Aaha Kalyanam

Cinephile deep dive

The take

A. Gokul Krishna directs. Loganathan Srinivasan behind the camera. Dharan Kumar scores. Bavan Sreekumar cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in India. Dialogue in Telugu, Tamil.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

• 1Shot for just $1.5M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
• 2Made its money back 4.3× over at the box office.
• 3Released 12 years ago.
• 4Dialogue crosses 2 languages: Telugu, Tamil.
• 5Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.
• 6Directed by A. Gokul Krishna, shot by Loganathan Srinivasan. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
• 7Original score by Dharan Kumar. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
• 8Editor Bavan Sreekumar shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
• 9Nani and Vaani Kapoor and Karthik Nagarajan carry the top of the cast.
• 10IMDB entry: tt2995992 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
• 11Only 11 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

The technical file

Cinematography

Loganathan Srinivasan

Original score

Dharan Kumar

Editing

Bavan Sreekumar

Production design

R C Velu

Sound

Tapas Nayak

Runtime

142 min · 2h 22m

Status

Released

Budget

$1,500,000

Box office

$6,500,000

Return

433% of budget

Original language

TA

Certification (US)

U

IMDB

Aaha Kalyanam (2014) ↗

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

• 

  ▶
  Aaha Kalyanam - Trailer - [Tamil Dubbed] - Nani | Vaani Kapoor

  Trailer
• 

  ▶
  Aaha Kalyanam - Trailer - TELUGU - Nani | Vaani Kapoor

  Trailer

Community reviews

What people are saying

• timesofindia2014-07-07
  ★ 6/10

  "Wedding planning? Will that work out here?" Sakthivel asks Shruthi Subramaniam, as she reveals her business plan. "Why not? Isn't marriage universal?" she shoots back, and for a moment, it feels like this is the sort of conversation that the makers of Aaha Kalyanam would have had before remaking Band Baaja Baaraat. The genre of the film — romance — is universal, and romance is what drives most of our movies to an extent. So, it is not really surprising that this remake works fine. That said, however, like the concept of wedding planning, the film too feels a little alien, and we don't really fall in love with it entirely. The chief reason for this is the casting — Vaani Kapoor hardly looks like a Tamizh ponnu and her lip sync is often amiss that, despite her making it up with her expressions, we do not get attached to the character of Shruthi. Nani is certainly better, though his whiny accent screams Telugu (which the director cheekily acknowledges through a comment from a character) but he manages to compensate for it with wit and roguish charm. The innumerable songs and the overpowering background score (by Dharan), too are Bollywood-ish while the wedding festivities, for all the colour and flair, feel more North Indian. And, yet, for all these flaws, Aaha Kalyanam manages to hold your interest and that is mainly because of Habib Faizal's winning script. Debutant Gokul Krishna sensibly sticks faithfully to the original and lets the inherent drama in the script drive the story. The plot involves the classic romance movie set-up — opposite characters getting attracted to each other — and the wholesome characterization of the leads gives the film some punch. Twenty-year-old Shruthi is, by nature, a planner. She has decided what she wants to take up as a career, has charted how she will go about achieving it and has even decided when she will give it up to marry as per her parents' wishes. Meanwhile, Sakthi is clueless about the future. All he knows is that he doesn't want to take up his family's business — farming. So, he is captivated by Shruthi's idea of turning a wedding planner and tries his best to partner with her. She seems to like his insouciant charm and takes him aboard Getti Melam, her wedding planning company, but is very particular that their financial arrangement shouldn't become a romantic tangle. But, this being a love story, that inevitably happens, when the two, during a night of drunken revelry, end up in bed. The morning after, she is smiling at the development while he is confused about the transgression. After all, hadn't she wanted not to let their friendship get to the next level? He becomes indifferent while she gets resentful and soon, they part ways, setting up their own businesses (and floundering). But when an opportunity comes up their way to get together again, will they take it up and finally express their actual feelings to one another? It is not a spoiler to say that they do (this is a breezy romance after all) but the film manages to reach this point with enough interesting twists that make it worth a dekko.

  Read full review ↓

Production companies

Who made it

• 

  Yash Raj Films

  IN

Key crew

• ProducerAditya Chopra
• Assistant DirectorGanesh Kaarthic
• Associate ProducerAashish Singh
• DialogueRajiv Rajaraman
• Sound DesignerTapas Nayak
• Sound DesignerVijay Rathinam
• Sound MixerRamji Soma
• Production DesignR C Velu
• ChoreographerBrinda Gopal
• EditorBavan Sreekumar
• Playback SingerUsha Uthup

Release history · US

When it landed

• Theatrical2014-02-21U

Also known as

International titles

• Aaha KalyanamIN
• Aha KalyanamIN