Mungaru Male

Preetam (Ganesh) is on a visit to Eva Mall in Bangalore; amidst a heavy wind, he spots a pretty girl, Nandini (Pooja Gandhi). While staring at her, he inadvertently falls into a manhole. Nandini rescues him from the pit, but in the process loses her heart-shaped watch she had just bought. While accompanying his mother to Madikeri in Coorg, Preetam confronts a man named Jaanu (Neenaasam Ashwath). Jaanu, who has been following Nandini, beats Preetam thinking that he is in love with Nandini. Preetam, unaware that Jaanu has vowed not to allow anyone near Nandini, trashes Jaanu and his gang in revenge.

In Madikeri, Preetam unexpectedly meets Nandini. He identifies himself and expresses his love towards her and offers to tie the watch as an indication for their marriage. Nandini, who is already engaged, rejects his request. Nonetheless, Preetam vows to marry Nandini if she meets him again. In the meantime, Preetam discovers that his nearly-deaf host in Madikeri, Col. Subbaiah, is Nandini's father and that Nandini's marriage is only a week away. Dejected, Preetam throws Nandini's heart-shaped watch away. But Nandini telephones him and taunts him to return. Delighted, Preetam goes in search of her watch and spots a rabbit, which he calls Devadas, and brings it along with the watch.

Since Nandini's friends are due to arrive from Mumbai for the marriage, Preetam takes Nandini to the railway station. The train is delayed by five hours, so Nandini and Preetam decide to visit a nearby hill-temple. While returning from the temple, Preetam and Nandini are caught in rain. An old couple offers Preetam and Nandini to take shelter inside their hut. Preetam, still in two minds about expressing his love to Nandini, grabs a couple of toddy bottles, goes out in the rain and starts drinking. However, when Nandini walks towards him, offering an umbrella, he is under a state of intoxication and tells Nandini that he'd better stay away from Nandini to remain a decent boy, rather than to propose or elope with her. Nandini is now in love with Preetam and is in a dilemma as her wedding is due in a few days. She asks him to take her to the top of a waterfall where she expresses her love for him while standing at the edge.

Preetam, intent on marrying Nandini, takes Col. Subbaiah for a morning jog to discuss the matter. But Col. Subbaiah, a heart patient, tells Preetham that he's expected to die anytime and his only aim in life is to get Nandini married to Gautam also an army officer who saved his life one day during a war. Also he sees the fear in Nandini's mother when she sensed Nandini could be in love with someone else as the wedding was to happen the next day and all invitations were out. Also she felt it would be very unfair to a good person like Gautham. Hence Preetam decides to sacrifice his love for a greater good and let Gautham marry Nandini. The night before the wedding, an extremely depressed Preetam goes to a road-side bar to drink. Gautam arriving for his wedding cemoney, with heavy rains and interior broken roads of Coorg, asks the bar-owner for directions to Col. Subbaiah's home; when Jaanu tries to kill Gautam, Preetam saves Gautam and convinces Jaanu that only Gautam is the best person to marry Nandini.

The next day, Preetam brings Gautam to the marriage house as Gautam was getting late and his car had issue. They reach just in time for the ceremony, but Preetam declines to attend. Gautam asks for the heart-shaped watch as a remembrance but Preetham leaves, unwilling to part with it. There is a search for Preetam, and only his mother knows the truth about his love, but hides her worry.

Resignedly, Preetam watches the arch proclaiming "Gautham weds Nandini" and the marriage taking place in Kodava style. As he leaves, he spots Devadas and takes the rabbit with him. Driving towards Bangalore, Preetham confides in Devdas as to how much he loved Nandini, how he wished he had a life with her, and soon realizes that Devdas has died. The film ends with Preetham burying Devdas.

