Time (1999 film)

Time is a 1999 Indian Tamil-language romantic drama film directed by Geetha Krishna. The film stars Prabhu Deva, Simran and Radhika Chaudhari. It was released on 3 December 1999.^[1]

Time
Poster
Directed by	Geetha Krishna
Written by	Geetha Krishna Gokula Krishnan (dialogues)
Produced by	Vaddi Veerabadhra Rao
Starring	Prabhu Deva Simran Radhika Chaudhari
Cinematography	M. V. Panneerselvam
Edited by	Suresh Urs
Music by	Ilaiyaraaja
Release date	3 December 1999 (1999-12-03)
Country	India
Language	Tamil

Plot

Cast

• Prabhu Deva as Srinivasa Murthy
• Simran as Thulasi
• Radhika Chaudhari as Priya
• Babloo Prithiveeraj as Dhilip
• Charle as Chittappa, Srinivasa Murthy's friend
• Manivannan as Appasamy
• Nassar as Govindarajan, Thulasi's father
• Moulee as Natarajan
• Devan as Seetharaman, Dhilip's father
• Bobby Poonia as David
• Pandu as Priya's father
• Vaiyapuri as Servant
• Thadi Balaji as Srinivasa Murthy's friend
• Ambika as Srinivasa Murthy's mother
• Kovai Sarala as Natarajan's wife
• Sabitha Anand as Dhilip's mother
• Chandra Mohan as Car driver
• J. V. Ramana Murthi as Shop owner
• Raviraj as Govindarajan's friend
• Kallu Chidambaram as Postman
• Sharmili as Priya's mother
• Radhabhai as Dhilip's grandmother
• Bhanusri as Servant
• Lekhasri
• Manga Reddy as Lakshmi, Thulasi's mother
• Dubbing Janaki as Chittappa's mother
• Baby Jennifer as Priya's sister
• Master Bharathkumar as Thulasi's brother
• Sahadevan as Postman
• Mahadevan as Postman
• Harikumar as Srinivasa Murthy's friend
• Gopi as Srinivasa Murthy's friend
• Johnny as Srinivasa Murthy's friend
• Ajay as Srinivasa Murthy's friend
• Krishna as Srinivasa Murthy's friend
• Anandaraj as Local don (guest appearance)

Production

The film marked the directorial debut of Geetha Krishna in Tamil, and began as a quadrilingual venture in Tamil, Hindi, Telugu and Malayalam. Prashanth was initially announced as the hero in the film as early as November 1997 when the film's launch took place. Prashanth started working for the film in Kodaikanal during October 1998 but later backed out, while Ajith Kumar also refused the film due to lack of time. After several delays, Prabhu Deva was subsequently selected to play the lead role and the film was shot only in Tamil.^[2][3] Two debutant actresses were announced to portray the lead female roles, Menaka Senail and Radhika Chaudhari, though the former was later replaced by Simran. Model Bobbu Poonai made his acting debut as the antagonist. Filming mainly took place in and around Annavaram, Vishakhapatnam and Srikakulam in Andhra Pradesh, while minority of scenes were shot in and around Alappuzha and Pathanamthitta in Kerala.^[4]

Music

The songs were composed by Ilaiyaraaja and lyrics were written by Palani Bharathi.^[5] To compose the songs, Ilaiyaraaja and Geetha Krishna went on a recce to Maldives and had longlisted thirty songs for the film, before picking six.^[6][7] For the Telugu version, the lyrics were written by Veturi and Vanamali.^[8] The song "Kadhal Neethana" later used as a background score in the 2022 film Love Today.^[9]

Song	Singers	Length
"Kadhal Neethana"	Unni Krishnan, Sujatha	05:01
"Muthu Nilave"	Karthik Raja, Gopika Poornima	05:50
"Naan Thanga Roja"	Swarnalatha, S. P. Balasubrahmanyam	05:10
"Ninachapadi"	Unni Menon, Devan, Malgudi Subha	05:42
"Niram Pirithu"	Sujatha	05:16
"Thavikkiren Thavikkiren"	Bhavatharini, Hariharan	05:11

Reception

Malathi Rangarajan of The Hindu wrote, "Two aspects of Time stand out – Ilaiyaraja's re-recording and M. V. Paneer's camera work. As for the rest, there isn't much to be said".^[10] K. N. Vijiyan of New Straits Times wrote the film has shades of Kadhal Kottai (1996), but "the story gets a little muddled in the end".^[11] Chennai Online wrote "The locales are exotic, the frames beautiful and the costume colourful. But what the film lacks is cohesive narration".^[12] Regarding the Telugu version, Grdiddaluru Gopalrao of Zamin Ryot wrote that this is not a typical love story and also praised the music and cinematography.^[8]