1994 film directed by S. Shankar
Kadhalan
(
transl.
Loverboy
) is a 1994 Indian
Tamil
-language
romantic thriller
film co-written and directed by
S. Shankar
and produced by
K. T. Kunjumon
. The film stars
Prabhu Deva
and
Nagma
(in her
Tamil cinema
debut), while
Vadivelu
,
Raghuvaran
,
Girish Karnad
, and
S. P. Balasubrahmanyam
play supporting roles. It focuses on a college student who falls in love with the
state governor
's daughter. The governor opposes this, and unknown to anyone, plans on toppling the state government.
Kunjumon decided to collaborate with Shankar for the second time after the success of
Gentleman
(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 Tamil Nadu chief minister
J. Jayalalithaa
and the then governor
Marri Chenna Reddy
into the screenplay. The dialogues were written by
Balakumaran
, cinematography was handled by
Jeeva
, and editing by
B. Lenin
and
V. T. Vijayan
.
Kadhalan
was released on 17 September 1994. The film was a major commercial success and won many recognitions and honours, including two
South Filmfare Awards
, and four
National Film Awards
.
Plot
[
edit
]
Kakarla Sathyanarayana, the
governor of Tamil Nadu
, is to open a new open market in
Madras
. A terrorist plants a bomb in the preceding night of the opening, and the market area explodes minutes after Kakarla leaves the ceremony. The
state government
is thrown into disarray.
Prabhu is the student chairman of the Government Arts College and his friend Vasanth is the joint secretary. He goes to invite Kakarla as the chief guest for the college annual day along with Vasanth, during which he sees his daughter Shruti and instantly falls in love with her. Kakarla accepts the invitation and on the function day he arrives with his wife and Shruti; Prabhu is excited to see her again. To get close to Shruti, Prabhu joins her dance school. Shruti initially hates him for disrespecting classical dance. Prabhu's father, police constable Kathiresan, advises him to impress her by learning classical dance properly and Prabhu assents. Prabhu practices day and night for a month and becomes well versed in the art. Shruti refuses to go to the
Natyanjali
festival at
Chidambaram
if Prabhu attends, for fear of him insulting the art. To disprove her, Prabhu secretly enters her house and demonstrates his dance skills to her. She is amazed and agrees to go but, due to fear of terrorism, Kakarla refuses to let her leave.
Unknown to anyone, Kakarla is an aide of the National ruling party. He was paid heavily to topple the state government by horse-trading of
MLAs
; he instead chose to create law and order disarray and dismiss the legislature using
Article 356 of the Constitution of India
. He was the one who planned the bomb at the market. Shruti escapes with Prabhu and Vasanth via motorbike, outwitting her bodyguards. Meanwhile, Kakarla and bomb specialist Mallikarjuna plan the next bomb blast at the
Nataraja Temple
where Natyanjali is to take place. Commander Ajay 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. Prabhu and Shruti are chased by the police and Malli; that night they stay in a paddy field. Shruti realises Prabhu's love for her and reciprocates. 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 then Ajay and his commandos imprison Prabhu and accuse him of planting the bomb. The police order Prabhu to confess, but he refuses while 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 all the students against Kakarla. Kakarla is embarrassed by Sruthi in an official dinner party, and they make a deal. In exchange for Prabhu's unconditional release, Shruti is sent to her paternal grandparents' house in
Tadepalligudem
,
Andhra Pradesh
. Weeks later, Prabhu and Vasanth reach Tadepalligudem and find Shruti. Her grandparents support their romance and unite them. Malli sees Prabhu and informs Kakarla over a wireless transmission which Prabhu overhears. He discovers evidence of Kakarla's attempts to blast Nataraja Temple, and learns of his plans of blasting the
Government General Hospital
. After subduing Malli, Prabhu and Vasanth escape with the evidence.
Malli informs Kakarla, who orders the police to find Prabhu. 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
undergoing treatment there. They plan to dump unconscious Prabhu and Vasanth in the hospital. However, the duo escape, and Prabhu informs Kathiresan about the bomb. Malli plants the bomb, but Kakarla betrays him by trying to kill him with a bomb radio. Malli survives, and in revenge re-times the bomb to detonate during Kakarla's scheduled visit. Prabhu searches for the bomb, while Vasanth brings students to vacate the patients. After meeting the Vice-President, Kakarla gets stuck in a lift with his wife and daughter. Shruti is helped out, while Prabhu, having located the bomb, runs to a river and throws it there; the bomb detonates without killing anyone. Malli manages to kill Kakarla with a live wire, and succumbs to his injuries. Prabhu and Shruti reunite.
Cast
[
edit
]
Production
[
edit
]
Development
[
edit
]
After the success of
Gentleman
(1993), producer
K. T. Kunjumon
of A. R. S. Film International decided to collaborate with director
S. Shankar
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
into the screenplay.
[4]
The dialogues were written by
Balakumaran
, cinematography was handled by
Jeeva
, and editing by
B. Lenin
and
V. T. Vijayan
.
Casting
[
edit
]
Shankar wanted
Prashanth
to be the lead actor, but due to other commitments he could not act in the film.
