Kadhalan
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''Kaadhalan'' () is a 1994 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
romantic thriller A romantic thriller is a narrative that combines elements of both the romance and thriller genres. The goal of romantic thrillers is to entertain audiences by evoking discomfort through moments of suspense along with heightened feelings of anxi ...
film directed by
S. Shankar Shankar Shanmugam (born 17 August 1963) is an Indian film director, producer, and screenwriter, primarily known for his work in Tamil cinema. Known as one of the most prominent directors in the history of Indian cinema, he has also worked in H ...
and produced by K. T. Kunjumon, who co-wrote the story. The film stars
Prabhu Deva Prabhu Deva (born 3 April 1973) is an Indian dance choreographer, film director, producer and actor who has worked predominantly in Tamil language, Tamil, Hindi and Telugu language, Telugu language films also appeared in few Kannada and Malayal ...
and
Nagma Nagma Arvind Morarji (born Nandita Arvind Morarji; 25 December 1974), known mononyomusly as Nagma. is an Indian politician and former actress. She gained prominence as a leading actress in the 1990s and appeared in films across various India ...
(in her debut in
Tamil cinema Tamil cinema is the segment of Indian cinema dedicated to the production of motion pictures in the Tamil language, the main spoken language in the state of Tamil Nadu. It is nicknamed Kollywood, a portmanteau of the names Kodambakkam, a Ch ...
), alongside
Vadivelu Kumaravadivel Natarajan (born 12 September 1960) known professionally as Vadivelu, is an Indian actor, comedian and occasional playback singer, having acted mainly in Tamil cinema. He has at least 290 credits to his name. He was a recipient of ...
,
Raghuvaran Raghuvaran Velayuthan Nair (11 December 1958 – 19 March 2008) was an Indian actor who predominantly acted in films made in South India. He has acted in more than 200 Tamil language, Tamil, Telugu language, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi ...
,
Girish Karnad Girish Karnad (19 May 1938 – 10 June 2019) was an Indian playwright, actor, film director, Kannada writer, and a Jnanpith awardee, who predominantly worked in Kannada, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Marathi films. His rise as a playwr ...
and S. P. Balasubrahmanyam. In the film, a college student falls in love with the daughter of the
state governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the type of political region or polity, a ''governor'' ma ...
, but soon becomes embroiled in a conspiracy involving the governor. Kunjumon decided to collaborate with Shankar for the second time after the success of ''
Gentleman ''Gentleman'' (Old French: ''gentilz hom'', gentle + man; abbreviated ''gent.'') is a term for a chivalrous, courteous, or honorable man. Originally, ''gentleman'' was the lowest rank of the landed gentry of England, ranking below an esquire ...
'' (1993) and the story Shankar developed was that of a romance between an ordinary man and a wealthy girl; to increase the scale of the project, Kunjumon incorporated the cold-war between the then
Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu The chief minister of Tamil Nadu is the head of government, chief executive of the Indian Federated state, state of Tamil Nadu. In accordance with the Constitution of India, the Governor (India), governor is a state's ''de jure'' head, but ''de ...
J. Jayalalithaa and governor
Marri Chenna Reddy Marri Chenna Reddy (13 January 1919 – 2 December 1996) was an Indian politician active in several states. He was the 6th Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh from 1978 to 1980 and from 1989 to 1990. He also served as the governor of Uttar Prades ...
into the script. The dialogues were written by
Balakumaran Balakumaran (5 July 1946 – 15 May 2018) was an Indian Tamil language, Tamil writer and author of over 200 novels, 100 short stories, and dialogue/screenplay writer for 23 films. He also contributed to Tamil periodicals such as ''Kalki (magazi ...
, while the music 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 cinematography was handled by Jeeva and editing by B. Lenin and V. T. Vijayan. ''Kaadhalan'' was released on 17 September 1994 and became a major commercial success. The film earned several accolades, including two
Filmfare Awards South The Filmfare Awards South are annual awards that honour artistic and technical excellence in the Telugu cinema, Tamil cinema, Malayalam cinema and Kannada cinema. They are presented by ''Filmfare'' magazine of The Times Group. When it was intr ...
and four
National Film Awards The National Film Awards are awards for artistic and technical merit given for "Excellence within the Cinema of India, Indian film industry". Established in 1954, it has been administered, along with the International Film Festival of India ...
.


