Minnale

Rajesh Shivakumar and Sam are students at an engineering college in Ooty. Sam is a top-performing student who is popular with the students and faculty, while Rajesh, an underperforming student, is notorious for his rebellious, violent and misogynistic attitude. This contrast in personalities puts the two students at loggerheads throughout their college days, with both of them engaging in constant fights and pranks with each other. Upon graduating, Sam and Rajesh decide to never see each other ever again. Sam goes to the United States as he has secured a job while Rajesh decides to stay in India.

Two years later, Rajesh is a software engineering instructor in Chennai and roams around in his free time with his close friend Chockalingam "Chokku". He stays with his grandfather Subbuni, a librarian from the Aminjikarai neighbourhood of Chennai. Rajesh's affection for his grandfather is such that he even refuses to accept an on-site opportunity in Singapore so that he can be with him. While on a trip to Bangalore, he comes across a young woman dancing with children in the rain and gets immediately smitten by her when he sees her face lit by the flash of a lightning bolt. He comes across this woman again during a friend's wedding and soon learns that the woman's name is Reena Joseph and she works as a chartered accountant at Ford, Bangalore. Some days later, Rajesh, who is back in Chennai, notices Reena again, this time exiting a Ford office cab. He and Chokku pursue Reena but lose track of her in a mall.

Rajesh and Chokku meet Reena's best friend Vasuki at a market and enquire about Reena. Vasuki informs them that Reena has been transferred to Chennai, however, when she realises that Rajesh is in love with Reena, she angrily says that Reena has already been engaged to an Indian American software engineer from Seattle named Rajiv Samuel, who happens to be her childhood friend, hence it would be futile to pursue her. Rajesh is upset at this development; however, on learning that Reena has never seen Rajiv since her childhood, and on the goading and encouragement of Subbuni and Chokku, decides to pursue Reena. He comes to her house impersonating Rajiv. Reena is smitten by Rajesh and within a few days, she reciprocates Rajesh's love. Rajesh decides to reveal his true identity to her, but before he can, the real Rajiv arrives in Chennai. When Reena realises that the "Rajiv" she loves is an impostor, she breaks up with him and warns him never to come near her again.

Rajesh, Chokku, and their friends decide to meet Rajiv to somehow convince him to break his engagement with Reena. To Rajesh's shock, he finds out that Rajiv is his old nemesis, Sam. Enraged that Rajesh cheated Reena, Sam refuses to break up their engagement. Rajesh also tries to seek Reena's forgiveness, to no avail, and stalks her while she is on a date with Sam at a restaurant. Sam notices this and both he and Rajesh engage in a brawl which is stopped by Reena, who again warns Rajesh never to come near her. Sam even threatens to kill Rajesh if he sees him at the same place as Reena ever again. Enraged, Rajesh, Chokku, and their friends decide to beat up Sam in a parking lot, but Rajesh quickly backs out at the last minute, accepting the bitter truth that Sam and Reena are going to get married as well as realising that resorting to violence against Rajiv will not help him win Reena.

Rajesh decides to accept the on-site opportunity in Singapore which he had earlier rejected, to move on from Reena. Meanwhile, Reena realises that she has fallen in love with Rajesh, despite having been cheated on by him. On the wedding day, Sam realises the love Reena has for Rajesh. He immediately cancels the wedding and takes Reena to the airport, where Rajesh is awaiting his flight to Singapore. Sam tells Rajesh that despite their enmity, he is unwilling to marry a girl who does not love him. He tells him to take good care of Reena and leaves, intending to never meet Rajesh again. Rajesh and Reena are reunited.

Gautham Vasudev Menon launched a Tamil romantic film titled, O Lala in 2000 with the project eventually changing producers and title into Minnale with Madhavan, who was at the beginning of his career, being signed on to portray the lead role.^[1] About the making of the film, Menon revealed that he found it difficult as the team was new to the industry with only the editor, Suresh Urs, being a prominent technician in the industry.^[2] Menon had come under further pressure when Madhavan had insisted that Menon narrated the story to his mentor, Mani Ratnam, to identify if the film was a positive career move after the success of his Alai Payuthey. Despite initial reservations, Menon did so and Ratnam was unimpressed; however Menon has cited that he thought that Madhavan "felt sorry" and later agreed to continue with the project.^[2] Miss World 1999, Yukta Mookhey was considered to play the film's heroine during July 2000, as was Isha Koppikar, but eventually they were left out and Reema Sen, who appeared in her first Tamil film, was cast.^[3][4] Minnale also saw Madhavan collaborating with Abbas for second time after Kannada film Shanti Shanti Shanti.^[5] Post-release, Abbas felt that his role had been reduced and accused Madhavan of playing a role in editing his sequences out from the film.^[6]

The music and background score were composed by Harris Jayaraj, previously a keyboard player under other composers, in his debut at composing. The audio cassette of the film was released in Chennai at a function in January 2001, where the songs were also screened.^[7]

Minnale was released on 2 February 2001.^[8][9] Upon release it went on to become a major commercial success. Madhavan became extremely popular among the youth after the release of Alai Payuthey, but had a setback as his next film Ennavalle underperformed. Minnale made him once again popular among the youth.^[10] Savitha Padmanabhan of The Hindu claimed that the film had a "lot of verve and vigour" and that it was "sure to go down well" with the "yuppie, college-going youngsters".^[11] A reviewer, Shilpa Kannan from Zee Next, also gave the film a positive review, writing "the entire movie is given an advertisement like treatment by the director. It is glossy, stylish, youthful and trendy".^[12] Visual Dasan of Kalki rated the film "above average".^[13] Harris Jayaraj won the Filmfare Award for Best Music Director – Tamil,^[14] the film's only nomination at the 49th Filmfare Awards South.^[15] Jayaraj broke A. R. Rahman’s 9 year long Filmfare winning streak.^[16]

Minnale was dubbed into Telugu under the name Cheli and also performed well at the box office, owing to Madhavan's popularity in Andhra Pradesh.^[5] The film was remade by Menon in Hindi the same year as Rehnaa Hai Terre Dil Mein, with Madhavan reprising his role. The Hindi version became an above average grosser at the box office, but belatedly gained popularity and subsequently developed a cult following amongst young audiences.^[17] The film was also remade in Kannada as Mr. Duplicate (2011).^[18]