| Starring | Prabhu Deva, Vijayakanth, Livingston, Meena, Kausalya | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Music By | S. A. Rajkumar | ||
| Lyric By | Na. Muthukumar, Pa. Vijay, Ra. Ravishankar, Viveka | ||
| Singers | S. P. Balasubramanyam, Sujatha Mohan, Arun Mozhi, Hariharan, P. Jayachandran, Chithra, Unni Menon, Anuradha Sriram, Sukhwinder Singh, Mano, Swarnalatha | ||
| Year | 2000 | ||
Vaanathaippola is a 2000 Indian Tamil-language family drama film written and directed by Vikraman. The film features Vijayakanth in dual lead roles as well as Meena, Prabhu Deva, Livingston, Kausalya and Anju Aravind. Produced by Venu Ravichandran under Oscar Films, the film has a score and soundtrack composed by S. A. Rajkumar and cinematography handled by Arthur A. Wilson. The film tells the story of a caring brother who makes sacrifices to ensure his three younger brothers succeed in life.
The film opened to positive reviews and box office success in January 2000, and went on to win the National Film Award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment the following year. Vaanathaipola subsequently went on to become the most commercially successful film in Tamil, running for over 250 days in theatres. Furthermore, the success of the film led to two Tamil Nadu State Film Awards, as well as several remakes in other Indian regional languages such as Telugu, Kannada, Bhojpuri and Bengali. The film was remade in Telugu as Maa Annayya with Rajasekhar in the title role. The Kannada remake was titled Yajamana. The Bhojpuri remake was titled Pariwaar and in Bengali as Snehar Protiban.
The film was remade in Telugu as Maa Annayya with Rajasekhar in the title roles, while a Kannada version Yejamana featured Vishnuvardhan, Radha Bharathi who directed Prashanth's debut film Vaigasi Poranthachu has directed the Kannada version along with Sheshadri. Kannada version was a successful venture at the box office. Telugu version declared as a super hit at the boxoffice. In 2009, Vikraman and Vijayakanth came back together to make another family drama film titled Mariyadhai, though failed to replicate the success of Vaanathaippola.
The soundtrack of the film was composed by S. A. Rajkumar, while lyrics written by Ra. Ravishankar, Pa. Vijay, Viveka and Na. Muthukumar, was well received by the audience. G. Dhananjayan in his book Pride of Tamil Cinema: 1931 to 2013 wrote that the film's success can "also attributed to its superhit songs". The song "Engal Veetil Ella Naalum" is based on "Dil Deewana" from the Hindi film Daag (1999).