[5]
[6]
Prabhu Deva
, 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.
[4]
Dubbing voice for Prabhu Deva was provided by the then struggling actor
Vikram
.
[7]
Madhuri Dixit
was originally considered as the lead actress. Busy schedules meant that
Nagma
was instead chosen.
[4]
It is her first Tamil film.
[8]
Kunjumon initially wanted to have
Goundamani
play Vasanth, but he did not accept, citing scheduling conflicts;
Vadivelu
was instead chosen.
Girish Karnad
was not initially interested in playing the governor, but after convincing by Kunjumon, he agreed.
[4]
While
S. P. Balasubrahmanyam
played the role of Prabhu Deva's father,
Padmapriya
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.
[9]
Filming
[
edit
]
The song "
Urvasi Urvasi
" was shot near the
SPIC building
in
Guindy
,
Anna Salai
and other landmarks across Madras.
[10]
[11]
Art director
Thota Tharani
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 to make the film appealing to audiences. They decided to go all out with visual effects in the songs, making them the attraction."
[4]
Venki Sambamoorthy was chosen to handle the visual effects for the film,
[12]
and he had done by outsourcing the work to technicians from abroad. It became the final film to be shot inside the temple premises of
Nataraja Temple
after the film's crew was sued by court for shooting inside the temple.
[4]
The song "Muqabla" was shot at
Rajahmundry
. 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.
[13]
Lalitha Mahal
at
Mysore
was shown as Nagma's home in the film.
[14]
The song "Ennavale" was shot at
Kulu Manali
.
[10]
Other filming locations included
Kumbakonam
,
Chidambaram
,
Pollachi
,
Delhi
, and it took eleven months to be completed.
[15]
[10]
Music
[
edit
]
The score and soundtrack were composed by
A. R. Rahman
. with lyrics written by
Vaali
,
Vairamuthu
and director Shankar who penned the "Pettai 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
.
[16]
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.
P. Unnikrishnan
made his playback singing debut with the song "Ennavale Ennavale" which is set in
Kedaram
raga.
[17]
The dubbed Hindi version of the soundtrack,
Humse Hai Muqabala
, sold 2.5 million units in India.
[18]
"Urvasi Urvasi" inspired the 2014 song "
It's My Birthday
" by American rapper
will.i.am
.
[19]
[20]
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
and
Kiara Advani
.
[21]
"Mukkabla" was remade as "Muqabla" in Hindi for the 2020 film
Street Dancer 3D
, 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.
[22]
Release
[
edit
]
Kadhalan
was released on 17 September 1994.
[23]
The film was a major commercial success, and by the end of January 1995 was expected to gross
?
15 crore
(US$1.8 million) against a budget of
?
3 crore
(US$360,000) in South India alone.
[24]
Reception
[
edit
]
Malini Mannath of
The Indian Express
said, "[
Kadhalan
] is better than expected, and will appeal to the college crowd."
[3]
K. Vijiyan of
New Straits Times
said, "Sadly, the love story is not all that endearing as it is eclipsed by the dance songs."
[25]
R. P. R. of
Kalki
praised the film for its grandeur, but criticised its story and Prabhu Deva's performance for being overshadowed by his dancing.
[26]
Accolades
[
edit
]
P. Unnikrishnan won the
National Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer
with his first ever film song for "Ennavale Ennavale".
[27]
Controversy
[
edit
]
Congress MP
Era. Anbarasu
submitted a petition to the
Madras High Court
to ban the film, citing the negative portrayal of the governor; the High Court admitted the petition.
[30]
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.
[4]
Legacy
[
edit
]
The song "Urvasi Urvasi" inspired the title of the 1996 film
Take It Easy Urvashi
.
[31]
Furthermore, the
gibberish
line "
Jil Jung Juk
" which was spoken by Vadivelu in the film inspired the title of a
2016 film
.
[32]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
Mannath, Malini (30 September 1994).
"Better than expected"
.
The Indian Express
. p. 6
. Retrieved
4 May
2017
– via
Google News Archive
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
Suganth, M. (17 September 2019).
"How Kadhalan established Prabhudeva as an actor ? 25 years of Kadhalan"
.
The Times of India
.
Archived
from the original on 17 September 2019
. Retrieved
17 September
2019
.
- ^
Rajitha (17 April 1998).
"Vim and vigour"
.
Rediff.com
.
Archived
from the original on 21 February 1999
. Retrieved
9 May
2021
.
- ^
Suresh, M. G. (1 May 1998).
"What makes baby-face Prasanth tick?"
.
The Indian Express
. Archived from
the original
on 4 September 2013
. Retrieved
22 September
2019
.
- ^
Ramanan, V. V. (5 July 2014).
"Cinema Quiz"
.
The Hindu
.
Archived
from the original on 1 February 2015
. Retrieved
1 February
2015
.
- ^
"Nagma tests positive for COVID-19 days after her first shot of vaccine"
.
The Times of India
. 8 April 2021.
Archived
from the original on 5 September 2022
. Retrieved
5 September
2022
.
- ^
??????????? (1 December 2023).