Plot

Kakarla Sathyanarayana, the
governor of Tamil Nadu The governor of Tamil Nadu is the head of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Governor (India), Governors in India have similar powers and functions at the state level as those of the president of India at the central level. They exist in the Sta ...
, inaugurates a new open market in
Madras Chennai, also known as Madras ( its official name until 1996), is the capital and largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost state of India. It is located on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal. According to the 2011 Indian ce ...
, but as Mallikarjuna, a bomb specialist, planted a bomb the night before, the market area explodes minutes after Kakarla leaves, leaving the
state government A state government is the government that controls a subdivision of a country in a federal form of government, which shares political power with the federal or national government. A state government may have some level of political autonom ...
thrown into disarray. Prabhu, the union chairman of a college and his friend Vasanth, the joint secretary, invite Kakarla as the chief guest for the college annual day. Prabhu sees Kakarla's daughter Shruti and instantly falls in love with her. Kakarla accepts the invitation and arrives on the function day with his wife and Shruti. Prabhu joins Shruti's dance school to get close to her. Shruti hates Prabhu for disrespecting classical dance. Prabhu follows the advice of his father Kathiresan, a police constable, to impress Shruti by learning classical dance properly. He practices continuously for a month and becomes well-versed in the art. Shruti refuses to go to the Natyanjali festival at
Chidambaram Chidambaram is a major town and municipality in Cuddalore district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, on the banks of the Vellar River where it meets the Bay of Bengal. It is the headquarters of the Chidambaram taluk. The town is believed to b ...
if Prabhu attends as he would insult the art. To disprove her, Prabhu secretly enters her house and demonstrates his dance skills, thus impressing Shruti. She agrees to attend Natyanjali, but Kakarla refuses to let Shruti attend Natyanjali due to fear of terrorism. Unknown to anyone, Kakarla is an aide of the National ruling party and was paid heavily to topple the state government by horse-trading of
MLAs A Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) is a representative elected to sit in a legislative assembly. The term most commonly refers to members of the legislature of a federated state or an autonomous region, but is also used for several nationa ...
. Kakarla instead chose to create law and order disarray and dismiss the legislature using Article 356 of the Constitution of India. He orchestrated the bombing at the market. Shruti escapes with Prabhu and Vasanth via motorbike, outwitting her bodyguards. Kakarla and Malli plan the next bomb blast at the Nataraja Temple, where Natyanjali is to take place. Ajay, a commando, informs Kakarla that Shruti left with two men to attend Natyanjali. Kakarla orders Malli to remove the bomb, but he faces an accident on the way, resulting in a broken leg. Shruti realises Prabhu's love for her and reciprocates his feelings. They reach Chidambaram as planned. Due to Malli's inability to remove the bomb, Kakarla secretly informs the police and his guards. Ajay and the squad reach the temple, remove the bomb and bring Shruti back by helicopter. Kakarla doubts Shruti's virginity as she was with Prabhu for a night. Upset at this, Shruti meets with Prabhu and asks him to marry her, but Ajay and his commandos imprison Prabhu and accuse him of planting the bomb. The police order Prabhu to confess, but he refuses and is tortured. Shruti becomes embittered over his imprisonment and expresses her love for him to her parents. Vasanth informs all the students about the happenings and a strike is called by the students against Kakarla. Kakarla and Sruthi reach an agreement: in exchange for Prabhu's unconditional release, Shruti is sent to her paternal grandparents' house in
Tadepalligudem Tadepalligudem is a city in West Godavari district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Tadepalligudem is the judicial headquarter of West Godavari district, West Godavari. It is a Selection Grade municipality and the mandal headquarters of ...
. Some weeks later, Prabhu and Vasanth reach Tadepalligudem and find Shruti. Shruti's grandparents support their romance and unite them. Malli sees Prabhu and informs Kakarla, which Prabhu overhears. Prabhu discovers evidence of Kakarla's attempts to blast the temple and learns about his plans to blast the Government General Hospital. After subduing Malli, Prabhu and Vasanth escape with the evidence. Malli informs Kakarla, who orders the police to find Prabhu. The police arrest Prabhu and Vasanth and Kakarla tells Malli to make the bomb detonate after his visit to the hospital to see the
Vice President of India The vice president of India (ISO: ) is the deputy to the head of state of the Republic of India, i.e. the president of India. The office of vice president is the second-highest constitutional office after the president and ranks second in t ...
undergoing treatment there. They plan to dump an unconscious Prabhu and Vasanth in the hospital. However, the two escape and Prabhu informs Kathiresan about the bomb. Malli plants it, but Kakarla tries to kill him with a bomb radio. Malli survives and, in revenge, re-times the bomb to detonate Kakarla's scheduled visit. Prabhu searches for the bomb, while Vasanth brings students to vacate the patients. After meeting the Vice President, Kakarla is trapped in a lift with his wife and Shruti. Shruti and her mother are helped out, while Prabhu, having located the bomb, throws it into a river; the bomb detonates without killing anyone. Prabhu and Shruthi reunite, while Malli kills Kakarla with a live wire, and succumbs to his injuries.


