Title Song : Nenjai Poopol
Title Movie : Minnale ( Lightning )
Singer : Harish Raghavendra
Lyric : Thamarai
Music Director : Harris Jayaraj
Starring : Chocolate Boy Madhavan , Reema Sen , Abbas & Vivek.
Directed by : Gautham Menon
Produced by : Sunanda Murali Manohar
Written by : Gautham Menon , Vipul D. Shah &
"Dhinanthorum" Nagarajan
Cinematography : R. D. Rajasekhar
Edited by : Suresh Urs
Production Company : Cee (I) TV Entertainment
Release date : 2 February 2001
Story : Action & Romantic Movie

Minnale is the directorial debut of Menon. The film's original soundtrack composed by first time music composer Harris Jayaraj, became a chartbuster prior to the film's release. The cinematography of the film was handled by R. D. Rajasekhar and Ravi Varman and it was edited by Suresh Urs.Minnale was released on February 2, 2001. The film received positive reviews from critics and enjoyed stupendous blockbuster commercial success at the box office.Menon remade the film the same year in Hindi as Rehnaa Hai Terre Dil Mein, which featured Madhavan reprising his role.Gautham Menon launched a Tamil romantic film O Lala in 2000 with the project eventually changing producers and title into Minnale with Madhavan, who was at the beginning of his career, being signed on to portray the lead role.About the making of the film, Menon revealed that he found it difficult as the team was new to the industry with only the editor of the film, Suresh Urs, being a prominent technician in the industry.Menon had come under further pressure when Madhavan had insisted that Menon narrated the story to his mentor, Mani Ratnam, to identify if the film was a positive career move after the success of his Alaipayuthey. Despite initial reservations, Menon did so and Ratnam was unimpressed; however Menon has cited that he thought that Madhavan "felt sorry" and later agreed to continue with the project.Miss World 1999, Yukta Mookhey was considered to play the film's heroine during July 2000, as was Isha Koppikar, but eventually they were left out and Reema Sen, who appeared in her first Tamil film, was cast.Minnale also saw Madhavan collaborating with Abbas for second time after Kannada film Shanti Shanti Shanti. Post-release, Abbas felt that his scenes had been cut from the film and accused Madhavan of playing a role in editing his sequences out from the film.The film was advertised as a Valentine's Day release in 2001 but was released on February 2, 2001 and upon release it went on to become a large success commercially. Madhavan became extremely popular among the youth after the release of Alaipayuthey, but had a setback as his next film flopped. Minnale made him once again popular among the youth. Savitha Padmanabhan of The Hindu claimed that the film had a "lot of verve and vigour" and that it was "sure to go down well" with the "yuppie, college-going youngsters".A reviewer, Shilpa Kannan from Zee TV, also gave the film a positive review, writing "the entire movie is given an advertisement like treatment by the director. It is glossy, stylish, youthful and trendy".The movie was dubbed into Telugu under the name Cheli and also performed well at the box office, owing to Madhavan's popularity in Andhra Pradesh.
The success of the film led to producer Vashu Bhagnani signing Menon on to direct the Hindi language remake of the film, Rehnaa Hai Terre Dil Mein, which featured Madhavan reprising his role. The Hindi version gained mixed reviews and subsequently went on to become an above average grosser at the box office.However, the film belatedly gained popularity through screenings on television and subsequently developed a cult following amongst young audiences and the actors released a video thanking the film's admirers for their adulation on the fifteenth anniversary of the film's release.The music and background score were composed by Harris Jayaraj. The audio cassette of the film was released in Chennai at a function in January 2001, where the songs were also screened.Upon release, the soundtrack received critical acclaim and was a major contributor to the film's commercial success.Harris Jayaraj won his first Filmfare Best Music Director award in Tamil. The song "Vaseegara" is set in Natabhairavi raga and marked the debut of poet Thamarai as a film song lyricist.All songs except Ivan Yaaro and Iru Vizhi Unadhu (Ore Nyabagam) were reused in the film's Hindi version Rehnaa Hai Terre Dil Mein by Harris himself.

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