Ullam Ketkumae

Ullam Ketkumae (English: Heart wants more) is a 2005 Tamil romantic drama film directed and co-written by Jeeva, with dialogues by Sujatha. The film features Shaam, Arya, Laila, Asin and Pooja in the lead roles as five college students. The film's score and soundtrack are composed by Harris Jayaraj, while Vairamuthu penned the lyrics for the songs. The film tells the reunion of five friends who were together at college and exploring their relationships during the years. The film released after several delays in 2005 and went on to win critical and commercial success.[1]

Ullam Ketkumae
DVD Cover
Directed by	Jeeva
Produced by	Mahadevan Ganesh Usha Venkatramani
Written by	Jeeva Sujatha (dialogues)
Starring	Shaam Arya Laila Asin Pooja
Music by	Harris Jayaraj
Cinematography	Jeeva
Edited by	V. T. Vijayan
Production company	G. V. Films
Distributed by	APINT Ltd
Release date	3 June 2005
Running time	156 mins
Country	India
Language	Tamil

Plot

The movie is all about a group of five college friends — Shaam (Shaam), Emaan (Arya), Pooja (Laila), Priya (Asin) and Irene (Pooja). The friends gather for Emaan's wedding, years after everyone has parted ways.

The movie starts with Pooja leaving the USA to go to Indian cricketer and her friend Emaan's wedding. Meanwhile, back in India, everyone else is helping Emaan with the preparations for his wedding and catching up with their long-lost college friends. The movie goes through series of flashbacks of old memories during their college days. Emaan and Irene meet for the first time after years. It turns out that they were once in love during their college days but Irene, who is from an unstable family, decides to part ways with Emaan after he loses focus on his long time goal of becoming a successful cricketer.

Another flashback occurs when Shaam gets reminded of Pooja. She is a fun-loving tomboyish and naive girl, who is best friends with Shaam. Shaam realizes that he is in love with Priya, but on the other hand, Pooja realizes that she is falling for Shaam. Shaam and Pooja had respectively decided to propose their love interests on the coming Valentine's Day. But on that day, Pooja learns beforehand that Shaam is in love with Priya instead. Heartbroken by what she has just learned, she decides to keep her love for him a secret. When Shaam proposes Priya, she rejects his love as she believes in a more traditional approach towards finding a life partner. She reveals to him that she will be getting married, right after their graduation, to the man of her parents' choice. Pooja eventually goes to the USA for her higher studies and settles down there. Shaam has also tried to move on since then and becomes a fashion designer.

The film transitions back to the present on Emaan's wedding day. Everyone attends his wedding as Pooja finally arrives. She is no longer the same girl she was back then, as she is much more mature now and not as tomboyish as she was back then. Over sometime, Shaam has come to realize that he missed Pooja's presence and is much fond of her now. He realizes that he had failed to appreciate her all those times when she was there with him. The day after Emaan's wedding, Pooja leaves to catch her flight back to USA. Right before her departure, she decides to pass Shaam the Valentine's Day card that she had wanted to hand him during their college days and reveals her love for him. Shaam realizes that Pooja is the one that was meant to be for him and not Priya. The movie ends with Shaam accepting Pooja's love for him.

Cast

• Shaam as Shyam
• Arya as Emaan
• Laila as Pooja
• Asin as Priya
• Pooja as Irene
• Murali as Pooja's father
• Rajiv Choudary as Irene's father
• KPAC Lalitha as Emaan’s mother
• Pyramid Natarajan as Priya's father
• Srinath as Pathchu
• Japan Kumar as a college student
• Raju Sundaram as a dancer in the song "Mazhai Mazhai" (cameo appearance)
• Krish Srikkanth as himself at Emaan's wedding reception (cameo appearance)

Production

The film was first reported in April 2002, where it was revealed that Shaam and Richa Pallod were going to team up with director Jeeva, who had launched Shaam in the critically acclaimed 12B, for a college love story titled Pepsi.[2][3] The title Pepsi had stemmed from the first letter from the names of the five friends — Priya, Emaan, Pooja, Shyam and Irene. The film was later renamed and the film took the brand Pepsi's tagline in South India - Ullam Ketkumae - as the new title. Asin signed the film aged eighteen and the film was meant to mark her début in Tamil films, but the delay meant that M. Kumaran S/O Mahalakshmi released almost a year before this one.[4] While working as a software engineer, Arya was approached by Jeeva to audition for the film in 2003 as the pair had lived in the same neighbourhood and had attended the same local mosque. Arya immediately signed on for the project and was given the stage name of Arya for the film by Jeeva.[5] Pooja was also signed on to make her début and play Irene in the film, although the film's delay meant that several of her other films released before Ullam Ketkumae hit the screens.[6]

Art director Thotta Tharani created a college campus for the film to be shot in, with his work drawing appreciation.[7] A scene featuring an inter college day cultural had 100 students from various states take part in the shooting while decorations and a podium were put up for a marriage scene in Taj Connemara hotel.[8] Raju Sundaram choreographed five songs including a song shot at hot water springs in New Zealand.[9]