"
'??????' ???????? ??????????????! - ?????????? ?????????"
[I was cut from
Kadhalan
! - Padmapriya interview].
Hindu Tamil Thisai
(in Tamil).
Archived
from the original on 11 December 2023
. Retrieved
12 December
2023
.
- ^
a
b
c
?????????
(7 July 2016).
"??????? ???? 33: ??????????? ??????!"
.
Hindu Tamil Thisai
(in Tamil).
Archived
from the original on 20 June 2023
. Retrieved
19 June
2023
.
- ^
Tripathi, Apoorva (23 February 2017).
"Tamil films: How north Chennai marks its presence while Kodambakkam thrives"
.
Hindustan Times
.
Archived
from the original on 17 September 2019
. Retrieved
22 September
2019
.
- ^
"They did Tamil cinema proud"
.
The Hindu
. 14 July 1995. p. 26. Archived from
the original
on 22 December 1996
. Retrieved
1 August
2023
.
- ^
"???????? ???? ????? ????????????!"
(PDF)
.
Kalki
(in Tamil). 4 November 2001. pp. 68?71
. Retrieved
1 August
2023
– via
Internet Archive
.
- ^
"??????, KGF, ??????, ??????????????? ????? ?? ????????????? ???????????? ??????? ??? ??????!"
.
Native Planet
(in Tamil). 14 December 2023.
Archived
from the original on 17 December 2023
. Retrieved
7 March
2024
.
- ^
"Take it easy? Not for Me!"
.
Kalki
(in Tamil). 4 December 1994. pp. 58?59.
Archived
from the original on 25 February 2023
. Retrieved
11 February
2023
– via
Internet Archive
.
- ^
Srinivasan, Gopal.
"The Complete Biography of A.R.Rahman ? The A.R.Rahman Page"
.
Gopalhome.tripod.com
.
Archived
from the original on 15 June 2014
. Retrieved
1 June
2014
.
- ^
Mani, Charulatha
(15 March 2013).
"Mood enhancers"
.
The Hindu
.
Archived
from the original on 17 September 2019
. Retrieved
31 October
2015
.
- ^
"Music Hits 1990?1999 (Figures in Units)"
.
Box Office India
. 2 January 2010. Archived from
the original
on 5 February 2010
. Retrieved
3 December
2017
.
- ^
"A R Rahman collaborates with will.i.am on Urvashi song remake"
.
The Times of India
. 22 May 2014.
Archived
from the original on 29 May 2014
. Retrieved
1 June
2014
.
- ^
"Humse Hai Muqabala : Lyrics and video of Songs from the Movie Humse Hai Muqabala (1994)"
.
Hindigeetmala.net
. 26 May 2014.
Archived
from the original on 28 April 2014
. Retrieved
1 June
2014
.
- ^
"Honey Singh recreates A R Rahman's 'Urvashi'
"
.
Daily News and Analysis
. 8 August 2018.
Archived
from the original on 23 November 2019
. Retrieved
23 November
2019
.
- ^
Raghuvanshi, Aakanksha (21 December 2019).
"Street Dancer 3D Song Muqabla: Prabhu Deva And Varun Dhawan Recreate The Magic Of AR Rahman's Iconic Track"
.
NDTV
.
Archived
from the original on 27 December 2019
. Retrieved
6 January
2020
.
- ^
"Kadalan"
.
The Indian Express
. 17 September 1994. p. 4
. Retrieved
7 May
2018
– via
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.
- ^
Pillai, Sreedhar (22?28 January 1995).
"Just Like Jackson"
(PDF)
.
Sunday
. pp. 70?71
. Retrieved
26 February
2024
– via
Internet Archive
.
- ^
Vijiyan, K. (1 October 1994).
"Love story eclipsed by the dance songs"
.
New Straits Times
. p. 15.
Archived
from the original on 7 April 2023
. Retrieved
13 March
2019
– via
Google News Archive
.
- ^
???. ??. ???. (30 October 1994).
"??????"
.
Kalki
(in Tamil). p. 96. Archived from
the original
on 29 July 2022
. Retrieved
25 October
2021
.
- ^
Pradeep, K. (6 December 2012).
"Making it big on the right pitch"
.
The Hindu
.
Archived
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. Retrieved
23 November
2019
.
- ^
"42nd National Film Festival"
.
International Film Festival of India
. p. 34. Archived from
the original
on 23 May 2015
. Retrieved
23 November
2019
.
- ^
"The 42nd Annual (South) Filmfare Winners"
.
Filmfare
. 1995.
Archived
from the original on 7 February 2017
. Retrieved
23 November
2019
– via
Internet Archive
.
- ^
"Cong MP moves HC to ban
Kaadalan
"
.
The Indian Express
. 9 November 1994. p. 4.
Archived
from the original on 7 April 2023
. Retrieved
10 October
2019
– via
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.
- ^
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"Benny Dayal is bringing back the classic with Project Urvasi"
.
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2021
.
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.
Sify
. 12 February 2016. Archived from
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on 19 January 2020
. Retrieved
1 November
2021
.
Bibliography
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]
External links
[
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]
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