Karthik (Naga Chaitanya) is a mechanical engineering graduate who dreams of becoming a filmmaker. His family rents the ground floor of a two-story house in Alappuzha, owned by a conservative Syrian Catholic family who lives upstairs. Jessie (Samantha Ruth Prabhu), the landlord’s daughter, is two years older than Karthik and has a brother named Jerry (Sudheer Babu). When Karthik meets Jessie for the first time, he instantly falls in love with her. However, when he confesses his love, Jessie, who is afraid to even speak to men due to her strict father, becomes angry with him.
Later, Jessie goes to Alappuzha to visit her grandparents. Upon learning this from his sister, Karthik decides to follow her, accompanied by his friend Krishna. In Alappuzha, he introduces himself to Jessie's family as her classmate and tells Jessie that they can just be friends. When Jessie mentions that she will be returning to Hyderabad alone, Karthik decides to transform their friendship into love during the train journey. On the train, he kisses her, but she slaps him in response. Despite this, they continue to meet, and Jessie begins to admit her feelings for Karthik. However, she hesitates to pursue the relationship, knowing that her father will never approve of a Hindu marrying his daughter. Jerry eventually discovers their feelings for each other, leading to a confrontation where Karthik, who is revealed to be a part-time boxer, defeats Jerry and his friends. This fight exposes their affair to Jessie's parents, who arrange her marriage to Roy Thomas (Surya).
At the wedding, Jessie refuses to marry Roy, angering her family. Despite this, Karthik and Jessie continue to love each other secretly. One day, Jessie's father forces her to marry someone else, and she seeks Karthik's help. However, he is busy with a film shoot in Goa and is unable to attend to her calls and messages. After a tense phone call from Jessie, Karthik goes back one night to check on her. Feeling hurt and abandoned, Jessie makes a final decision to break up with Karthik, citing her father's strong disapproval of their relationship.
Later, Karthik learns that Jessie got married and moved abroad. Two years pass, and Karthik meets Nandini, who falls in love with him. However, he rejects her, explaining that he is unable to move on from Jessie. He channels his pain into writing a script for his first film, which is based on his own love story. He casts Silambarasan as the protagonist and Trisha as the female lead, and the film is titled Jessie. Three years later, Karthik sees Jessie in the U.S. and assumes she is married. However, Jessie reveals that she refused to marry anyone her parents chose because they had rejected Karthik. Angered by her decision, her parents cut ties with her. Finally, Karthik and Jessie get married, holding ceremonies in both a Hindu temple and a church. The film ends with the couple watching Jessie in a theater.
After the announcement of Gautham Menon's Tamil project with the working title, Jessy, Manjula Ghattamaneni (Mahesh Babu's sister) approached Gautham Menon to do a Telugu version of the same, with Mahesh Babu in the lead. Gautham, who was initially hesitant to do another version, later agreed to Manjula's proposal and forwarded the script to Mahesh Babu although he felt that it "is not Mahesh kind of film".[8][9] Mahesh Babu could not allocate dates for the film and was later replaced by Naga Chaitanya.[10][11] Newcomer Samantha, who had starred in three unreleased Tamil films, makes her debut with this film.[11] Menon scheduled the shoots of many portions simultaneously.[11] The Tamil version had a different cast and ending.[11] Menon started writing the film as a simple love story which slowly became an intense love story, as the scripting phase progressed. Stating that the film would narrate the romantic tale of two people called Karthik and Jessie over a period of almost three years, he revealed that the film would be "conversation driven" and hoped "everybody will identify with the lead pair".[12]
The film was shot in Chennai, Alappuzha, Goa and Hyderabad.[11] The climax was shot at Central Park.[13] Shooting continued through the latter part of 2009, with the film garnering significant media interest, with schedules in the United States, with Princeton University being used as a backdrop for song picturisation.[14]
A. R. Rahman composed the soundtrack and background score of the film. Ye Maaya Chesave / Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya, marked the beginning of a collaboration between Rahman and Gautham Menon. The album consists of seven tracks, with Telugu lyrics penned by Anantha Sreeram.[16] Rahman's compositions for the Tamil version were retained, without any change, in the Telugu version.[10]
Rahman won his first Filmfare Award in Telugu for this album.[17] Rahman reused the same tunes for the Hindi remake of the film (Ekk Deewana Tha), also directed by Gautham Menon.[18]
Reception
A critic from Rediff.com wrote that "this feel-good film is a must watch especially for those fond of love stories".[19] A critic from The Times of India wrote that "More than the familiar plot of boy-meets-the-girl, director Gautam Menon tactfully works around the initial hiccups, scepticism and charming trepidation of first love".[20] Jeevi of Idlebrain.com wrote that "This film has all the ingredients for a movie to remain as a timeless classic".[15]
The scene where Jessie addresses Karthik as her brother is parodied in the film Sudigadu (2012).[24] The title of the film inspired a similarly named film Ye Mantram Vesave (2018) starring Vijay Deverakonda.[25] A film titled Kundanapu Bomma, based on the song from this film, released in 2016.[26] The sequence when Karthik (Naga Chaitanya) leans on the gate when he is in love with Jessie in the song "Ee Hridayam" is parodied by Viva Harsha in Nenorakam (2017).[27]
References
^ ab"An Average Fare". Indian Express. Archived from the original on 27 March 2018. Retrieved 26 September 2011.
