Nilaave Vaa

Nilaave Vaa (transl. Oh moon, come to me) is a 1998 Indian Tamil-language romantic drama film directed by A. Venkatesh and produced by K. T. Kunjumon. The film stars Vijay and Suvalakshmi, while Sanghavi, Raghuvaran and Manivannan play other supporting roles. The film was released on 14 August 1998 and was a decent hit at the box office.^[1]

Nilaave Vaa
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	A. Venkatesh
Written by	A. Venkatesh
Produced by	Shoba Chandrasekhar K. T. Kunjumon
Starring	Vijay Suvalakshmi
Cinematography	R Selva
Edited by	B S Vasu-Saleem
Music by	Vidyasagar
Production company	V J Film
Distributed by	Gentleman Film International
Release date	14 August 1998 (1998-08-14)
Running time	144 minutes
Country	India
Language	Tamil

Plot

Siluvai is the son of Cruz. They are Tamil Christians living in a fishing village in Kanyakumari District. In another town, Perumaal is the father to Sangeetha and Gauri. Sangeetha comes to the small fishing village and Siva is proposed (and later engaged) to marry her. However, Gauri falls in love with Siva's friend, and after hearing that Perumal does not want to accept the Hindu-Christian marriage, she decides to elope with her lover. This leads to the break-up of Sangeetha and Siluvai's love affair. However, Siva, upon hearing Siluvai's story, gives a great speech to the villagers and unites Siluvai and Sangeetha.

Cast

• Vijay as Siluvai
• Suvalakshmi as Sangeetha
• Sanghavi as Filomina
• Jai Ganesh as Perumaal
• Vinu Chakravarthy as Cruz, Siluvai's father
• Raghuvaran as Siva
• Manivannan as Dubai
• Charle as Kilipas
• Sanjeev as Baasha
• Sriman as Laasar
• Latha as Sangeetha's sister
• Thadi Balaji as Kicha
• Alphonsa in a special appearance
• Jaguar Thangam in a special appearance
• A. Venkatesh in a special appearance

Production

The film was jointly produced on Vijay's home banner and K. T. Kunjumon who was still reeling under the failure of Ratchagan (1997). Initially Rakshana was signed on as heroine but was subsequently replaced by Suvalakshmi. Mansoor Ali Khan had signed to be the villain in Nilaave Vaa, but the actor later returned the advance of ₹50,000 and took back his 40 days of call sheets, with Anandaraj consequently replacing him.^[2]

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was composed by Vidyasagar.^[3] The lyrics were written by Vairamuthu.^[4]

Track listing

No.	Title	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"Akkuthe Akkuthe"	Vidyasagar, S. N. Surendar, Gopal Rao	4:37
2.	"Chandira Mandalathai"	Vijay, Harini, S. P. B. Charan	4:43
3.	"Kadalamma Kadalamma"	P. Jayachandran, Vidyasagar, Sujatha	5:06
4.	"Nilave Nilave"	Vijay, Anuradha Sriram	5:30
5.	"Nee Kaatru Naan Maram" (solo)	Hariharan	5:10
6.	"Nee Kaatru Naan Maram"	Hariharan, K. S. Chitra	5:10
7.	"Onnum Onnum"	Arunmozhi, Swarnalatha	3:49
Total length:			34:08

Reception

Ananda Vikatan gave the film a score of 37 out of 100.^[5] D. S. Ramanujam of The Hindu wrote, "A love story cut out to suit the energetic talent of [Vijay], with the expected twists and turns, has been made worthwhile by the situations fashioned by director Venkatesan in V. J. Films' Nilaave Vaa". He also appreciated the cinematography.^[6] Two years after release, the producers were given a ₹5 lakh (equivalent to ₹21 lakh or US$24,000 in 2023) subsidy by the Tamil Nadu government along with several other films.^[7]