Friends (2001 film)

Friends
Poster
Directed by	Siddique
Produced by	Appachan
Written by	Siddique Gokula Krishnan
Starring	Vijay Suriya Ramesh Khanna Devayani Vijayalakshmi
Music by	Ilaiyaraaja
Cinematography	Anandakuttan
Edited by	T. R. Shekar K. R. Gowrishankar
Production company	Swargachitra
Release date	14 January 2001
Running time	167 minutes
Country	India
Language	Tamil

Friends is a 2001 Tamil comedy-drama film directed by Siddique and produced by Appachan. The film features Vijay, Suriya and Ramesh Khanna, in the title roles, while Devayani, Abhinayashree, Vijayalakshmi, Sriman and Vadivelu amongst others play supporting roles. The music was composed by Ilaiyaraaja, while Anandakuttan handled cinematography. The film is a remake of the Siddique's own Malayalam film by the same name with actors Mukesh, Sreenivasan and Jayaram. The film released in January 2001 and received positive critical acclaim. Later it was remade in Telugu as Snehamante Idera starring Akkineni Nagarjuna, Sumanth, Bhumika Chawla. The Telugu remake was dubbed into Hindi in 2007 as Naya Jigar.

Aravindan (Vijay), Chandru (Suriya) and Krishnamurthy (Ramesh Khanna) value friendship over everything else, even family, and for this reason, Chandru resists the advances of Aravindan's sister Amutha (Vijayalakshmi). When the trio take up a painter's job at a mansion, Aravindan falls in love with Padmini (Devayani), who lives there. Padmini's jealous cousin Abhirami (Abhinayashree) makes him believe that his overtures are reciprocated. When the truth is revealed and Padmini rejects him outright, Chandru stands up for his friend and speaks ill of her. This makes her swear to separate the friends.