# Azhagiya Theeye

Azhagiya Theeye (spelt onscreen as Azhagiye Theeyae) is a 2004 Indian Tamil-language romantic comedy film written and directed by Radha Mohan that stars Prasanna and Navya Nair (in her Tamil debut). The film was produced by Prakash Raj, who also played a significant character in the film, while Ramesh Vinayagam composed the music. It released to generally positive reviews. The film was a commercial success. The film's name is inspired by the song of the same name from Minnale (2001). The film inspired the plot of the 2006 Telugu film Happy.

## Plot

The story revolves around Chandran (Prasanna) who is approached by a girl, Nandhini (Navya Nair), to break her proposed marriage with a software engineer, Aravind (Prakash Raj) from the U.S. She is forced by her father who is a thug (Pyramid Natarajan), to marry this guy. Later Chandran hatches a plan by which he meets Aravind at a restaurant and tells him that Nandhini is madly in love with him. And the big twist is that Aravind does not walk away and instead stays back to see that the ‘love birds’ get united which upsets Chandran's plans and his life. He is forced to marry Nandhini at a registrar's office and she is thrown out of her house. Aravind arranges a flat for them and leaves for the U.S. How the couple starts liking each other after a series of incidents forms the rest of the love story.

## Cast

* Prasanna as Chandran
* Navya Nair as Nandhini
* Prakash Raj as Aravind
* Elango Kumaravel as Gopi (Chithappa)
* Jayavarma as Moorthy
* Bala as Bala
* M. S. Bhaskar as House Owner Annachi
* Devadarshini as Sandhya
* Pyramid Natarajan as Nandhini's father
* Kamalesh PK as Nandhini's brother
* Periyar Dasan as Chandran's father
* Thadi Balaji as Shanmugam, Restaurant waiter
* Abbas (special appearance - "Dil Mera Loot Liya")
* Rambha (special appearance - "Dil Mera Loot Liya")

## Production

Radha Mohan began work on his first film was Smile Please in 1996, starring Prakash Raj in the lead role, but financial restraints meant that the film was later shelved. Prakash Raj chose to produce a film with Radha Mohan and announced the project in July 2003 under the title of Koothupattarai, which developed alongside Prakash Raj's other production Naam (2003). Navya Nair signed on to appear in the film during September 2003, which by then had been briefly titled Ellame Drama Thaan.

## Soundtrack

The soundtrack for this film was composed by Ramesh Vinayakam.

## Reception

The Hindu wrote "AMIDST RUN of the mill love themes and implausible action, Duet Movies' "Azhagiya Theeyae ... " comes as a whiff of fresh air. With a simple storyline neatly narrated, the film is ably backed by Viji's dialogue. The comic digs, light-hearted barbs, and humorous verbal exchanges in this breezy romantic story keep your spirits enlivened." Sify wrote "On the whole Azhagiya Theeye is good fun while it lasts." Visual Dasan of Kalki praised the film and director for healthy humor, humorous dialogues, and for making a film different from commercial films. Deccan Herald wrote "What is a good film? Azagiya Theeye will provide you the answer. No vulgar dialogues, clean story, good screenplay, no unnecessary fights, no overacting — it has all these and much more to offer".