Love Birds (1996 film)

Love Birds is a 1996 Indian Tamil-language romance film directed by P. Vasu. The film features Prabhu Deva and Nagma in the lead roles with Raja, Vadivelu and Sarath Babu playing other pivotal roles. The film's score and soundtrack composed by A. R. Rahman was highly successful. The film was released on 15 January 1996 and had an average performance commercially.[1] The film is a remake of the 1986 Kannada film Ratha Sapthami for which P. Vasu was the co-screenplay writer.[2][3]

Love Birds
Release poster
Directed byP. Vasu
Produced byPyramid Natarajan
Written byP. Vasu
Starring
Music byA. R. Rahman
CinematographyM. C. Sekar
Edited byP. Mohanraj
Production
company
Pyramid Films
Release date
  • 15 January 1996 (1996-01-15)
Running time
160 minutes
CountryIndia
LanguageTamil

Plot

After accidentally meeting, Mridula (Nagma) and Arun (Prabhu Deva) fall in love. The young couple both come from affluent families, and so, to test whether they will be suited for a long term relationship, they both decide to live together. However, a few months into their relationship, Arun and Mridula get in an accident and Arun dies. A devastated Mridula is unable to get over his absence, and before long starts seeing Arun in strange visions everywhere she goes. Her family eventually decide that relocating to another country might help Mridula move on, and so they send her to the UK. Once she arrives there, she meets Mano (Raja), a young man attracted to her. She knows that her parents expect her to fall for Mano. But as she can't move on, she runs away. She meets David who looks exactly like Arun. She follows him and finds out where he lives and works. Whenever she tries to talk to him, he denies his relationship with her and says he doesn't know her. However, she later finds out that her father had Arun sent away as he had helped with Arun's sister's marriage and had threatened to let it all go downhill for her. Arun moves to the UK in hopes that he can forget about Mridula but he can't and when he meets her, he realises this. When Mridula's father finds out Arun is still alive, he tries to kill him. However, he realises his mistake and lets the lovebirds reunite.

Cast

Production

Prabhu Deva was signed to work on the film after working in Shankar's 1994 blockbuster Kaadhalan, and his pair from that film, Nagma, was also roped in again. British Indian musician Apache Indian was also roped in to sing and dance for a music video in the film.[4]

The film was predominantly shot across London, with scenes also canned at Buckingham Palace and at a Hilton Hotel. The producers had earlier location scouted in the city and took music director, A. R. Rahman along to get a feel of the city.[5]

Soundtrack
Love Birds
Soundtrack album by
A. R. Rahman
Released1996
RecordedPanchathan Record Inn
GenreSoundtrack
LabelPyramid
Aditya Music
ProducerA.R. Rahman
A. R. Rahman chronology
Muthu
(1995)		 Love Birds
(1996)		 Indian
(1996)

The soundtrack features 5 songs composed by A. R. Rahman, his only collaboration with P. Vasu till date with lyrics by Vairamuthu for the original Tamil version, by Sirivennela Sitaramasastri for the Telugu version and by P. K. Mishra and Mehboob for the Hindi version. The album was widely appreciated by critics.[6] The highlight of the album was the disco song No Problem.

Tamil

All lyrics are written by Vairamuthu.

No.TitleSinger(s)Length
1."Come On Come On"Mano5:20
2."Malargaley"K. S. Chithra, Hariharan7:15
3."Naalai Ulagam"Unnikrishnan, Sujatha Mohan7:27
4."No Problem"Apache Indian, A. R. Rahman6:13
5."Samba Samba"Aslam Mustafa5:28

Hindi

All lyrics are written by P.K. Mishra, Mehboob.

No.TitleSinger(s)Length
1."Come On Come On"Udit Narayan5:20
2."Milgaye Milgaye"K. S. Chithra, Hariharan7:15
3."Na Ho Kal Jab"S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, Sujatha Mohan7:27
4."No Problem"Apache Indian, A. R. Rahman6:13
5."Samba Samba"Aslam Mustafa5:28

Telugu

All lyrics are written by Sirivennela Seetharama Sastry.

No.TitleSinger(s)Length
1."Come On Come On"Mano5:20
2."Manasuga Manasuga"K. S. Chitra, Hariharan7:15
3."Repe Lokam"Unnikrishnan, Sujatha Mohan7:27
4."No Problem"Apache Indian, A. R. Rahman6:13
5."Samba Samba"Aslam Mustafa5:28

Release

The film opened in January 1996. The film opened days earlier in Malaysia than India and was shown across 27 theaters in the country, a figure only usually exceeded for Tamil films starring Rajinikanth, and this mirrors the large release the film received.[5] Vijayan of The New Straits Times gave a positive review saying, "This movie seems made for courting couples, especially those who are facing problems with disapproving parents" and added that "strong dialogue makes the film rise slight above the ordinary".[5]

Love Birds however became an average grosser at the box office but was a little better than Prabhudeva's next, Mr. Romeo. The actor thus had to go through a slump in his film career.[7] The film was later dubbed and released in Telugu and Hindi under the same title.

References
  1. http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.tamil/browse_thread/thread/2971605fe3027b02/eca6457f1e03db88%3Fq%3D%2522%2BKuberan%2522%23eca6457f1e03db88&ei=iGwTS6eaOpW8Qpmqic0O&sa=t&ct=res&cd=36&source=groups&usg=AFQjCNGJGQkGcN5wVAZMfMwKQ5FMgvk0Ww%5B%5D
  2. https://medium.com/@bollywoodbeatles/did-you-know-kaho-naa-pyaar-hai-is-inspired-by-the-kannada-blockbuster-ratha-sapthami-1986-eeb7bff168c
  3. http://www.indiaglitz.com/shivalinga-mounts-kannada-news-121138.html
  4. http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Apache--s-comeback/886151/
  5. Vijiyan, K. (6 February 1996). "A twist to the typical love story". New Straits Times. Archived from the original on 11 September 2016. Retrieved 11 September 2016.
  6. http://www.planetbollywood.com/music/lovebird.html
  7. https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=svxOAAAAIBAJ&sjid=PRUEAAAAIBAJ&pg=4889,5608258&dq=mr+romeo+prabhu+deva&hl=en
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.