Cast


Production


Development

After the success of ''
Gentleman ''Gentleman'' (Old French: ''gentilz hom'', gentle + man; abbreviated ''gent.'') is a term for a chivalrous, courteous, or honorable man. Originally, ''gentleman'' was the lowest rank of the landed gentry of England, ranking below an esquire ...
'' (1993), producer K. T. Kunjumon of A. R. S. Film International decided to collaborate with director
S. Shankar Shankar Shanmugam (born 17 August 1963) is an Indian film director, producer, and screenwriter, primarily known for his work in Tamil cinema. Known as one of the most prominent directors in the history of Indian cinema, he has also worked in H ...
for the second time. Shankar narrated the plot of "a young dancer from a normal middle-class household falling in love with a girl from a very influential household". Kunjumon liked the plot and, "to turn this into as grand a film as was possible", he decided to incorporate the cold-war between the then Tamil Nadu chief minister J. Jayalalithaa and the then governor
Marri Chenna Reddy Marri Chenna Reddy (13 January 1919 – 2 December 1996) was an Indian politician active in several states. He was the 6th Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh from 1978 to 1980 and from 1989 to 1990. He also served as the governor of Uttar Prades ...
into the screenplay. The dialogues were written by
Balakumaran Balakumaran (5 July 1946 – 15 May 2018) was an Indian Tamil language, Tamil writer and author of over 200 novels, 100 short stories, and dialogue/screenplay writer for 23 films. He also contributed to Tamil periodicals such as ''Kalki (magazi ...
, cinematography was handled by Jeeva, and editing by B. Lenin and V. T. Vijayan.


