Gautham Menon is celebrating his 48th birthday today. This year is also special because it marks the completion of his 20 years of journey in the film industry. He made his debut as a director with the romantic film Minnale, which released on February 2, 2001. And it won’t be an exaggeration to say that he has since redefined the way urban love stories are made in Tamil cinema.
Looking back, Minnale was not a path-breaking film in the romantic genre. But, the film infused the stale genre with a lot of freshness and energy. It was composer Harris Jayaraj’s first film and he knocked the ball out of the park. Even two decades later, Vaseegara hasn’t lost its sheen. It still puts you in a trance. The film was filled with good looking people: Madhavan, Abbas and Reema. And Vivek’s clean humour was just the icing on the cake. The film also softly but firmly announced the arrival of a filmmaker with a great visual, musical and aesthetic sense. And at times Gautham may have disappointed as a writer, but he never let his audience down when it came to delivering a visually appealing film, elevated further by an amazing soundtrack.