Sundari (Tamil TV series)

Sundari
Also known as	Oru Sarasari Pennin Porattam
Genre	Social Drama
Directed by	Azhagar
Starring
Opening theme	"Aathangara Kaatre" Shweta Mohan (Vocals)
Country of origin	India
Original language	Tamil
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	277 (as of Jan 13, 2021)
Production
Producer	Cinematographer Karaikudi Balasubramaniem (KT.Balu _ Manonmani Stores )
Cinematography	Banumurugan Vijayapaandi
Running time	22-24 minutes
Production companies	Sun Entertainment Miracle Media
Release
Original network	Sun TV
Original release	22 February 2021 (2021-02-22) – present
Chronology
Related shows	Sundari
External links
Production website

Sundari (transl. Beauty) is a 2021 Indian Tamil-language Social dramatic series starring Gabriella Sellus playing a girl named Sundari, who often has to face criticism because of her skin tone. Sundari, who is extremely talented and dedicated, wants to achieve her dream. She bravely faces all the obstacles and follows her dream. along with Jishnu Menon^[1] and Shreegopika Neelanath. It premiered on Sun TV on February 22, 2021. It is available for worldwide streaming on Sun NXT.^[2] The story concerns a young dark-toned village girl, Sundari who battles against her skin color and her traditional looks. The main plot of the story is taken from Kannada language serial 'Sundari' airing on Udaya TV^[3] and is loosely based on Mohan starrer Gopurangal Saivathillai.

Sundari is the story of a girl who faces discrimination for her dark skin, yet she fights against adversities in life. She has a kind heart but struggles to find the right man to marry. Undeterred, she strives to become an IAS officer. Her journey towards achieving her goal takes her through many ups and downs in life and she firmly believes that inner beauty is more important than physical appearance, which forms the crux of the story

Plot[]

The plot of the story revolves around a lower middle–class lady, Sundari, who lives in a village and is often judged and treated by other villagers with inequality due to her dark skin tone. How Sundari overcomes her challenges and achieves her dreams of working in the city, forms the rest of the story.

Sundari has the only aspiration that she would become an IAS officer in future as she's academically a brightest student. Unfortunately, Sundari's father's close friend whom she considers as her own maternal uncle, Murugan brought her an alliance in order to protect her name from the villager's accusation as she has eloped with a guy but in a contradiction, she got admitted in a hospital due to an accident while attending her examination.

On the other hand, Karthick runs his own advertising agency along with his best friend Krishna. Karthick got an alliance too through his brother-in-law, Murugan. Karthick is an urban guy as he only prefers the best for himself including his future wife. Hence, the fate decides something else, because Karthick is the prospective groom for Sundari whom he thinks this type of girl can never be compatible with him as his life partner. He was already in love with another woman named Anu, but he agreed to marry Sundari because he wanted to please his brother-in-law, Murugan who many years ago married his older sister, Lakshmi to protect her name and her family. So Karthick feels he is indebted to his brother-in-law and wants to please him. But he does lot of things behind his family's back to stop the marriage but fails.

After marriage, Karthick unwillingly brings Sundari with him to Chennai. Karthick always degrades Sundari's qualification and insults her intelligence without knowing the fact that she's school and college topper. He thinks she knows nothing about the world as she comes from rural area. Soon Karthick left Sundari alone in Chennai and goes to Anu and marry her. Few months later, Karthick decides to create one plot to stay with Anu forever without any troubles. So he lied to his whole family that his dream is to earn money working at Dubai. His friend, Krishna and his older sister, Lakshmi know the truth, but they agreed to protect Karthick because of his blackmailing and manipulation.

Sundari also gets attached with her land lady, Janaki and her granddaughter, Nila who lost her parents at a young age looks up to Sundari as her mother. Krishna also get attached to Sundari and lovingly calls her "Thangachiamma" (Little Sister in Tamil). Few months later, Sundari and Anu gets closer after Sundari saves Anu's mother, Malliga (referred to as Malliga Amma) from Asphyxiation after being locked in the car. Anu brings Sundari home as a caretaker for her mother who got paralyzed while finding some hunch about Karthick. Malliga Amma is always suspicious of Karthick and acts sick to find the truth about him and asks Sundari help. Time passes through like this, Anu comes up with job offer for Sundari at her office noticing her intellectual skills and knowledge. Sundari goes to her IAS coaching classes as well and there she meets a new friend named Siddarth but she calls him siddhu. He is like a well wisher for her and a good friend too.

Sundari works for Anu and has become very close with Malliga Amma. She is lovingly called as Collector Amma by her office colleagues and Anu. Karthick does not know that "Collector Amma", who Anu always talks about is actually Sundari. Few months later, Karthick finds about it and creates another plan to separate Sundari and Anu. He also finds that Sundari will be attending a celebration party in Anu's house for their Wedding Anniversary and knows Sundari and Anu will find the truth about him. He plans to take Sundari to Dubai and leave her there alone. Krishna refuses to accept the plan and they both fight. Karthick manipulates and gaslights Sundari that he misses her and makes her agree to come with him to Dubai. He also makes sure she does not leave the house to go to Anu's Anniversary celebration and he goes back to Anu. Sundari is disheartened since her dream to become as IAS Officer is crushed. While Karthick is out buying sweets, Anu faints and the doctor is called. Anu's maid, Sudha calls Sundari and informs her about Anu. Sundari immediately rushes to Anu's house where the doctor reveals that Anu is pregnant and it will be a complicated pregnancy, but Anu kept the baby stating Sundari will take care of her and the baby. Sundari is overjoyed until Karthick arrives home and Anu introduces Karthick to Sundari as her her husband and reveals the pregnancy news to him. Sundari shocked faints and is immediately taken to the hospital by Karthick, after she wakes up he insults her and tries to justify his actions and is clearly convinced he has done no wrong and blames Sundari and leaves her. He informs Anu that Sundari fainted because of dehydration. Sundari completely heartbroken walks back home in rain. Next day, Karthick visits Sundari but this time Sundari raises her voice and shoves him out of the house. She later tells about the situation to Janaki. She also confronts Krishna, whom she thinks as her own older brother. Krishna reveals why he hid the truth but realizes his mistake and immediately stops working with Karthick and decided to be a good brother hereafter.

