Coimbatore Mappillai is a 1996 Indian Tamil-language romantic comedy film directed by C. Ranganathan. It stars Vijay and Sanghavi. The film's score and music was composed by Vidyasagar. It was released on 15 January 1996 during Pongal. The film ended as a blockbuster at the box office as it released on Pongal festival, marking Vijay's favourable success streak with his other film releases on Pongal day. It is regarded as the first commercial blockbuster film in Vijay's career.

Plot

Balu comes to Chennai from Coimbatore and stays with his friend Gopal, who claims he has a job. Actually, he is also unemployed. Both of them are tenants of a girl named Sumithra. First, Balu and Sumithra get into fights, but then their arguments and fights turn into love. Meanwhile, Sumithra's cousin Mahesh is also in love with her. One day, Balu witnesses a thief stealing a necklace, and when he tries to catch him, the thief inserts the necklace in Balu's pocket, and Balu is blamed for stealing it. Sumithra starts hating Balu. Taking advantage of this situation, Mahesh creates a rift between them by hiring goons to attack them, and he blames Balu for that too. Balu explains his sad story to her grandmother Paattiamma that he lost his mother when he was young and could not endure the torture of his stepmother, so he escaped from home. Paatiamma believes him, but Mahesh takes revenge by setting up wires and making her paralysed. In the hospital, Sumithra overhears Mahesh and his father wanting to kill her to steal their colony. Balu pays the medical bills and attempts to commit suicide, but Sumithra saves him. Mahesh, who tried to kill him, is killed in a stampede. The film ends with Balu and Sumithra living happily.

Cast

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was composed by Vidyasagar. Bollywood playback singer Sadhana Sargam recorded her first Tamil song for this film.

Reception

D. S. Ramanujam of The Hindu wrote "Director C. Ranganathan, with some minor hiccups here and there the Mahabalipuram sequence is one among them sets a brisk pace for the proceedings, his screenplay coming good in portions where the young villain makes his moves to win the confidence of the heroine and her grandmother."

In popular culture

The film's villain background music suddenly went viral in 2018 due to the word "Shroovv". In one of the scenes where Vijay's character talks to his grandmother about Karan's character, and the latter's appearance is seen along with the background music "Shroovv", thus earned him the title "Shroov star".