Ananda Thandavam (Eng: Happy Dance) is a 2009 Tamil-language romantic drama film, which was an adaptation of the Sujatha Rangarajan serialized novel Pirivom Santhippom, directed by A.R. Gandhi Krishna and produced by Oscar V. Ravichandran of Aascar Films. The characters Raghu (Siddharth Venugopal) and Madhu (Tamanna Bhatia): their love story captured so many hearts that Sujatha, who had initially finished the first novel, started the second part due to high demand from readers. Ananda Thandavam was released on 10 April 2009.
Ananda Thandavam deals with the life of Raghupathi (Siddharth Venugopal), whose mother died in childbirth. He grows up with plenty of affection from his father (Kitty) and grows into a quiet, sensible, serious person. His father is the deputy-chief dam engineer in the Ambasamudiram dam, Tirunelveli, while Raghu is a mechanical engineer. He is frustrated because he is unemployed. One day, after returning after an interview in Pune, he meets Madhumitha (Tamannaah). She plays childish pranks and brings energy into his life. Madhu is the elder daughter of the dam’s new chief engineer and his arrogant wife, who want a very comfortable life for the family.
Her parents also bring joy in Raghu’s life as they accept who he is, and eventually, he finds employment in Pune. He suddenly gets engaged to Madhu, even without pre-informing his father. Raghu leaves for Pune. When he returns a month later, trouble comes in the form of Radha Krishnan (Rishi), a spoilt NRI US businessman. Madhu, being immature herself, agrees with her parents’ opinion and decides to marry Radha. The reason given by Madhu’s family is that Raghu’s father has an illicit relationship with their maid Jayanthi. Raghu, heartbroken, attempts to commit suicide by jumping down a waterfall. He survives it with major temporary injuries. His father berates him and says that Jayanthi’s mom breast-fed him, and she is like his own daughter. Also, Madhu had visited him and had already left to the US with Radha. Six months later, with further encouragement from his father and friends, Raghu leaves for the US to get his MBA at NYU. He has to stay in the mansion of Mohanram (Rama Natarajan), his father’s friend. Mohan is a divorcee and rich share-trader.
Raghu meets Mohan’s niece Ratnakumari (Rukmini Vijayakumar) at the airport, and she drops him home. Ratna, though being brought up in USA since the age of seven, wants to marry an Indian and return to India. She is extremely intelligent, beautiful, social, and cultured. Raghu starts his MBA course and befriends another Tamil guy named Natraj. At the end of the day, Raghu’s benchmate, a Korean, kills his ex-girlfriend and himself before Raghu’s eyes. Then, a mob tries to mug him, and Ratna saves him. Raghu then asks Mohan to put him back on the next flight home. Mohan says that he cut his own leg to escape from the Twin Towers on 9/11. His company fired him with a compensation, and that was taken away by his wife as divorse compensation. Still, he did online share trading and has earned around 30 million dollars in 10 years. He shows his hidden prosthetic leg and then drinks too much. This motivates Raghu to stay in New York.
One day, Raghu sees Madhu in a Tamil association function. Madhu gifts Raghu with an iPhone 4. Also, both go on a trio-trip to Atlantic city after Radha cancels on the last minute. Raghu is shocked to find that Radha has been cheating on Madhu. He resolves to tell her the truth, but Madhu is blinded against Radha’s faults because of respect for him. She accuses him of still having feelings for her, insulting him, causing another argument between them. As time progresses, Madhu discovers that her husband has been cheating on her. But Raghu and Ratna become close and their families decide to get them engaged. One day, Madhu escapes from Radha and goes to meet Raghu. Unfortunately, Raghu gets engaged to Ratna the very same day. Unable to bear any more sadness, Madhu ends up cutting her veins and begging Raghu to take her back. Ratna is disgusted and complains to her family. They come and take Raghu away, leaving Madhu devastated, drunk, and bleeding through her veins. Madhu then kills herself through careless driving.
At the airport, everyone is gathered, and Madhu’s parents are collecting the coffin with Madhu’s body. Radha tries to lie to Madhu’s parents that he was perfect to her in every way and cannot understand why this happened. Raghu, who had also come to see Madhu’s body, arrives. He gets enraged and charges at Radha with a revolver, but finds out it is locked. He is later soothed by Ratna as she tells him that she loves his relationship commitment more than him.
Directed by A.R.Gandhi Krishna
Produced by Viswanathan Ravichandran
Written by A.R.Gandhi Krishna & Sujatha Rangarajan
Starring Siddharth Venugopal, Tamannaah, Rukmini Vijayakumar, Rishi
Music by G. V. Prakash Kumar
Cinematography Jeeva Shankar
Edited by V. T. Vijayan
Distributed by Aascar Film Pvt. Ltd
Release date 10 April 2009
Country India
Language Tamil
Visitor Rating: 4 Stars
Visitor Rating: 3 Stars