Janaki Amma becomes Sundari's constant source of support and encouragement. Nila and Janaki makes Sundari eat and also makes her go back to study her IAS courses and go work in Anu's office. Sundari did not expose Karthick to her family, Anu and Malliga Amma because she wanted to protect Anu and the baby from her family's wrath and curse. Murugan finds out that Karthick has "returned" back from Dubai to Chennai and decides to surprise Sundari and Karthick with his wife, daughter, Sundari's mother and grandmother. They reach Chennai only to find Sundari, Karthick, Krishna and Janaki Amma acting very weird.

Cast[]

Main[]

• Gabriella Sellus as Sundari Devi "Sundari" Karthikeyan: A dark-skinned girl who is a bright student. Kalyana Sundaram and Valliamma's daughter, Karthick's first wife and Siddhu's love interest, an aspiring woman to become an IAS officer
• Jishnu Menon as Karthikeyan "Karthick" Shankar: Shankar and Selvi's son, Lakshmi's younger brother, Anu and Sundari's husband. A racist and a pathological liar.
• Shreegopika Neelanath as Anupriya "Anu" Karthikeyan: A fair-skinned girl who is good in studies. Karthick's girlfriend turned second wife, Malliga's adopted daughter. Sundari's MD and a good friend, rich businesswoman. Now she's pregnant.

Recurring[]

• Premi Venkat (Jun.2021- present) as Malliga Devi "Malliga": Anu's adopted mom, a rich businesswoman
  • Niharika Shankar (2021) as Malliga (Replaced by Premi)
• Aravish Kumar as Krishnakanthan "Krishna", Karthick's best friend
• Sangeetha Balan as House owner Janaki a.k.a Jaanu, Sundari's wellwisher
• Nazia as Sudhalakshmi "Sudha", Anu's housemaid
• P. R.Varalakshmi as Gandhimathi: Sundari's paternal grandmother; Valliamma's mother-in-law
• Indumathy Manikandan as Valliamma: Sundari's mother
• Minnal Deepa as Lakshmi: Karthick's elder sister and Murugan's wife
• Manohar Krishna as Murugan: Lakshmi's husband and Karthick's brother-in-law
• Arunkumar Padmanathan as Pazhani: Sundari's arch-rival
• Dev Anand Sharma as Vishwanathan "Vishu": Murugan and Lakshmi's eldest son
• Gayatri Yuvraj as Sangeetha Vishwanathan: Vishu's wife

• Deepthi Rajendran as Malini, Murugan and Lakshmi's daughter; Vishu's younger sister, Sundari's best friend, Karthick's niece
• L. Raja as Sankarapandian "Shankar", Lakshmi and Karthick's father
• Jay Srinivas as Siddharth "Sidhu": Sundari's classmate and a good friend also he had a crush on her
• Lakshmi Vasudevan (2021) → J. Lalitha (Jun.2021- present) as Selvi, Lakshmi and Karthick's mother
• Gracy Thangavel as Viji, Sundari's arch-rival
• Sandhya Jagarlamudi as Radha: Murugan's niece; a police officer
• Tharani Suresh Kumar as Periyanayaki aka Berry
• Krithika Annamalai as Geetha: a Police officer
• Mime Gopi as Kalyana Sundaram: Sundari's father (2021) (Dead)

Casting[]

The series is a family melodrama that airs on Sun TV. Newcomer Gabriella Sellus^[4] was cast in the female lead role of Sundari, who previously appeared in the 2019 film Airaa^[5] and the sixth season of Kalakka Povathu Yaaru? (season 5). Kanmani serial fame Jishnu Menon was cast for the male lead role of Karthik. Indumathy Manikandan, who appeared in the 2018 film Kadaikutty Singam and in the television series Thirumanam, was cast in a supporting role of Sundari's Mother. Minnal Deepa, known for her short, but crucial appearance in the meme Vaama Minnal in the film Maayi, and in the television series Yaaradi Nee Mohini, was cast in a supporting role. While Manohar Krishnan, Aravish, P. R. Varalakshmi and Shreegopika Neelanath were also selected for pivotal roles.

Viewership[]

Reception[]

• Sundari's launch day trp got 10.78 and throughout a week its average trp is 8.09 got 5th position in all over TN. and it got good ratings and consistently maintained its top position since its launch.
• On January 2, 2022, it aired a two-hour nonstop special episode revolve around the truth revealing track named "Kaathirukum Athirchi", got 15 TVR and throughout the week it got 14.8 TVR, occupied the No.1 serial in TN for the first time.

Special episodes and crossovers[]

Specials[]

• On March 31, 2021, it aired its first special episode for two hours named "Sundari-Karthick's Wedding"
• On September 19, 2021, it aired a one-hour special episode revolving around Murugan, Lakshmi, Sundari, Karthick, Anu, Malliga, Krishna were in the same house and in a same situation, that named "Kannamoochi Aattam"
• On January 2, 2022, it aired a two-hour nonstop special episode revolving around the truth revealing track named "Kaathirukum Athirchi"

Crossovers[]

• On July 12, 2021 – Aug 1, 2021, it had a crossover with Vanathai Pola.

Adaptations[]

References[]

External links[]

• Sundari at IMDb