Casting

Shankar wanted
Prashanth Prashanth Thiagarajan (born 6 April 1973), known professionally as Prashanth, is an Indian actor, businessman, playback singer and film producer known for his works predominantly in Tamil cinema. Besides Tamil films, he has also appeared in f ...
to be the lead actor, but due to other commitments he could not act in the film.
Prabhu Deva Prabhu Deva (born 3 April 1973) is an Indian dance choreographer, film director, producer and actor who has worked predominantly in Tamil language, Tamil, Hindi and Telugu language, Telugu language films also appeared in few Kannada and Malayal ...
, who worked as a dancer for Kunjumon's previous ventures, was later finalised by Kunjumon. Shankar was initially reluctant to have him as the lead actor as distributors felt audience would not accept him in that role because of his "lean physique" and "bearded look". However Kunjumon was firm with his choice and wanted to prove distributors wrong. Dubbing voice for Prabhu Deva was provided by the then struggling actor Vikram.
Madhuri Dixit Madhuri Dixit Nene (Maiden and married names, née Dixit, ; born 15 May 1967) is an Indian actress and television personality. She has appeared in Madhuri Dixit filmography, over 70 Hindi films. Praised by critics for her performances and danc ...
was originally considered as the lead actress. Busy schedules meant that
Nagma Nagma Arvind Morarji (born Nandita Arvind Morarji; 25 December 1974), known mononyomusly as Nagma. is an Indian politician and former actress. She gained prominence as a leading actress in the 1990s and appeared in films across various India ...
was instead chosen. It is her first Tamil film. Kunjumon initially wanted to have
Goundamani Subramaniyan Karuppaiya (born 25 May 1939), known by his stage name Goundamani, is an Indian actor and comedian who works in Tamil cinema. He is known for his comic duo partnership in Tamil language, Tamil films with fellow actor Senthil. The p ...
play Vasanth, but he did not accept, citing scheduling conflicts;
Vadivelu Kumaravadivel Natarajan (born 12 September 1960) known professionally as Vadivelu, is an Indian actor, comedian and occasional playback singer, having acted mainly in Tamil cinema. He has at least 290 credits to his name. He was a recipient of ...
was instead chosen.
Girish Karnad Girish Karnad (19 May 1938 – 10 June 2019) was an Indian playwright, actor, film director, Kannada writer, and a Jnanpith awardee, who predominantly worked in Kannada, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Marathi films. His rise as a playwr ...
was not initially interested in playing the governor, but after convincing by Kunjumon, he agreed. While S. P. Balasubrahmanyam played the role of Prabhu Deva's father,
Padmapriya Padmapriya (born Padmalochani; died 16 November 1997) was an Indian actress who worked in Kannada, Tamil language, Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu language, Telugu films. Her first movie was in Telugu, ''Adapillala Tandri'' (1974). In Kannada, sh ...
was reluctant to portray Prabhu Deva's mother; she relented after believing the role would give her a break, like how '' Keladi Kannmanii'' (1990) did for Radhika who played Balasubrahmanyam's pair in that film. However, the majority of Padmapriya's scenes did not make the final cut.


