Meenakshi Sundareshwar is a 2021 Indian Hindi-language romantic comedy film directed by Vivek Soni, who co-wrote the script with Aarsh Vora and produced by Karan Johar, Apoorva Mehta and Somen Mishra, under the banner Dharmatic Entertainment, the digital arm of Johar’s Dharma Productions. The film stars Sanya Malhotra and Abhimanyu Dassani as the titular characters, a newly-wed couple, who were forced to live apart due to a unique job prospect and struggles with the problems arise from their long-distance marriage.
The film which marked the directorial debut of Soni, was announced on 25 November 2020, with filming beginning on the same day, and was completed within February 2021. The film was shot in places across Karaikudi, Ooty, Mumbai and Bangalore. The film’s cinematography and editing is handled by Debojeet Ray and Prashanth Ramachandran respectively. The music is composed by Justin Prabhakaran with lyrics written by Raj Shekhar.
Sundareshwar is an unemployed B. Tech graduate, who is uninterested in pursuing his father’s saree business, and is determined to work in the Information technology sector. Under pressure from his family, he agrees to go and see a potential wife for him along with his family. Sundar and Meenakshi meet and after getting to know each other, they fall in love. It is revealed here that Sundar and his family came to the wrong house. However, Meenakshi’s Grandfather persuades the families to get Meenakshi and Sundareshwar married as the Hindu gods Meenakshi (Parvathi) and Sundareshwar (Shiva) are married and he believes that this is more than a coincidence. Per the Grandfather’s wishes, Meenakshi and Sundareshwar have an arranged marriage in the Meenakshi Sundareshwar temple. Following his marriage, Sundareshwar receives an internship opportunity in Bangalore, causing him to leave his hometown and his wife Meenakshi. On his first day of Internship, Sundar learns that the company exclusively hires single employees leading him to pretend to be unmarried; hence, Meenakshi can’t move with him. The newlywed couple who barely know each other, struggle with the trials, tribulations, and insecurities of a long-distance relationship. Sundar, worried about Meenakshi’s happiness lies about being lonely and sad which is completely not true. Meenakshi finds out that this is not the case when she decides to surprise Sundar on his birthday only to find him singing and dancing along with his friends. Hurt by this, Meenakshi leaves Sundar’s apartment. The next morning, Sundar’s father and nephew come along with Meenakshi to visit Sundar at his office. During this, Sundar’s father learns that Sundar is a very talented engineer and forgives him for not pursuing their saree business. Sundar thanks Meenakshi as this wouldn’t have happened without her. Meenakshi still heartbroken leaves Bangalore. Sundar sends Meenakshi a video message apologizing and letting her know how much she means to him and how much he misses her, but due to low wifi connection, she is not able to view it. After a few days, Meenakshi’s old classmate Ananthan asks her to be a part of his company by gifting her a saree from her father-in-law’s saree shop. Meenakshi not knowing about the saree accepts and wears the saree the next day causing a miscommunication between her in-laws and herself. Meenakshi feels that she is not respected by Sundar’s family, which leads to her leaving their house. She later speaks to her grandfather about her hardships and her grandfather advises her to meet Sundar and talk with him. Taking the advice from her grandfather, she gives their relationship one more shot. She texts Sundar that she will meet him the next day and Sundar’s colleague messages her back without Sundar’s knowledge. He sends her a message to meet him at the location where Sundar’s app presentation is taking place out of revenge from the first day. Sundar is shocked to see Meenakshi at his presentation as this could risk his job and yells at her. Meenakshi tearfully leaves and Sundar finds out that his colleague was behind all of this and runs to apologize to her, but she was long gone by then. Sundar leaves mid presentation to go see Meenakshi where he finds her at Rajnikanth’s movie premiere of Darbar. Meenakshi forgives Sundar and the movie ends with them embracing each other.
Directed by Vivek Soni
Written by Vivek Soni & Aarsh Vora
Produced by Karan Johar, Apoorva Mehta & Somen Mishra
Starring Sanya Malhotra, Abhimanyu Dassani
Cinematography Debojeet Ray
Edited by Prashanth Ramachandran
Music by Justin Prabhakaran
Production Dharmatic Entertainment
Distributed by Netflix
Release date 5 November 2021
Running time 141 minutes
Country India
Language Tamil
