| 5. | "Samba Samba" | Aslam Mustafa | 5:28 |
| Total length: | 31:40 | ||
| No. | Title | Lyrics | Singer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Come On Come On" | P.K. Mishra | Udit Narayan | 5:21 |
| 2. | "Milgaye Milgaye" | P.K. Mishra | K. S. Chitra, Hariharan | 7:16 |
| 3. | "Na Ho Kal Jab" | Mehboob | S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, Sujatha Mohan | 7:27 |
| 4. | "No Problem" | P.K. Mishra | Apache Indian, A. R. Rahman | 6:16 |
| 5. | "Samba Samba" | P.K. Mishra | Aslam Mustafa | 5:33 |
| Total length: | 31:54 | |||
All lyrics are written by Sirivennela Seetharama Sastry
| No. | Title | Singer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Come On Come On" | Mano | 5:17 |
| 2. | "Manasuga Manasuga" | K. S. Chitra, Hariharan | 7:09 |
| 3. | "Repe Lokam" | Unnikrishnan, Sujatha Mohan | 7:25 |
| 4. | "No Problem" | Apache Indian, A. R. Rahman | 6:10 |
| 5. | "Samba Samba" | Aslam Mustafa | 5:32 |
| Total length: | 31:34 | ||
Release and reception
editThe film opened in January 1996. The film opened days earlier in Malaysia than India and was shown across 27 theatres in the country, a figure only usually exceeded for Tamil films starring Rajinikanth, and this mirrors the large release the film received.[6] K. Vijiyan of New Straits Times gave a positive review saying, "This movie seems made for courting couples, especially those who are facing problems with disapproving parents" and added that "strong dialogue makes the film rise slight above the ordinary".[6] Kalki was more critical, calling it yet another blowback for Prabhu Deva.[10] The Hindu wrote "To bank on the Kathalan team of Prabhu Deva and Nagma to deliver the goods without a powerful story to back their effort has cost Pyramid Films International, the makers of Love Birds, dearly despite shooting most part of the second half in England. Experienced director P. Vasu has written the story, dialogue, screenplay and somehow he is not able to infuse his usual sentiment oriented touches because the scope is very minimal in the plot" but praised Rahman's music and Sekar's cinematography.[11] Love Birds became an average grosser at the box office but was a little better than Prabhu Deva's next, Mr. Romeo. The actor thus had to go through a slump in his film career.[12]
References
edit- ^ Sitaraman, Sandya (17 January 1997). "Tamil Movie News--Pudhu Edition 2". Google Groups. Archived from the original on 30 November 2021. Retrieved 30 November 2021.
- ^ S M, Shashiprasad (12 July 2023). "Hit films of Kannada superstar Shivanna that were remade in other languages". The South First. Archived from the original on 16 August 2023. Retrieved 20 April 2024.
- ^ "'Shivalinga' Mounts". IndiaGlitz. 17 December 2014. Archived from the original on 30 November 2021. Retrieved 30 November 2021.
- ^ Das, Kishen (11 September 2021). The Vijay Sethupathi interview – 'Directors should not put up with mediocre acting just because I'm a star' (in Tamil). Netflix India. Event occurs at 4:49. Archived from the original on 30 October 2022. Retrieved 6 April 2023 – via YouTube.
- ^ "Apache's comeback". The Indian Express. 10 December 2011. Archived from the original on 30 November 2021. Retrieved 30 November 2021.
- ^ a b c Vijiyan, K. (6 February 1996). "A twist to the typical love story". New Straits Times. Archived from the original on 10 June 2024. Retrieved 8 February 2022 – via Google News Archive.
- ^ Ramchandani, Avinash. "Love Birds". Planet Bollywood. Archived from the original on 30 November 2021. Retrieved 30 November 2021.
- ^ Sundararaman (2007) [2005]. Raga Chintamani: A Guide to Carnatic Ragas Through Tamil Film Music (2nd ed.). Pichhamal Chintamani. p. 141. OCLC 295034757.
- ^ "The joy of Hamirkalyani". The Hindu. 13 September 2013. Archived from the original on 26 March 2016. Retrieved 10 June 2024.
- ^ "லவ் பேர்ட்ஸ்". Kalki (in Tamil). 18 February 1996. p. 5. Archived from the original on 3 April 2023. Retrieved 3 April 2023 – via Internet Archive.
- ^ "Cinema: Amman/Love Birds/Vaikarai Pookal/Paramparai". The Hindu. 3 February 1996. Archived from the original on 21 December 1996. Retrieved 11 July 2023.
- ^ Vijiyan, K. (29 January 1997). "Hollywood-style Tamil love story that looks like a hit". New Straits Times. pp. Arts 5. Archived from the original on 14 June 2023. Retrieved 30 March 2022 – via Google News Archive.
External links
edit- Love Birds at IMDb