''Kadhal Virus'' () is a 2002 Indian
Tamil
Tamil may refer to:
People, culture and language
* Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia
**Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka
** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...
-language
romance film
Romance films involve romantic love stories recorded in visual media for broadcast in theatres or on television that focus on passion (emotion), passion, emotion, and the affectionate romantic involvement of the main characters. Typically their ...
written, directed and produced by
Kathir. The film stars
Richard Rishi
Richard Rishi is an Indian actor who predominantly appears in Tamil cinema, Tamil and Telugu cinema, Telugu films and few Malayalam cinema, Malayalam and Kannada cinema, Kannada films. He is known for ''Koottu (film), Koottu'', ''A Film by Arav ...
and
Sridevi Vijaykumar, making their Tamil debut in lead roles, with
Abbas
Abbas may refer to:
People
* Abbas (name), list of people with the name, including:
**Abbas ibn Ali (645–680), popularly known as ''Hazrat-e-Abbas'', the son of Ali ibn Abi Talib (the first imam in Shia Islam)
**Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib (567 ...
in a supporting role.
A. R. Rahman
Allah Rakha Rahman (; born A. S. Dileep Kumar; 6 January 1967), also known by the initialism ARR, is an Indian music composer, record producer, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and philanthropist known for his works in Indian cinem ...
composed the music for the film, while
Arjun Jena was the cinematographer for the project. The film tells the story of a young director, trying to pursue his dream by overcoming all hurdles. It opened on 19 December 2002, and fared poorly at the box office.
Plot
Deepak is an aspiring filmmaker trying to get his first production out. He gets a chance to go to
Coonoor to write a script for a movie where he meets and falls in love with Geetha. After a struggle, Geeta understands his love and convinces her father. The couple decide to get married once his first film is made. Deepak leaves for Chennai, promising to write letters to Geeta. However the postman who is secretly in love with Geeta hides all the letters sent by Deepak, including the later changing his address. A chasm develops between the lovers because of the communication issue caused by the postman.
Geeta convinces her father to search for Deepak and finds him successfully in a movie set. However she and her father misunderstand Deepak shouting at his assistants to be words meant for them and they leave. Deepak is heartbroken when he learns of Geeta's visit, however she is lost for ever in his life. Years go past, and now Deepak is a highly successful film director. He is in search of new faces for his upcoming movie. He comes across Rajiv, who is a poor aspiring actor. It however turns out that Rajiv is from a wealthy family, but has chosen a hard life because of his passion to be a movie star. Deepak knows of the hardships of the cine field and advises Rajiv to go back to his family giving up his dream, because Deepak feels Rajiv can lead a better life with his family. This leads to Rajiv getting rejected by other movie directors as well. Deepak does this to help Rajiv lead a good life rather than him struggling and wasting his time. Rajiv however consumes poison and attempts suicide.
Fate leads to Deepak overhearing a conversation between Geeta and her friend in a poor slum. Deepak is initially elated to see Geeta, however he is pained that she lives in such a filthy place. It turns out that Rajiv had married Geeta. She fully supports Rajiv in realising his dream, but is repulsed to learn Deepak still has feelings for her and as a result rejected Rajiv and refuses him to have a career in cine industry. This is a complete misunderstanding on her part. Deepak decides to set things right. He invites Rajiv to his studio and promises he'll be the hero of his movie, under one condition that Rajiv must not tell Geeta that he is playing the protagonist in Deepak's movie. Rajiv is elated, and promises to keep this a secret.
Deepak alters his story to suit Rajiv. Due to the tweaks, the actor originally roped in to play the hero of the movie has to be chucked out of his role. The actor pleads with Deepak not to do it as it would ruin his reputation and dream. Deepak however does not budge and goes ahead with his plan to cast Rajiv. This causes friction between the movie producer and Deepak, leading to the producer dumping him. Deepak, out of his love for Geeta, decides to produce the movie himself, taking loans from creditors. The young actor whom Deepak chucked out of his movie vents out his anger by stabbing Deepak on the movie set. Deepak is admitted to a hospital and his health deteriorates. The creditors demand their money back and Deepak settles the debt with his own money. He continues directing the movie under severe financial and physical strain. He is determined to complete the movie and goes penniless as a result. The movie is completed and released. Deepak watches the movie in a theatre sitting with commoners. He is completely broke and a pauper, but filled with happiness as he has made his lover's wish of making her husband a hero come true.