• Ganesh as Preetam
• Pooja Gandhi as Nandini
• Ananth Nag as Colonel Subbaiah, Nandini's father
• Sudha Belawadi as Kamala, Preetam's mother
• Padmaja Rao as "Bubbly" Babita, Nandini's mother
• Neenasam Ashwath as Jolly
• Diganth as Gautam, Nandini's fiancé
• Jai Jagadish as Preetam's father
• Sanchita Shetty as Nandini's friend[19]

Anisutide song sung by Sonu Nigam

Mano Murthy scored the film's background music and its soundtrack, lyrics for which was penned by Jayant Kaikini, Yogaraj Bhat, Kaviraj and Hrudaya Shiva. The soundtrack album consists of seven tracks.[23] Anand Audio bought the distribution rights for ₹500,000.[24] It was released on 6 November 2006 in Bangalore.[25]

Upon the album's release, it topped the charts with the song "Anisuthide" receiving significant radio and TV air time.[26] It was reported that by mid-May 2007, over 200,000 copies were sold in compact discs alone.[27] Hindustan Times reported, "The film has just completed seven weeks, but audio sales have broken all earlier records. Composer Mano Murthy has once again created musical magic with songs like 'Anisuthidhe' and 'Onde Ondu Saari'."[28]

The success of the film's soundtrack, especially the track "Anisutide", further propelled Nigam's playback singing career in Kannada cinema.[26] With the song, lyricist and writer Jayant Kaikini's reputation as a writer of romantic songs further elevated, and is considered one of his best.[29]

Rediff.com's critic awarded it a three-star rating and praised its cinematography, technical values, and the acting of Ganesh and Anant Nag.[30]

Indicine.com's critic rated the film 4 out of 5, describing Ganesh as the "life and soul of the movie". Other praise was directed at Gandhi, "Sanjana makes a confident debut. Veteran actor Anant Nag with his brilliant comic timing provides able support".[31]

Made with a production budget of ₹70 lakh (US$98,000),[1] the film collected ₹50 crore (500 million) in 300 days.[32][33] Then film went on to gross ₹50[2][3]–75 crore[4] (₹500–750 million) by the end of its theatrical run of 865 days.[13][34] The film has also been released with 150 prints in Karnataka.[35] This was the first Indian film which ran over a year in a multiplex: PVR cinemas Bangalore.[36] Mungaaru Male was being screened at full theatres, one year after its release.[37] According to reports it was the first Kannada film to touch ₹50 crore club in history of Kannada film industry and also according to Bangalore Mirror, it holds a record of first south indian film to collect ₹50 crore at Indian box office.[1][38][12]

The film was awarded the Best Kannada Film award for the year 2006–07 by the Government of Karnataka (seven awards in total from the Government of Karnataka). It won three Filmfare awards: best music, best direction and best film. However, it did not win a single national award from the Government of India.[43]

The success of Mungaru Male turned Ganesh and Pooja Gandhi into most sought-after actors in Kannada cinema.[46] Ganesh had back-to-back commercial successes in Cheluvina Chittara (2007), Hudugaata (2007) and Krishna (2007). Ganesh and Bhat delivered two consecutive films that emerged as commercial successes, the other being Gaalipata (2008).[47] The film also proved to be a launchpad for the career of actress Pooja Gandhi.[48] And Gandhi also delivered back-to-back commercial superhit films such as Milana (2007), Krishna (2007), Taj Mahal (2008) and Budhivanta (2008).[49][50]

Producer E Krishnappa and distributor Jayanna were raided by the Income Tax department multiple times. The department alleged that the film had collected Rs 67.5 crore and demanded tax for that amount. After Mungaru Male, two of Ganesh's next films also became super hits.[12]

The remake rights of Mungaru Male were acquired by Mr Suryaprakash Rao of SPR Entertainers India Private Limited for ₹1.5 crore (15 million) for both the Tamil-language and the Telugu-language versions.

The movie was remade in Telugu in 2008 as Vaana,[15] in Bengali in 2008 as Premer Kahini , in Odia in 2009 as Romeo - The Lover Boy [52] and in Marathi in 2017 as Premay Namaha.[53]

It was announced in July 2014 that Shashank would be directing the sequel of the film, titled Mungaru Male 2. Ganesh reprised his role in the film, produced by J. Gangadhar under the banner of E. K. Pictures.[18] The sequel was released in 2016.

• Mungaru Male at IMDb