Filming

The song " Urvasi Urvasi" was shot near the SPIC building in
Guindy Guindy is a neighborhood of Chennai, Tamil Nadu. The Kathipara junction where Anna Salai, Mount-Poonamallee Road, Inner Ring Road, 100 Feet Road or Jawaharlal Nehru Road, and GST Road meet here. It is one of the important nodal points of ...
,
Anna Salai Anna Salai (), named for C. N. Annadurai, formerly known as St. Thomas Mount Road or simply Mount Road, is an arterial road in Chennai, India. It starts at the Cooum Creek, south of Fort St George, leading in a south-westerly direction towa ...
and other landmarks across Madras. Art director
Thota Tharani Thota Tharani is an Indian art director, production designer and painter known for his work in Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Hindi cinema. With over six decades of experience, he is recognized for his detailed set designs and visual storytellin ...
specially created a glass framed bus for the song. Since the crew made a film with a relatively new cast it created doubts on the trade, so the crew decided "to use the newest technology at that time", hoping this move would help the film appeal to audiences. The crew decided to use visual effects extensively in the song sequences, intending to make them the attraction. Venki Sambamoorthy was chosen to supervise the visual effects, and he had done so by outsourcing the work to technicians from abroad. It became the final film to be shot inside the premises of Nataraja Temple after the film's crew was sued by court for shooting inside the temple. The song "Muqabla" was shot at
Rajahmundry Rajahmundry ( ), officially Rajamahendravaram, is a city in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh and district headquarters of East Godavari district. It is the fifth most populated city in the state. During British rule, the district of Rajahmu ...
. Kasi, who designed costumes for the song had to design around 400 costumes within a short time as the dancers had only one day callsheet.
Lalitha Mahal The Lalitha Mahal, now renamed Lalitha Mahal Palace Hotel, is a luxury hotel located in a former royal residence, and the second largest palace in the southern Indian city of Mysore, Karnataka, after the Mysore Palace. It is located near the ...
at
Mysore Mysore ( ), officially Mysuru (), is a city in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. It is the headquarters of Mysore district and Mysore division. As the traditional seat of the Wadiyar dynasty, the city functioned as the capital of the ...
was shown as Nagma's home in the film. The song "Ennavale" was shot at Kulu Manali. Other filming locations included
Kumbakonam Kumbakonam (formerly spelt as Coombaconum or Combaconum), or Kudanthai, is a city municipal corporation in the Thanjavur district in the States of India, Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located from Thanjavur and from Chennai and is the hea ...
,
Chidambaram Chidambaram is a major town and municipality in Cuddalore district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, on the banks of the Vellar River where it meets the Bay of Bengal. It is the headquarters of the Chidambaram taluk. The town is believed to b ...
,
Pollachi Pollachi is a town and municipality in Coimbatore district of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the administrative headquarters of Pollachi taluk. It is situated near the center of the South Indian Peninsula, surrounded by Western Gha ...
,
Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...
, and it took eleven months to be completed.


Music

The score and soundtrack were 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 ...
, with lyrics written by Vaali,
Vairamuthu Vairamuthu Ramasamy (born 13 July 1953) is an Indian lyricist, poet, and novelist working in the Tamil film industry. He is a prominent figure in the Tamil literary world. A master's graduate from the Pachaiyappa's College in Chennai, he firs ...
and director Shankar who penned the "Petta Rap" number. The song "Mukkabla" became popular and was plagiarised freely by tunesmiths. 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 The ''Limca Book of Records'' is an annual reference book published in India documenting world records held by Indians. The records are further categorised into education, literature, agriculture, medical science, business, sports, nature, adve ...
. New styles were experimented with, as in "Petta Rap", a
Madras Bashai Madras Bashai (Tamil: , ) is a Variety (linguistics), variety of the Tamil language spoken by native people in the city of Chennai (previously known as Madras) in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. In the past it was sometimes considered a pidgin, ...
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. P. Unnikrishnan made his playback singing debut with the song "Ennavale Ennavale" which is set in
Kedaram Kedaram (pronounced kēdāram) is a rāga A raga ( ; , ; ) is a melodic framework for improvisation in Indian classical music akin to a musical mode, melodic mode. It is central to classical Indian music. Each raga consists of an array of ...
raga. The dubbed Hindi version of the soundtrack, ''Humse Hai Muqabala'', sold 2.5 million units in India. "Urvasi Urvasi" inspired the 2014 song " It's My Birthday" by American rapper
will.i.am William James Adams Jr. (born March 15, 1975), known professionally as will.i.am (pronounced "will I am"), is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer and actor. He is the frontman of the musical group Black Eyed Peas, which he ...
. It was remade in Hindi as a single, "Urvashi" in 2018, sung and composed by Yo Yo Honey Singh, with the music video starring
Shahid Kapoor Shahid Kapoor (; born 25 February 1981) is an Indian actor who appears in Hindi films. Initially recognised for portraying romantic roles, he has since taken on parts in action films and thrillers, and is the recipient of List of awards and n ...
and Kiara Advani. "Mukkabla" was remade as "Muqabla" in Hindi for the 2020 film ''
Street Dancer 3D ''Street Dancer 3D'' is a 2020 Indian Hindi-language dance film directed by Remo D'Souza and produced by Bhushan Kumar, Divya Khosla Kumar, Krishan Kumar and Lizelle D'Souza under the banners of T-Series and R.D. Entertainment. The film star ...
'', in which Prabhu Deva stars as one of the leads, and an accompanying video song was released in late 2019 as promotion for the film.


