One of the movies which created quite a lot of expectations thanks to the fact that it was Samantha in her first main Tamil movie role and the great songs by Ilaiyaraja in the movie. The movie is all about the 3 different stages and love story of Varun (Jeeva) and Nithya (Samantha). The start of the movie makes you expect a whole lot of the movie thanks to Santhanam's amazing introduction! Though you expect a lot, your expectations are dampened by slow movement of scenes and pretty expected dialogues. Just when you think you've sat through eternity and are waiting for the end credits, "Interval" pops up and you get your well deserved break after a much boring first half. You expect an equally similar second half but you are surprised by how it shapes up (Largely thanks to the Ilaiyaraja songs) and its actually interesting. It goes very well until the pathetic climax. GVM is known for his eccentricity in his movies and this climax surely has to fall as one of the worst climaxes in the history of Tamil cinema. The 20 minutes of the climax feels like an entire 2 and a half hour movie. A few scenes are excellent and typical GVM style romantic scenes and if you are a person who has had a long relationship on and off, you will sure like the movie in parts. A few parts of the movie is excellent but its largely dull and boring. To say its a mashup of Varanam Ayiram and VTV would be an overstatement but you feel it when you watch the movie. To be quite honest, I will say GVM has wasted Ilaiyaraja's magical BGM's and excellent songs. And the movie is not for all. Are expectations satisfied when you come out of the cinema hall? I went in with low expectations thanks to the bad reviews given to me but as I came out, I was satisfied due to just the parts of the movies I loved.

I still remember Gautham Menon's Press meet after 'Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa' success, He said 'some people did not like VTV much and my nest flick is for them. One of those was me and I thoroughly enjoyed each and every frame of NEP. Both the movies were totally different in story and presentation so comparing between them and saying which one is better is really a bad idea. Samantha's best performance so far in a Tamil movie and Jiiva was excellent as usual. This is the fight stories of three different stages of a love story. Of course it was slow like everyone complaining about, without those drag it would have been a mess because when the movie ends you will feel you went through those places and time along with the characters and the art of a movie always lies in the slow presentation. 'This could be your love story' is the tagline of the movie and I found some similarities in few scenes that happened around me in real life. Hope Hindi version gonna be a huge hit like Tamil and Telugu. A must see Romance-drama by youngsters!

I started watching with zero expectations, but went ahead due to Gautam Sir and Raja Sir. What an excellent magic they created! I've read all criticisms for this movie; while I respect others' opinions, I perceive motion pictures from the concept of impact they have on our lives - do we visualize ourselves as the characters? do we enjoy as one-time watch? This film scores very high on my book because of 3 pillars: (1) Gautam Sir and Raja Sir: Strength of this movie is its narration. People've called it slow, but Gautam Sir paced and sequenced the situations perfectly. Raja Sir's songs were, as usual, excellent with perfect placements (Na Muthu Kumar's lyrics were wonderful and fused very well with music). (2) Subtle nuances of the emotions felt at different stages of life by the lead pair: Gautam's direction in even tiny spots is evident (when Varun asks Nithya out for coffee and Nithya rejoices, when Nithya shows her frustrations in between 'Mudhal Murai' song sequence, Nithya's defiance in Manappadu). (3) Fantastic acting from Jiiva and Samantha (I became a big Samantha fan after this): Jiiva played his part beautifully (calm nature in school, college and in climax scene) and could've been given more prominence, but I'll accept Gautam's narration. Samantha scored really big in 2 situations - (i) adolescent Nithya in school getting upset quickly shouting at Varun and breaking up (ii) mature Nithya being stubborn in Manappadu but not able to bear the thought of Varun marrying someone else and breaking down in the end. Other characters are nothing but strength: Santhanam, Vidyullekha, Harish Ragavendar and so on. The only real blemish was bad cinematography in the most critical scene - before interval: instead of close up, full scene was shot from high angle, greatly reducing the emotional intensity and effectiveness of the scene. In addition, the good times Varun and Nithya shared could've been expanded a little (like the tiny moment of happiness in between 'Kaatrai Konjam' song). Despite these, movie will live in people's hearts because of the emotional roller coaster in a not-so-dramatic narration. One suggestion: please do not watch this movie if you are looking for action or high drama, leading to perfect climax with a bang; none of these will be present.

