Pallavi Anu Pallavi

Pallavi Anupallavi
Kannada	ಪಲ್ಲವಿ ಅನುಪಲ್ಲವಿ
Directed by	Mani Ratnam
Produced by	T. Govindarajan
Screenplay by	Mani Ratnam
Story by	Mani Ratnam
Starring	Anil Kapoor Lakshmi Kiran Vairale
Music by	Ilayaraja
Cinematography	Balu Mahendra
Edited by	B. Lenin
Production company	Venus Pictures
Release date	January 1983
Running time	110 minutes
Country	India
Language	Kannada

Pallavi Anu Pallavi is a 1983 Indian Kannada-language film directed by Mani Ratnam in his directorial debut. It stars Anil Kapoor, Lakshmi and Kiran Vairale portraying the lead roles.

The film deals with an unconventional plot of a committed young man falling in love with an older woman, and finding himself and his true desires through the experience. Balu Mahendra and Ilaiyaraaja were the film's cinematographer and music composer, respectively. The film was an average commercial success, but earned critical acclaim from award committees.

Having pledged his love for Madhu (Kiran Vairale), Vijay (Anil Kapoor) finds himself entwined in a close friendship with Anu (Lakshmi), a married woman separated from her husband. Vijay grapples with the definition of love, treading the fine line between trust and attraction, amidst tremendous societal pressures. He is confused whether he loves Anu, an older woman, yet knows that Madhu is ready to accept him as a husband. Amid all this is his youthful streak of rebellion, ready to take on the world despite the taboos attached.

After completing his MBA and beginning work as a management consultant, Mani Ratnam was keen to enter the film industry and began co-scripting a Kannada film titled Bangarutha Ghani, alongside his friends, the film's director Ravishankar and Raman, who were the sons of director B. R. Panthulu and musician Sundaram Balachander respectively. Featuring Vishnuvardhan, Ambareesh, Roja Ramani and Lakshmi in the lead roles, the film was later uncompleted and shelved. Mani Ratnam then decided to branch out as a director himself and wrote the script of the Kannada film, Pallavi Anu Pallavi, entirely in English, during a single month in 1980. With the script of the film he first met actor Kamal Haasan to play the film's protagonist, after his friend Kitty had helped arrange a meeting with the actor. Haasan refused the offer and demanded changes to the script if he was to play the lead role, but introduced Ratnam to his brother Charuhasan, who pledged to help find the script a producer. Ratnam revealed that he was open to the idea of selling the script to a popular director so that he could learn about film-making during the production process, but had unfruitful meetings with K. Balachander, P. Bharathiraja and J. Mahendran.