Engirundho Vandhan

Not to be confused with Engirundho Vandhaal.

Engirundho Vandhan (transl. He came from nowhere) is a 1995 Indian Tamil-language comedy film directed by Santhana Bharathi. The film stars Sathyaraj, Roja and Aamani, with Vijayakumar, Janagaraj, Kalyan Kumar, Vinu Chakravarthy, R. Sundarrajan, Bhanu Chander and Thyagu playing supporting roles. It was released on 15 January 1995. The composer duo Viswanathan–Ramamoorthy collaborated after a 30-year hiatus and it eventually became their last collaboration. The film was a remake of the Malayalam film Chithram (1988).^[1][2]

Engirundho Vandhan
Poster
Directed by	Santhana Bharathi
Written by	Crazy Mohan (dialogue)
Screenplay by	Santhana Bharathi
Story by	Priyadarshan
Produced by	V. Sundaran
Starring	Sathyaraj Roja Aamani
Cinematography	M. S. Prabhu
Edited by	N. P. Sathish
Music by	Viswanathan–Ramamoorthy
Production company	VSR Pictures
Release date	15 January 1995 (1995-01-15)
Running time	130 minutes
Country	India
Language	Tamil

Plot

Radha (Roja) is the daughter of the wealthy NRI Viswanathan (Kalyan Kumar) who resides in the United States. Radha is brought up in Chennai by her father's friend Manikandan (Janagaraj) and is in love with another man Gautham (Bhanu Chander). Her father finds a groom in the US for her and wants his daughter to marry him, but Radha decides to marry her lover Gautham against the wishes of her father. Manikandan supports her will and helps them get married. When her boyfriend finds out that she will be disinherited, he ditches her at the marriage registrar office.

Shortly after her father decides to retract his disapproval and to spend a fortnight's vacation with his daughter and his new son-in-law in his estate near a tribal community where Sundaram (R. Sundarrajan) is the chief. Because her father is already ill and because this may be his last vacation, Radha and Manikandan want to make it as happy for him as possible. They decide to conceal the fact that her boyfriend dumped her.

Manikandan hires the small-time crook Kannan (Sathyaraj) to play the part of the husband for a fortnight. What transpires next forms the rest of the story.

Cast

• Sathyaraj as Kannan
• Roja as Radha
• Aamani as Janaki
• Vijayakumar as Police Commissioner
• Janagaraj as Manikandan
• Kalyan Kumar as Viswanathan
• Vinu Chakravarthy as Tribal Chief
• R. Sundarrajan as Sundaram
• Bhanu Chander as Gautham
• Thyagu as Sundaram's son
• R. S. Shivaji
• Kambar Jayaraman as Pandian, Janaki's father
• Kavithalaya Krishnan as Shiva
• S. V. Shanmugam
• Mohan Raman
• Bharani as Sundaram's daughter
• C. R. Saraswathi as Meenakshi, Sundaram's wife
• Ponvannan in a guest appearance

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was composed by the duo Viswanathan–Ramamoorthy. They collaborated after 30 years (last being Aayirathil Oruvan in 1965) and it eventually became their last collaboration.^[3] The lyrics were written by Vaali.^[4]

Song	Singer(s)	Duration
"Nilave Vaa"	S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, K. S. Chithra	4:46
"Nandhavana"	S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, K. S. Chithra	5:25
"Oru Kootil"	S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, K. S. Chithra	5:28
"Andha Sriraman"	Mano, Swarnalatha	5:09
"Engirundho Vandhan"	S. P. Balasubrahmanyam	8:21
"Mounam Enbadhu"	S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, S. Janaki	4:56

Reception

Thulasi of Kalki praised the film for having a natural, poignant ending and also noted the elegance with which the foundation was built from the beginning to the last-minute tragedy was awe-inspiring but felt there should have been more depth with the way flashback was setup and called few songs as speed breakers. She however concluded that director Santhana Bharathi has broken the argument of succeeding only with Kamal Haasan and called it a complete film.^[5] The film failed at the box office.^[6]