Shahjahan (film)

Shahjahan
Poster
Directed by	Ravi
Written by	Prasanna Kumar(Dialogue)
Screenplay by	Ravi
Story by	Ravi
Produced by	R. B. Choudary
Starring	Vijay Richa Pallod Krishna Vivek
Cinematography	Arthur A. Wilson S. Saravanan (1 Song)
Edited by	V. Jaishankar
Music by	Mani Sharma
Production company	Super Good Films
Release date	14 November 2001 (2001-11-14)
Running time	156 minutes
Country	India
Language	Tamil

Shahjahan is a 2001 Indian Tamil-language romantic drama film written and directed by Ravi and produced by R. B. Choudary. The film stars Vijay and Richa Pallod while Krishna and Vivek portray supporting roles. The film, which had music was composed by Mani Sharma, was released on 14 November 2001. The story is about the love life of a love doctor and how his love life ends in a tragedy unknowingly. The movie became a commercial success at the box office.^[1]

Plot[]

Ashok (Vijay) is a young man who knows and understands the psychology of love and helps lovers elope against the wishes of their families. He is assisted in this endeavour by his close friends Boopathi Ramaiyaa (Vivek) and Seenu (Balaji). Once he comes across Uma Maheshwari "Mahee" (Richa Pallod), an engineering student, and develops a crush on her. However, he chooses not to express his love to her and instead decides to wait for her to reciprocate her love due to a past incident involving his friend Giri. In a flashback, it is shown that Giri was in love with a Muslim girl named Aisha, who did not reciprocate. When Giri declared his love for her in front of her family, Aisha committed suicide, unable to bear the humiliation faced by her and her family members. This incident caused Giri to become mad and end up in an asylum.

One day, Ashok's friend Raja (Krishna) asks him to help him successfully pursue a mysterious girl. Ashok agrees to this and successfully helps Raja win the heart of the "mysterious girl", who, unknown to Ashok, turns out to be none other than Mahee. Eventually, when Mahee's father finds out about the relationship, Mahee and Raja decide to elope and seek the help of Ashok again. Ashok, who is still unaware that Raja wants to marry Mahee, agrees. It is only when Mahee arrives at the register office that Ashok realises that Raja's lover is Mahee and that he had helped Raja to make his love with Mahee succeed. Ashok breaks down inconsolably, but soon calms down and gets Raja and Mahee married. The newly married couple decide to leave for Coimbatore to escape from Mahee's father's wrath. But Mahee's father notices them and attacks them as well as Ashok, since he is responsible for getting his daughter to elope. Ashok is stabbed by Mahee's father in the back. Despite his pain, Ashok manages to send Mahee and Raja away safely, and Mahee's father decides to leave him alone, since his daughter is already gone.

The movie ends with a man coming to an injured Ashok and asking him to help him in pursuing a girl he likes, to which Ashok agrees (indicating that he'll even sacrifice his own love life to unite two hearts).

Cast[]

Production[]

R. B. Choudary, after the successes of Poove Unakkaga and Thulladha Manamum Thullum, signed on Vijay for a project to be directed by Vikraman. However, Vijay opted against starring in Vikraman's venture and Ravi Appulu was roped in to make a film, which later became Shahjahan, named after the 5th Mughal emperor of the same name.^[2] The director had previously approached Vikram with the script of the film.^[3] Arthur A. Wilson was signed to handle the camera, Mani Sharma to compose the music, Vairamuthu to write lyrics while Prabhakaran did the art work and Prasanna Kumar has written the dialogue.^[4]

Richa Pallod, who had appeared in advertisements and Telugu films, was selected to portray the female lead role, while actress Meena appeared in an item number. The film also saw Sona Heiden signed on to appear a supporting role.

Soundtrack[]

The soundtrack of the film was composed by Mani Sharma, and all lyrics were penned by Vairamuthu. The album was well received by the audience.^[5]

Critical reception[]

The critic from The Hindu gave the film a positive review claiming that "youth, romance and vibrant music seem to sell at a premium these days" and that Shahjahan "has all these in ample measure". The critic added that Richa "has little to do but look good" and Vijay "sparkles in the role of Ashok" while Krishna "fills the bill of a perfect non-action hero".^[6][7]

Release[]

The film released on 14 November 2001. It was dubbed in Hindi as Dhol Baja Aur Barati and released on February 25, 2002.^[8]

References[]

External links[]

• Shahjahan at Jointscene
• Shahjahan at IMDb