Celebrate Friendship Day with these foot-tapping Tamil songs

Tamil film songs have been glorifying relationships for a long time and friendship is one of them. From the iconic Andha naal to En friend a pola yaaru, the songs are still loved by many and played over and over again by friends of different age groups.

Here's a list of popular friendship songs in Tamil:

Andha naal, Uyarndha Manithan (1968): Filmed with two veteran actors Sivaji Ganesan and Major Sundarrajan, this number has a certain childlike innocence and unspoilt charm about it. Directed by Krishnan-Panju, this was Sivaji Ganesan's 125th film, as an actor. Did you know that SJ Suryah and Amitabh Bachchan were to team up in a film, bearing the same name?

On Twitter, a couple of years ago, Big B had written a post expressing his admiration for Sivaji. "I did my first Hindi film in the South, which was a remake of a Sivaji Ganesan film ‘Kai Kodutha Deivam’, and the amount of trouble I had during its making, not being able to even reach an inch of the work that was done by Sivaji in the original.” Further, he went on to add, "I never stopped touching his feet thereafter at every meeting. He was paired with the extraordinary talent of Savithri his leading lady; an exceptional artist, the likes of which you never get to see nowadays.”

Nanbane enadhu uyir nanbane, Sattam (1983): Best friends Raja (Kamal Haasan) and Ravi (Sarath Babu) are in love with Radha (Madhavi). This creates differences between the two. When Raja needs Ravi's help, Ravi demands a steep price from Radha to save him. This renowned song comes in the first half of Sattam and establishes the closeness between the lead characters. This one is the remake of the Hindi film, Dostana which featured Amitabh Bachchan in the lead.

Kaatukuyilu, Thalapathi (1991): In Mani Ratnam’s riveting retelling of Mahabharata, Mammootty played the don Devaraj. The 1991 film may be known for one of Rajinikanth’s best performances as an actor, but Mammootty was just as superb.

Mustafa Mustafa, Kadhal Desam (1996): A song that has remained unrivalled in popularity for two decades, a staple Rahman favourite at any concert, and one that echoes his astonishing arrival onto the Indian music scene in the 1990s. The Academy Award-winning composer told the Hindu, "When I compose, I usually use a dummy lyric, and use the word 'Mustafa' for the opening tune. Lyricist Vaali liked it and suggested that we keep it." Rahman went on to say, "Mustafas abound in my life... I've known my friend Aslam Mustafa for 35 years. There's another Mustafa, a Singaporean friend. It is a common name that came to mind while working on this number."

Eswara, Kannethire Thondrinal (1998): Family opposition to a couple's coming together forms the basis for this standard love story. Directed by Ravichandran, the film featured Prashanth, Simran, Karan, Srividya and others. Deva's album became a rage at that time, and Salomia was the most popular among the rest of the songs. A young man falls in love with his best friend's sister but decides to sacrifice his love giving more value to his friendship. When the girl's brother learns of his friend's sacrifice, he gives his blessing to the couple!

Thozha thozha, Paandavar Bhoomi (2001): Dhanasekar hires an engineer to rebuild his ancestral house. When he falls in love with Dhanasekar's niece, Dhanasekar narrates his family's past, which changes his mind to sacrifice his love. If you can imagine a film with a story having a strong base and a smooth screenplay, it would resemble that of Pandavar Bhoomi. Director Cheran presented a pretty love story interwoven with the intimate relationships that prevail in a well-knit family.

Manase Manase, April Maadhathil (2002): Written and directed by newcomer Stanley, the film featured Srikanth, Sneha, Gayatri Jayaraman, Venkat Prabhu, Devan and Karunas, among others. The title is inspired by a song from Vaali, directed by SJ Suryah. Young hearts beating, falling and stumbling in love to make it last forever in this film, which has music by Yuvan Shankar Raja.

Oru Nanban Irundhal, Enakku 20 Unakku 18 (2003): Sridhar and Preeti meet in Mumbai and develop a liking for each other but part ways without exchanging any information. However, they start searching for each other in Chennai. The rom-com, written and directed by Jyothi Krishna, featured Tarun Kumar, Trisha, and Shriya Saran, in the lead roles.

Yaaro, Chennai 28 (2007): In an interview with a leading English daily, filmmaker Venkat Prabhu gave away an interesting tidbit. "For the song Yaaro, I gave ‘Yedho Mogam’ from Kozhi Koovuthu as a reference. If you hum both the songs (old and new), they’ll sound very similar.” The film is about the happenings in the Mandaveli-RA Puram area of Chennai (Pin Code 600028) where the director resides. Both producer SP Charan and the director share a long-standing friendship, and their film's music is naturally an ode to natpu (friendship).

Taxi Taxi, Sakkarakatti (2008): Yuvraj and Deepali's relationship goes through several challenges when Yuvraj's cousin Reema, who loves Yuvraj, tries to interfere in their lives. Sakkarakatti marks the debut project of K Bhagyaraj's son Shanthnu. Initially, AR Rahman was reluctant to compose the music for this one, citing he was busy with other projects, but eventually ended up signing it. Taxi Taxi has lyrics by BlaaZe, Na Muthukumar, Vivek Chaix, and was sung by BlaaZe, Benny Dayal, Javed Ali and Vivian.

Dosth bada dosthu, Saroja (2008): This film, which takes its name from the hit song Saroja Saman Nikalo from Venkat Prabhu's first film, Chennai 600028, manages to be an almost perfect blend of friendship, banter, suspense, thrills, action, and a logical screenplay triumphing over everything else. Saroja follows the journey of four young men who travel from Chennai to Hyderabad to watch a cricket match. Due to a road accident, they are forced to take a diversion off the main road to arrive on time. This leads them to a gang who have kidnapped a schoolgirl, Saroja, the only daughter of a millionaire.

Nanbanai paartha, Ninaithale Inikkum (2009): Directed by GNR Kumaravelan, this is a remake of the 2006 Malayalam film, Classmates. Prithviraj reprises his role from the original. Also featuring Shakthi Vasu, Priyamani, Karthik Kumar, Anuja Iyer, Vishnu Priyan, K Bhagyaraj and Manobala, songs were composed by Vijay Antony. It was produced by Gemini Film Circuit and distributed by Sun Pictures. This title was inspired by K Balachander's directorial, which featured Kamal Haasan, Rajinikanth, Jayaprada and Geetha. The story, which was written by Sujata, was simultaneously shot in Telugu as Andamaina Anubhavam. A large part of the original was shot in Singapore and was dubbed in Hindi as Pyara Tarana.

Manasellam Unnidam, Kulir 100° (2009): Director Anita Udeep makes an effort to simulate the lives of teenagers, but it seems to jump to the next scene before any scenario can be fully explored, leaving you unsatisfied. In the end, the outcome is rather mediocre. The only consolation is the cool visuals and songs. The film featured Sanjeev and Riya Bamniyal while Thalaivasal Vijay, Adithya Menon, Karthik Sabesh, and Rohit Rathod played supporting roles. The music was composed by first-timer Bobo Shashi with editing by B Lenin. Hearsay is that Kulir 100° was inspired by a Swedish movie, named Evil.

En Friend a pola yaaru Machan, Nanban (2012): It was a critically acclaimed and commercially successful film in its Hindi version (3 Idiots). A story about three friends' bonding and friendship, as well as the importance of following one's dreams. Remaking a successful film in a different language is a difficult task for any director. However, Shankar deserves credit for capturing the essence and soul of the original in his first Tamil remake. The story shifts back and forth in time as two friends, Senthil and Venkat (Jiiva and Srikanth), set out in search of their friend Paari (Vijay), who vanished shortly after graduation.