Kadhalan

Plot

Prabhu, the student chairman of Chennai's Government Arts College, is asked by his principal to invite the Governor of Tamil Nadu, Kakarla Sathyanarayana Moorthy, to be the chief guest on the annual day of the college. When he goes to invite Kakarla, he bumps into his daughter Shruthi, instantly falling in love with her. To propose his love for her, he joins the same dance class as her. She too subsequently gets to know more about him and falls in love with him. Since there is considerable fear of terrorism in the state, Kakarla does not permit his daughter to travel anywhere without bodyguards. On one occasion, she manages to give them the slip and runs away with Prabhu at a dance festival. Shortly after, there is the threat of a bomb being planted. Shruthi is immediately brought home, and Prabhu is arrested. Shruthi is forbidden to see Prabhu. After being beaten severely, Prabhu is released from police custody and taken back home, tended by his police father Kathiresan. He then goes to meet Shruthi, unaware of the changed circumstances. This is where he finds evidence that will lead him to a hideout of bomb specialist Mallikarjuna, the mastermind of all the bomb blasts. Prabhu realizes that Mallikarjuna has been working for Kakarla to kill innocent civilians with bombs. Kakarla pays Mallikarjuna to put a bomb in the Government General Hospital. Kakarla betrays Mallikarjuna by trying to kill him with a bomb radio. Unfortunately, Mallikarjuna survives, but he's wounded. Mallikarjuna changes the time, so the bomb can explode earlier. When Kakarla shows up, he realizes that Mallikarjuna is still alive, but Mallikarjuna disappears again. Prabhu and other people take the patients out of the Government General Hospital. Kakarla, his wife, and Shruthi get stuck in an elevator. Prabhu finds the bomb and manages to get out of the hospital as soon as possible, so he can throw the bomb off the bridge into the water. The bomb explodes in the water. After Shruthi gets out of the elevator, a wounded Mallikarjuna breaks from the top and electrocutes Kakarla to death. Mallikarjuna also dies because of blood loss. The film ends with the reunion of Prabhu and Shruthi. It's presumed that they got married.

Cast

Production

Prabhu Deva was roped in to portray the lead role after Shankar felt that he would do justice to the role. Dubbing voice for Prabhu Deva was provided by then struggling actor Vikram. Madhuri Dixit was originally considered as the lead actress. Busy schedules meant that Nagma was chosen for the lead role. The set resembling that of Natyanjali dance school was built at Pondicherry. The song "Urvasi" was shot near the SPIC building in Guindy.

Release

Kadhalan was dubbed in Hindi as Humse Hai Muqabala and in Telugu as Premikudu and performed well in both regions. Kadhalan then went on to win four National Film Awards in 1995, securing a recognition for the soundtrack and three technical awards. Unnikrishnan won the Best Male Playback Singer with his first ever song in Tamil films for "Ennavale Ennavale". Meanwhile, A. S. Laxmi Narayanan and V. S. Murthy won an award for Best Audiography, B. Lenin and V. T. Vijayan for Best Editing while Venky picked up an award for Best Special Effects.

Legacy

The song "Urvasi Urvasi" inspired the title of Rajsirpy's 1996 film Take It Easy Urvasi, featuring Vignesh and Amudha. Furthermore, the gibberish line "Jil Jung Juk" which was spoken by Vadivelu in the film inspired the title of a film of the same name, released in 2016.

In 2014, American hip hop recording artist will.i.am and singer Cody Wise, re-created Urvasi Urvasi as It's My Birthday. It's My Birthday topped the charts in the United Kingdom, becoming will.i.am's tenth chart-topper there (including five as a member of The Black Eyed Peas).

Music

The background music score and the soundtrack were composed by A. R. Rahman. The soundtrack, released as Kadhalan: The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, features 9 songs composed by Rahman, with lyrics written by Vaali, Vairamuthu and S. Shankar who penned the Pettai Rap number. While the entire soundtrack was well received commercially and critically by reviewers, one song Mukkabla became recognised on a national level, becoming one of the most recognisable Tamil songs in history. The song was plagiarised freely by Bollywood's tunesmiths and nearly a dozen versions of the song were churned out, a feat that earned Mukkabla and Rahman a place in the Limca Book of Records. New styles were experimented with, as in the song "Pettai Rap", a Madras bashai song which was written in a rap-like style, interspersing Tamil with English words. The synthesiser and the keyboard also feature while drawing from Tamil folk music. Playback singer Unnikrishnan made his singing debut with the song "Ennavale Ennavale" and the song was composed in Kedaram raga.

The song "Urvasi" inspired the 2014 song "It's My Birthday" by American rapper will.i.am.