Release

''Kaadhalan'' was released on 17 September 1994. The film was a major success, and by the end of January 1995 was expected to gross against a budget of in South India alone.


Reception

Malini Mannath of ''
The Indian Express ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932 by P. Varadarajulu Naidu. It is headquartered in Noida, owned by the ''Indian Express Group''. It was later taken over by Ramnath Goenka. In 1999, eight y ...
'' said, " 'Kaadhalan''is better than expected, and will appeal to the college crowd." K. Vijiyan of ''
New Straits Times The ''New Straits Times'' is an English-language newspaper published in Malaysia. It is Malaysia's oldest newspaper still in print (though not the first), having been founded as a local offshoot of Singapore-based ''The Straits Ti ...
'' said, "Sadly, the love story is not all that endearing as it is eclipsed by the dance songs." R. P. R. of ''
Kalki Kalki (), also called Kalkin, is the prophesied tenth and final incarnation of the Hinduism, Hindu god Vishnu. According to Vaishnavism, Vaishnava cosmology, Kalki is destined to appear at the end of the Kali Yuga, the last of the four ages i ...
'' praised the film for its grandeur, but criticised its story and Prabhu Deva's performance for being overshadowed by his dancing.


Accolades

P. Unnikrishnan won the
National Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer The National Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer is an honour presented annually at the National Film Awards of India since 1968 to a male playback singer for the best renditions of songs from films within the Indian film industry. The awar ...
with his first ever film song for "Ennavale Ennavale".


Controversy

Congress MP Era. Anbarasu submitted a petition to the
Madras High Court The High Court of Judicature at Madras is a High Courts of India, High Court located in Chennai, India. It has appellate jurisdiction over the state of Tamil Nadu and the union territory of Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry. It is one of ...
to ban the film, citing the negative portrayal of the governor; the High Court admitted the petition. Kunjumon said he received calls from governor's office ordering him to remove certain scenes from the film. However, Jayalalithaa was impressed with the film, supported Kunjumon and no scenes were removed.


Legacy

The song " Urvasi Urvasi" inspired the title of the 1996 film '' Take It Easy Urvashi''. Furthermore, the gibberish line "Jil Jung Juk" which was spoken by Vadivelu in the film inspired the title of a 2016 film. The line "Take It Easy Policy" from "Urvasi Urvasi" was used as the title of Prabhu Deva's 2021 autobiography. "Petta Rap" was remixed in the 2024 film of the same name, also starring Prabhu Deva.


References


Bibliography

*


External links

* * {{S. Shankar 1990s Indian films 1990s political thriller films 1990s romantic thriller films 1990s Tamil-language films 1994 controversies 1994 films Fictional portrayals of the Tamil Nadu Police Films about contract killing in India Films about corruption in India Films about police brutality Films about terrorism in India Films directed by S. Shankar Films produced by K. T. Kunjumon Films scored by A. R. Rahman Films set in Andhra Pradesh Films set in Chennai Films set in universities and colleges Films set in Uttar Pradesh Films shot in Delhi Films shot in Manali, Himachal Pradesh Films shot in Mysore Films shot in Pollachi Films shot in Puducherry Films shot in Rajahmundry Films shot in Uttar Pradesh Films shot in Varanasi Films that won the Best Audiography National Film Award Films that won the Best Special Effects National Film Award Films whose editor won the Best Film Editing National Award Indian films with live action and animation Indian political thriller films Indian romantic thriller films Political controversies in film Political controversies in India Tamil-language Indian films Tamil-language romantic thriller films Tamil-language political thriller films Works subject to a lawsuit