The movie opens in an engineering college in Ooty with a narration by Rajesh Shivkumar (R. Madhavan). Rajiv Samuel (Abbas) is a computer engineering student and is one of the top students in the college, whereas Rajesh is a mechanical engineering student who is the bad guy of the college. A mutual problem between the two groups led by both Rajiv and Rajesh puts both of them at loggerheads and they pull pranks on each other to get the other in trouble. It culminates into a fist fight but is soon broken up by one of their Teacher and the security of the college. In the fight, Rajesh punches Rajiv in the face, which is against the rule, and They graduate from the college soon and promise to not see each other ever again. Rajiv goes abroad for job, while Rajesh stays back in India saying that he does not want to leave his motherland.

A few years later, Rajesh becomes responsible and settles in an IT job that involves teaching software classes for newcomers and interns. Rajesh lives with his librarian grandfather Subrahmanyam aka Subbuni (Nagesh), who means the world to him; he even turns down a very lucrative job assignment in Singapore to be with his grandfather. Rajesh, on a trip to a friend’s wedding in Bangalore, comes across Reena (Reema Sen), an upper class Christian girl (the Syrian Christians ) and is smitten by her beauty but does not get to meet her. To his pleasant surprise, he sees her again in Chennai, but is again unable to meet her.

A friend of Rajesh, Chockalingam (Vivek), spots Reena’s friend Vasuki in a market one day and recognizes her from the wedding pictures. They both extract information about Reena's whereabouts from Vasuki, posing as her family friend. Though they get Reena's phone number, Rajesh is disappointed when he learns that Reena is engaged and is about to marry soon a guy called Rajiv, whom Reena has only talked to on the phone but is yet to meet. Goaded by his Subbuni and his friends, Rajesh decides to enter Reena’s life pretending to be Rajiv. Within a few days of hanging out with each other, both fall in love with each other. Before Rajesh could actually tell Reena the truth, the real Rajiv comes to Chennai and both their families get-together. Reena is shocked to learn that the person she loves is an imposter.

Rajesh comes clean with Reena and pleads to be forgiven, but Reena is adamant that she does not want to talk to Rajesh anymore and asks him to forget her. Chockalingam takes his friends and Rajesh to meet Rajiv to force him to break up the engagement with Reena. They are surprised when they learn that Rajiv is actually Rajiv Samuel, Rajesh's foe from his college days. Rajiv becomes enraged when he learns the truth, but believes that Reena was duped and refuses to break up the engagement. After repeated attempts to talk to Reena fail and when Rajiv and Reena’s wedding is fixed, Rajesh sadly accepts the bitter truth.

Heartbroken and unable to live in the city anymore, he plans to leave. Reena finally realizes that even though she was duped by Rajesh, she had indeed fallen in love with him. Rajiv senses this on the eve of their wedding. Just before Rajesh boards his flight, Rajiv appears and says that they are still bitter enemies but he does not want to marry a girl who loves someone else. Both Reena and Rajesh embrace each other and the movie ends.

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 narrate 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, but a delay meant that she was replaced with Reema Sen, who appeared in her first Tamil film. 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 18 February 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. It won positive reviews from critics with claims that the film had a "lot of verve and vigour" and that it was "technically excellent". The movie was dubbed into Telugu under the name Cheli and also performed well at the box office.^[7]

The success of the film led to producer Vashu Bhagnani signing Menon on to direct the Hindi language remake of the film, Rehna Hai Tere Dil Mein, which also featured Madhavan with Diya Mirza and Saif Ali Khan added to the film. However, in comparison, the Hindi film gained poor reviews and subsequently went on to become a below average grosser at the box office.^[8]

The music and background score were composed by Harris Jayaraj. Lyrics were written by Vaali, Thamarai and C. S. Amudhan, who wrote the song 'Maddy Maddy'.^[9] Upon release, the soundtrack received critical acclaim and was a major contributor to the film's commercial success. The audio cassette of the film was released in Chennai at a function in early February 2001, where the songs were also screened.^[10] Due to the album's immense popularity, Harris Jayaraj won his first Filmfare Best Music Director award in Tamil. 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.

Track Listing^[11]