Music / Songs: Was disappointed. Not able to pin point the reason. Lyrics were very good, guess the singers have disappointed. Don't know the reason why Illayaraja sir is still singing. Sorry to say this, i think he needs to stick to making beautiful music Story: Man it did take me to my past. Taking a phone call in the bathroom :-) could not stop smiling at my own self... Having said that, at some points in the movie santhanams comedy was a let down. Unnecessary jokes and scenes recreated from vtv was a let down and irritated every body, including myself. Verdict: Enjoyed the movie, worth the 100rs ticket. but then again, as one of my friend remarked "it is a movie which can be digested by people who were, are in love... As in love Marriage " :-)

Neethane Enn Pon Vasantham (U) TAMIL ----------my Rating : 3/5 stars WATCHABLE It is a fresh classic love story in Tamil after Vinnathandi vaaruvaaya...... VERY GOOD:- *Comedy : Santhanam comes in few bits...he will rock u..... *Direction : was good always used to give us a classy flick but he got some trouble in the climax.... *Editing : was good.... *Message Content to boys : Career is First .. rest all comes behind... *Performance and Casting : was excellent ..samantha was bubbly and cute to see on the big screen.... AVERAGE:- *Music : ilayaraja is average not appreciable ...my favorite is "Vaanam Mella".... *Background Score : was OK according to the script.... *Cinematography : debutantes i think so... *Story : was fine but it is usual script we didn't find anything new... VERY BAD:- *Screenplay : very draggy both first and second half ..... *Romance : with more breakups..... FINAL VERDICT:- It is a classy movie ....i recommend u all for one time watch if u have more patience more time and sit back and relax with ur free mind... Go for it.... Neethaane En Ponvasantham is a romantic film in which Jeeva plays the role of Ragu, who is an engineering student while Samantha plays a psychology student named Nithya . Jeeva, Samantha.

Neethaane En Ponvasantham!! Light, Feels warm, great, awesome and actually struggling to choose the words to express. First of all the movie got a great message for the Lovers out there who may be loving or broke up each other or the people out there who feels that they are about to love. I admit that the movie had some flaws but those are minor ones. To be frank, I don't have any story in my life but while watching this movie I feel that I had a love story and pretended myself having a girl in my life. The flaws in dubbing makes slight distraction and if this movie is compared with VTV then it will goes down. Since VTV got extraordinary plot. Gautam Vasudev Menon, once again gave us a perfect drama romance movie. Maestro is simply great... Lyricist Na.MuthuKumar penned wonderful lyrics. Samantha's wonderful acting is revealed and Jiiva performed his part well enough.

Neethane En Ponvasantham (NEP) (2012) Review: Eventually the movie is in the reception of mixed reviews and with zero expectations I watched the movie and ended up in giving this review of mine. The usual Gautam Vasudev Menon's style romantic movie with his usual ingredients like coffee shop love, Engineering college student love, artificial Mom and Dad with semi English -Tamil accent, lovers blaming each other for their failure relationship . Evidently this story is not so new it is the usual patch up – breakup lover's tale (strictly don't expect any twists more than this). Jiva and Samantha play the lead roles in the movie as Varun and Nithya. Where though Samantha's acting is not so matured but her blush is cute. Jiva tries to imitate the usual Gautam's lover boy series (Surya- VaranamAyiram, Simbhu-VTV, Madahvan-Minnale). Santhanam tries to create comedy crackers but eventually that was not so helpful to glue yourself to the seats. Music by Illaiyaraja makes up for the length of the movie and the album as on a whole didn't meet the hype and buzz created during the release when we compare it to Gautam's previous albums from VTV, Varanam Ayiram, Minalae (all of them are really cherish able all time music).The cinematography was too random in the movie and so many times the focus on the characters was not so clear (example the crucial apartment open top talk scene). These things make the movie a strict one time watch. Some say that this is characters relate type movie (where you could relate it to your life) and a strict romantic movie for lovers and newly married people. But trust me enter at your own risk. Bottom line: If VTV was the main love brand movie. Then Minnalae and Varanam Ayiram was a prequel and NEP is a sequel. -Reviewed by SivakumarBalachandran (bsiva84@gmail.com)

