Cast

Credited cast:
	Prabhu Deva	...	Prabhu Deva
	Nagma	...	Nagma
	Raghuvaran	...	Raghuvaran
	S. P. Balasubrahmanyam	...	S. P. Balasubrahmanyam
	Vadivelu	...	Vadivelu
	Manorama	...	Manorama
	Ajay Rathnam	...	Ajay Rathnam
	Dhamu	...	Prabhu friend

Storyline

The film received positive reviews from critics and enjoyed huge commercial success upon its release in September 1994. It won several recognitions and honours, including four National Film Awards.


Prabhu, the chairman of Chennai's Government Arts College, is asked by his Principal to invite the Governor of Tamil Nadu, Kakarlal Sathyanarayana Moorthy, to be the chief guest on the annual day of the college. When he goes to invite Kakarlal, he bumps into his daughter, Shruthi, instantly falling in love with her. To propose his love for her, he even joins in 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, Kakarlal 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 terrorist Mallikarjuna who is the mastermind of all the bomb blasts. Prabhu realizes that Mallikarjuna has been working for Kakarlal to kill innocent civilians with bombs. Kakarlal pays Mallikarjuna to put a bomb in Government General Hospital. Kakarlal betrays Mallikarjuna by killing him with a (bomb radio). Unfortunately, Mallikarjuna survives but he's wounded. Mallikarjuna changes the time, so the bomb can explode earlier. When Kakarlal shows up, he realizes that Mallikarjuna's still alive but Mallikarjuna disappears again. Prabhu and other people take the patients out of Government General Hospital. Kakarlal, Kakarlal's 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 Kakalal to death. Mallikarjuna also dies because of blood loss. It is weird for this film to end very sadly when evil Kakalal dies but his family doesn't know the truth. The film ends with the reunion of Prabhu and Shruthi. It's presumed that Prabhu and Shruthi got married.


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.


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 scored 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.


The song "Urvasi" inspired the 2014 song "Birthday" by American rapper will.i.am.   

Details

Box Office

Company Credits

Technical Specs