youth..2002

Youth is a 2002 Tamil film directed by Vincent Selva, which is aremake of the Telugu film, Chiru Navvuto (2000). Vijay andShaheen Khan appeared in the lead roles while Yugendran, Vivek,Manivannan and Sindhu Menon play other pivotal characters. The film opened to positive reviews from critics and performed below average at the box office.^[1]

Directed by	Vincent Selva
Produced by	Poornachandra Rao
Written by	Vincent Selva Vijaybhaskar
Starring	Vijay Shaheen Khan Vivek Yugendran
Music by	Mani Sharma
Cinematography	Natarajan Subramaniam
Editing by	V. T. Vijayan
Distributed by	Lakshmi Productions
Release date(s)	19 July 2002
Running time	153 min.
Country	India
Language	Tamil

Plot

On his wedding day, Shiva (Vijay) discovers that his cousin and bride, Aruna, has run away because she does not want to marry a cook. But he takes it lightly and moves to Chennai with the girl's brother (Shyam Ganesh) to look for a job. One night, he saves Sandya from some goons. In gratitude, she kisses him. Shiva starts to fall in love with Sandya. After several occasions where they bumped into each other, Shiva harbours hope that she too reciprocates his affections.

However at Sandya's birthday party, she announces her engagement to computer engineer, Pratap (Yugendran). Shiva is devastated at the news and leaves the room quietly. Sandya finds him standing alone at the swimming pool. She asks him about his impression of Pratap and is shocked when Shiva reveals to her that he loves her. Sandya declares that she only feels friendship towards him and tells him to stop loving her.

After receiving a telephone call, Shiva goes to the police station and finds Aruna. She had eloped to be with her lover. However, he later abandoned her and left her penniless. With no one to turn to, Aruna attempted suicide. Shiva takes her back home to take care of her. Aruna's brother was still angry and calls up their parents. Shiva speaks up for Aruna and gets the family to forgive her. Before returning to the village, Aruna meets Pratap and discovers that Sandya's fiance is actually the lover who abandoned her.

On the eve of Sandya's wedding, she finally understands that she loves Shiva and tells her father (Manivannan) that she does not want to marry Pratap. Her father refuses to cancel the wedding and gives Shiva a cheque for 10 million to get the latter to leave Sandya. Sandya runs away on her wedding day to look for Shiva and confesses to him that she loves him too. She wants to elope with Shiva but he brings her back to the wedding venue.

Before the ceremony starts, he calls Pratap into a room and closes the door. When the door reopens, Shiva and Pratap had changed clothes. Shiva is now in the groom's attire while Pratap is in ordinary clothes. Shiva marries Sandya in the end. On their wedding night, Shiva reveals to Sandya what happened between Pratap and him in the room.

Cast

• Vijay as Shiva
• Shaheen Khan as Sandhya
• Vivek as Kandhasamy
• Simran as an item number
• Vijayakumar
• Manivannan
• Cochin Haneefa as Dhanushkodi
• Ravikumar
• Yugendran as Pratap
• Shyam Ganesh as Prabhu
• Sindhu Menon as Aruna
• Pandu
• Madhan Bob

Production

The film is a remake of the 2000 Telugu film Chiru Navvuto starring Venu and Shaheen Khan. The film was also made in Kannada as Premmake Sai in 2001 with Ravichandran and Shaheen.^[2] Despite appearing in only four feature films, three of Shaheen's films have featured her reprising the role of Sandhya.

For a scene in the film, Vijay had to jump from a height of 70 feet and the actor chose to do so despite the warning of stunt master Kanal Kannan and director Vincent Selva not to do so.^[3]

Release

Critics from The Hindu gave the film a negative review, stating that "just as you settle down to watch the happenings with interest, things get mundane". In regard to performances, the critic mentions that "Vijay is so used to this romantic sojourn that the essay comes without effort", while it was cited that Shaheen Khan's "magical screen presence is definitely missing".^[4] Entertainment portal, Bizhat.com, described the film as "a heartless love story, which is far from entertaining" adding that "to call the venture a disaster would be an understatement" and that "Vincent Selva’s inept direction and lacklustre performance from the lead cast make Youth a flick that one would recommend only to sworn enemies".^[5]

Soundtrack

The film's soundtrack is composed by Mani Sharma.^[6] The song, "Aal Thotta Boopathy", featured Simran in an item number.

Song	Singer(s)	Lyricist
"Old Model Laila"	Tippu	Vaali
"Adi One Inch Two"	S. P. Balasubrahmanyam,Sujatha	Vaali
"Sagiyea Sagiyea"	Hariharan, Harini	Vairamuthu
"Sakkarai Nilavea"	Harish Raghavendra	Vairamuthu
"Santhosam Valkaiyin"	S. P. Balasubrahmanyam	Vairamuthu
"Aal Thotta Boopathy"	Shankar Mahadevan	Kabilan