Rajiv reveals to Geeta about the movie. Geeta is upset when she finds out Deepak is the director, but realises the hardships Deepak had to undergo. By chance she runs into the postman who reveals that it was him rather than Deepak who ruined her life. Geeta goes in search of Deepak, finally meets him in the theatre only to find him dead with a smile on his face.
Cast
A sequence in the film stars guest appearances from:
Production
Srikanth, then a model, was cast in the lead role and was coached acting skills by then-assistant directors such as
Vetrimaaran
V. Chitravel Vetrimaaran (born 4 September 1975) is an Indian film director, film producer and screenwriter who primarily works in Tamil cinema. He is known for his unique filmography with major commercial success and highly critically acclaime ...
and
Mysskin
Shanmugha Raja, known professionally as Mysskin (), is an Indian film director, screenwriter, lyricist, playback singer, actor, film producer and composer.
He made his directorial debut in 2006 with '' Chithiram Pesuthadi''. His subsequent fil ...
.
Srikanth was later dropped and
Richard
Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic language">Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'st ...
, previously a child actor, was selected to make his debut in the leading role.
Early reports suggested that
Bhumika Chawla would star in the film but she later opted out.
Her role was later handed to
Sridevi Vijaykumar, who would make her Tamil debut as a leading heroine with the film. The team decided to film a sequence with several prominent directors as a part of the film's launch event.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack was composed by
A. R. Rahman
Allah Rakha Rahman (; born A. S. Dileep Kumar; 6 January 1967), also known by the initialism ARR, is an Indian music composer, record producer, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and philanthropist known for his works in Indian cinem ...
. The song "Ye Ye Ennachu Unakku" was one of the earliest South Indian film songs to be played on
Channel V India
Channel India was an Indian television channel affiliated to the international Channel launched on 27 May 1994, as Channel South Beam on the AsiaSat 2 satellite. The channel owned by STAR India and 21st Century Fox broadcasts a mix of mu ...
, then known mainly for only playing English and Hindi songs.
Reception
Malathi Rangarajan of ''
The Hindu
''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It was founded as a weekly publication in 1878 by the Triplicane Six, becoming a daily in 1889. It is one of the India ...
'' mentioned that "the screenplay is incoherent in parts" and that "the dialogue and expressions are sometimes too clichéd". She blamed the film's production delay revealing that "initially the film did kindle a lot of interest — what with A. R. Rahman as composer and a fresh lead pair to boot, but because it has been in the making for too long, the euphoria first triggered did wane a little". Malini Mannath of ''Chennai Online'' wrote "So, while taking a lot of effort to put in style and gloss, Kathir forgets to put in even half the effort in his scripting and narration. The scripting is slip-shod, the narration is jerky, and leaves much to be desired. The director totally ignores the time factor, and the continuity in logic, between scenes preceding and those following". ''
Sify
Sify Technologies Limited (formerly Satyam Infoway) is an Indian information and communications technology (ICT) company providing telecom services, data center services, cloud & managed services, transformation integration services, and ...
'' wrote, "Blame it on the avalanche of love stories hitting the screen in recent times that directors seem to have run out of ideas. Kathir, the much hyped director wanted to try out something different with ''Kathal Virus'', but has ended up in making an intolerable film". The critic added, "the music of A.R.Rahman does not fit into the narration. The lead pair is a total letdown as Richard and Sridevi looks wooden and uncomfortable". ''Cinesouth'' wrote "Cinema means business for some. To some, it is a form of art. For director Kadhir, cinema is poetry. He cant make a film without love, without poetries, without extreme close-ups of roses in bloom and without love letters getting mixed up. 'Kaadhal Virus' has all these ingredients."
The film became a box office failure, with Kathir feeling that having "Virus" in the title was wrong since it possibly led audiences to believe it was about
computer viruses
A computer virus is a type of malware that, when executed, replicates itself by modifying other computer programs and inserting its own code into those programs. If this replication succeeds, the affected areas are then said to be "infected" wit ...
.
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
2000s Indian films
2000s romance films
2000s Tamil-language films
2002 films
Films about actors
Films about film directors and producers
Films directed by Kathir
Films scored by A. R. Rahman
Films shot in Chennai
Films shot in Ooty
Indian romance films
Tamil-language Indian films
Tamil-language romance films