The film went through production hell, with three years being spent on the announcement till release.[10] The delay also led to the actors featuring in other projects during the period and Jeeva moving on to direct a Hindi film, Run. Despite giving indications that the film would release after delays on 14 April 2004 it was further pushed back due to financial issues.[11] In May 2005, the Supreme Court finally cleared the decks for the release, as earlier the Madras High court by a 25 February order appointed "Joint Receivers" for the film, which was objected by Prasad Labs who had gone to Supreme Court. It was agreed that the collections from the film will be received by "joint receivers" who will pay Prasad Labs for 72 prints of the film.[12]

Release

The film released on 3 June 2005 and became a commercial success at the box office with pundits describing the film as a "sleeper hit". The film took a 90 percent opening in four Chennai screens with large collections reported at the Devi theatre in Chennai in the opening weekend.[13] The film surprisingly opened at number two at the Chennai box office despite stiff competition, just below the Rajinikanth starrer Chandramukhi.[14]

The success of the film brought a series of offers for Shaam, whose career was struggling prior to release, whilst Arya and Asin were able to consolidate their positions of rising actors.[15][16][17] The success of the film later prompted a dubbed Telugu version being released on 30 March 2006 as Preminchi Choodu.[18]

Music

The music and background score were composed by Harris Jayaraj.

Ullam Ketkumae
Soundtrack album by Harris Jayaraj
Released	22 April 2005
Recorded	2005
Genre	Feature film soundtrack
Length	27:28
Language	Tamil
Label	Hit Musics Vega Music Bayshore
Producer	Harris Jayaraj
Harris Jayaraj chronology
Thotti Jaya (2005) Ullam Ketkumae (2005) Anniyan (2005)

Track-List[19]

No.	Title	Lyrics	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"Ennai Pandhada"	Vairamuthu	Srinivas, Srimathumitha, Suchithra	4:52
2.	"Kanavugal"	Pa.Vijay	Karthik, Arunmozhi, Tippu, Premji Amaran, Febi Mani, Pop Shalini, Suchitra	5:33
3.	"O Maname"	Vairamuthu	Hariharan	4:55
4.	"Mazhai Mazhai"	Vairamuthu	P. Unnikrishnan, Harini	4:55
5.	"Dho Dho"	Vairamuthu	Franko	5:45
6.	"Lieko Laima"	Pa.Vijay	Ranjith	1:28
Total length:				27:28

Preminchi Choodu
Soundtrack album by Harris Jayaraj
Released	2006
Recorded	2005
Genre	Feature film soundtrack
Length	28:03
Language	Telugu
Label	Lahari Music
Producer	Harris Jayaraj

All tracks are written by Bhuvanachandra.

Telugu Track-List[20]

No.	Title	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"Enno Janmala Bandham"	Srinivas, Saindhavi	4:53
2.	"Enno Ennenno Kalale"	Karthik, Arunmozhi, Premji Amaran, Febi Mani, Pop Shalini, Suchitra	5:34
3.	"O Manasa"	Madhu Balakrishnan	4:54
4.	"Shodhinchuko"	P. Unnikrishnan, Harini	4:55
5.	"Sie Sie Sie"	Franko	5:49
6.	"Lieko Laima"	Ranjith	1:58
Total length:			28:03

References

1. "'Thalapathi' to 'Nanban': Must watch films on Friendship Day". Times of India.
2. "rediff.com, Movies: Gossip from the southern film industry". Rediff. 17 April 2002. Retrieved 1 September 2013.
3. "Riding high on '12B' fame". The Hindu. Chennai, India. 2 June 2002.
4. "Asin: Glamour no problem". IndiaGlitz. 24 November 2004. Retrieved 1 September 2013.
5. ""I compete with my self" [An exclusive with Arya]". IndiaGlitz. 2011. Retrieved 17 May 2011.
6. "Oram Po... here she comes". The Hindu. Chennai, India. 30 November 2007.
7. "Campus caper". The Hindu. Chennai, India. 19 April 2004.
8. "Ullam Ketkume". Archived from the original on 5 April 2004. Retrieved 1 September 2013.
9. "Ullam Ketkumae Tamil Movie Preview cinema review stills gallery trailer video clips showtimes". IndiaGlitz. 10 May 2004. Retrieved 1 September 2013.
10. "At last, Ullam Ketkumae releases ". IndiaGlitz. 31 May 2005. Retrieved 1 September 2013.
11. "No superstar releases on Tamil New Year". Sify. 8 April 2004. Retrieved 1 September 2013.
12. "At last, `Ullam Ketkume` releases!". Sify. 30 May 2005. Retrieved 1 September 2013.
13. "`Ullam Ketkume` - A sleeper hit!". Sify. 7 June 2005. Retrieved 1 September 2013.
14. "Chennai weekend box-office (June 3–5)". Sify. 7 June 2005. Retrieved 1 September 2013.
15. "Shaam- A new lease of life!". Sify. 28 June 2005. Retrieved 1 September 2013.
16. "Arya- In demand!". Sify. 16 June 2005. Retrieved 1 September 2013.
17. "On a high". The Hindu. Chennai, India. 11 June 2005.
18. https://www.nowrunning.com/movie/2935/telugu/preminchi-choodu/740/review.htm
19. "Ullam Ketkume - All Songs - Download or Listen Free - Saavn". 3 June 2005. Retrieved 3 November 2018.
20. "Preminchi Choodu - All Songs - Download or Listen Free - Saavn". 31 August 2014. Retrieved 3 November 2018.

External links

• Ullam Ketkumae on IMDb