Saravanan Meenakshi

This week in our TV serial roundup, let's talk about the 'mega' serial 'Saravanan Meenakshi'. The serial is broadcast from Monday to Friday at 9.30PM on the Star Vijay TV channel.

'Saravanan Meenakshi' gives us some fresh air among the 'n' number of mega serials aired nowadays. The serial cast includes Senthil (of radio Mirchi fame), Sreeja, Rajasekhar and Kuyili.

The story so far (as of 27 Apr 2012)

As the name suggests, this serial is about Saravanan and Meenakshi who are completely opposite personalities. Saravanan is a popular radio jockey from Chennai while Meenakshi is a school teacher from a small town near Thirunelveli. But, as expected, love blossoms between the two. Their fathers and Meenakshi's sisters support their love while Saravanan's mother and sister and Meenakshi's brother and grandmother oppose it. After overcoming lots of hurdles and problems, Meenakshi and Saravanan finally get engaged to each other.

But the problems are far from over yet. Out of blue Saravanan's mother demands 100 sovereigns gold from Meenakshi's family. Though shocked, Meenakshi's father accepts to the demand. Later it is revealed that Saravanan has promised Meenakshi's dad that he will take care of all the jewels for Meenakshi. Meenakshi's grandmother comes to know about this and starts adoring Saravanan. Even after the engagement, now and then Meenakshi and Saravanan fight with each other for small misunderstandings but eventually they cope up after either one apologizing to the other. But while deciding on the marriage date all hell break loose again as Saravanan and his family prefers to have the marriage in two - three months while Meenakshi wants to complete her PhD before marriage. This leads into a big fight between the lovers and eventually they both end up calling off the marriage.

In this situation, in a state of anger, Saravanan, asks his ex-Girl friend Yamini to marry him. And to his surprise and shock she accepts. Mean while Meenakshi's grandmother dies of natural causes after conveying her wish that only Saravanan should cremate her. Saravanan accepts the elderly lady's wish and cremates her. Now Saravanan and Meenakshi patch up after discussing the differences, ignoring their ego. Meenakshi agrees to marry Saravanan as per his family's wish and Saravanan accepts to allow her to pursue PhD after their marriage.

In an unexpected twist, Soundarya's (Saravanan's sister) husband turns out to be a fraud who has married another woman in Dubai, where he works. He has cunningly obtained divorce from Soundarya by asking her to sign few white papers claiming them as visa documents. Saravanan's family comes to know about this and as expected is furious about this. Meenakshi's brother, Tamil also comes to know about this and beats up Soundarya's husband. But Soundarya lets him go saying that she doesn't want to live with someone who has cheated her for three years. Unknowingly, slowly, Tamil and Soundarya start to develop soft corner for each other.

Yamini who is not yet aware of the patch up between Saravanan and Meenakshi, assumes that Saravanan still love her. And the news is now spread among her father and other relatives. Though Saravanan is worried about Yamini, he doesn't have guts to convey the truth to her.

Saravanan and his friend/colleague Shah convince Yamini that Saravanan will marry Yamini only. Yamini believes that and leaves to London with her Dad to visit her relatives. Though temporarily relieved Saravanan is worried about Yamini. As usual, his father Rajasekar comes to know about the issue and advices him to convey the truth to Yamini. But Saravanan is very reluctant to do the same.

Meanwhile to arrange the 100 sovereigns for their marriage, Saravanan borrows money at a higher interest rate from a local don. His dad is shocked to hear about it and advices him to return the money and think about some other option to get the jewellery. But as usual Saravanan disagrees with his dad. Unfortunately, his mom, Saradha finds out the money and understands that the money is for buying jewellery for Meenakshi. But Rajasekhar interferes and safely returns the money back to Saravanan.

@ Meenakshi's house, they have unexpected and unwelcomed guests in the form of her aunt and her daughter Malliga. Malliga is very jealous about Meenakshi's marriage to Saravanan. When she comes to know about Saravanan and his family her jealousy grows and couple of times Saravanan talks to Malliga thinking that she is Meenakshi. This adds fuel to Malliga's mind. She starts to behave indifferently with Saravanan. Once she steals Meenakshi's ring and gives that as a gift to Saravanan. Unfortunately for her that's a ring that Saravanan had gifted to Meenakshi. Saravanan finds that out and promptly returns it back to Meenakshi. Meenakshi is shocked to know about Malliga and scolds her. But instead of relenting, Malliga believes that Saravanan is for her and an astrologer adds fuel to her wish by stating she will marry someone as a second wife. So she starts believing that she will eventually marry Saravanan only.

Tamil and Soundarya continue to build their new relationship via SMS. Meenakshi's family is very surprised to see the changes in Tamil and they also believe it's because of a girl. But they are unable to find the identity of the girl.

Finally they decide on Saravanan - Meenakshi's marriage date and they start printing invitation cards also. Unexpectedly, Saradha finds out that Meenakshi's horoscope shared with her is a hoax (Saravanan and Rajasekhar changed it after they found that the horoscopes doesn't match). When she tries to use this as an opportunity to stop the marriage, the-now-reformed Soundarya comes to Saravanan's rescue. She convinces her mother that horoscope has nothing to do with happy marriages. She also points out to her mother that during her marriage there was a perfect horoscope match but still her marriage is a failure. Saradha accepts half heartedly.

To distribute the marriage invitation card to Meenakshi's family, Saravanan and Rajasekhar decides to travel to Kalladaikurichi (Meenakshi's native). Soundarya also decides to join them to meet Tamil. @Meenakshi's house excluding Tamil everyone treats Soundarya indifferently as they are not aware of her change. Still Soundarya is happy to be near Tamil. Tamil's mother and younger sister doesn't like Tamil getting closer to Soundarya. Meanwhile Meenakshi overhears Tamil and Soundarya and come to know about their relationship. She is obviously shocked.

Now we need to wait and watch how Meenakshi reacts to her brother's love affair with her fiancée’s sister Soundarya. Also how will Saravanan get rid of Yamini and Malliga?

Though the story is on familiar 'serial' lines, what makes 'Saravanan Meenakshi' stand out from the rest are the romantic theme and the 'timing' comedy :) Rajasekhar who plays the Saravanan's dad role has done a great job in this serial. He is the type of dad that each youth would long to have. Senthil and Sreeja play the main protagonists and looks like there are many young fan followers for them already. Kuyili who plays the Saravanan's mom character has also done a great job.

So far the serial also doesn't include too many crying scenes which make it a perfect option for a TV viewer who has been longing to see something cheerful in TV. 

Let's hope that 'Saravanan Meenakshi' will keep up this reputation in the coming weeks also.

This time for the first time, it's going to be only four stars for Saravanan Meenakshi, for bringing in unnecessary characters (like malliga, her mom etc) and dragging the serial a bit (by wasting episodes for advertisements and other stuff like akshaya tirithiyay etc). But still it's a great watch, especially for the timely comedy. Let's hope in the coming weeks, the director will make it the same old Saravanan Meenakshi. Let's wait and watch!

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