This was one among the most awaited movie of the season for the following reasons. The return of Gautham Vasudev Menon to rise above the success of his previous outing ' Vinnai Thaandi Varuvaaya', Buzz created by the soothing rhythms of Ilayaraaja and the on screen chemistry of Jiiva & Samantha in teasers. So were the expectations satisfied? Let's see it at the end. The whole movie had a feel of a mash up between a sitcom and a musical which was very new to the audience. The never changing attitude of the pair (literally) plays the villain in this romantic story. In fact we shouldn't blame the director for this because within 15 minutes of the movie, there is a dialogue by Samantha (Nithya) which goes like the core character of a person is fixed by the time he/she celebrates second birthday. So by that logic, the protagonists never change their attitude or their way of approach in mending their lost love. Though logical, it was excruciating for us to sit through the climax and watch them brood over their failed connect in the same manner again and again. Santhanam plays a mellowed down, friend of protagonist role and he largely succeeds by his timing and body language. In fact he pushes the movie through scenes which would have been dampener without him. The classic dilemma of a boy from middle class is well brought out by Jiiva (Varun) and it could have been portrayed much better, for his character is not well written as Samantha's. The Director does go overboard with evoking nostalgia factor, and it makes us wonder if we are watching a Murali or Mohan movie of early 90s in select scenes. Though the songs were wonderful to hear, the placement of the songs in the second half tested our patience and it played spoilsport in understanding the intensity of the feel that was supposed to be created between the protagonists. On the whole, NEP fares a bit low when compared to its nemesis VTV because of its shoddy character development and asynchronous writing. Climax aids its descent in audience satisfaction graph to a new low making them squirm in their seats. Instead of making the audience feel passionately about Varun and Nithya to reunite, the shoddy climax makes the audience go ballistic, for them to unite so that the movie would end. Hence the conclusion is, though the expectations were all satisfied in various degrees; still the overall feel among moviegoers is bit damp for they were felt letdown by the director for his haphazard climax Yet the best part is the arrival of Samantha as an able actress to play a pivotal role in a movie and she deserves due appreciation for it. NEP : Still qualifies to be an Ideal Date movie, but take care to guard her ears from the verbal abuses in theatre, towards the end of the movie.

Here we go, discussing about another stereotypical love movie from Gautham Menon. NDEPV does have all the controversies that generally comes along with most of Gautham's flicks (too much English, too slow etc). The film begins with an enchanting song, that got me completely glued to the movie, especially for the fact that it was shot at SSN college. This song was shot in the hostel, entrance, auditorium and various Department buildings, I felt as if I was in my college. Varun (Jiva) meets Nithya (Samantha)in his class, who apparently is her primary school, secondary school and secondary school crush. For some reason, they lose contact and Varun impresses her by singing an Ilayaraja classic on the stage. They fall in love and everything seems to be OK. One day, Varun 's parents are humiliated by the girl's parents whom his brother liked. This incident creates a spark in Varun 's mind n he decides to get serious with studies. Again, Nithya could not understand why things r changing and argues with Varun . Poor Nithya does not know his family situation n the relationship eventually breaks up. The first half ends here and everything is fine up until now. The second half is all about how Varun comes back to win Nithya back again and what happens to their love.. The second half entirely rests on the shoulders of the great Maestro Ilayaraja. His music literally speaks to us and actually the lyrics tell you exactly what is going on in the film. You can sit blind folded and still understand the movie by just listening to the music and songs. Raja Raja Dhaan.... What is creating many detractors for the movie, is the fact that the climax was too dragging and could have been more crispier.. Agreeable, but still, it does not happen that way in real life. Watchable, at least for the Maestro... 7/10 it is...

it is a complete worst of time, do not watch this movie unless you like movies full of unnecessary dialogues. i usually like love stories but this one was completely boring with numerous unlikable songs. it has lots of similarities with vinnaithandi varuvaaya and vaaranam aayiram but none of them felt good in this film.watching this movie in night will help to get better sleep, before watching this movie i thought vaaranam aayiram would be the most boring romantic film even though that film has a good story , but this movie surpass my expectations to become such a boring movie experience. it may be a likable cinema for hard core lovers who just want to hear some pointless romantic dialogues,but for movie goers who are looking for any entertainment or story this has not got either of these qualities. this film has no story at all just the usual story of " boy loves girl, later broke off, then restored,the end ". my score:0.5/10