"Kadhal Anukkal" is a Tamil

Tamil language

Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...

 song from the 2010

2010 in film

The year 2010 saw many new films released worldwide. 2010 saw a dramatic increase and prominence in the use of 3D-technology in filmmaking and film releases after the success of Avatar in the format, with releases such as Alice in Wonderland, Clash of the Titans, Jackass 3D, all animated films and...

 film Enthiran, directed by S. Shankar

S. Shankar

Shankar is an Indian film director and producer who predominantly works in Tamil cinema. He made his directional debut in Gentleman for which he was awarded the Filmfare Best Director Award...

. The song was composed by A. R. Rahman

A. R. Rahman

Allah Rakha Rahman is an Indian composer, singer-songwriter, record producer, musician, and philanthropist. Described as the world's most prominent and prolific film composer by Time, his works are notable for integrating eastern classical music with electronic music sounds, world music genres and...

, sung by Vijay Prakash

Vijay Prakash

Vijay Prakash , is a playback singer from Mysore who moved to Mumbai in 1996. He has sung in Hindi films such as Blue, Yuvvraaj, Swades, Kaal, Lakshya, Matrubhoomi, Tere Naam, Cheeni Kum, Raavan and Force. He has also performed in Kannada, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam movies...

, Shreya Ghoshal and lyrics written by Vairamuthu

Vairamuthu

Vairamuthu Ramaswamy Thevar is an award-winning Tamil poet and lyricist.Debuting in the film Nizhalgal with the lyrics for the song "Ponmalai Pozhudhu", he has now about 5800 songs to his credit as of January 2009. His partnership with the composers Ilaiyaraaja, and later A. R...

. The Hindi and Telugu version of the song are titled "Pagal Anukkan" and "Neelo Valapu" and written by Swanand Kirkire

Swanand Kirkire

Swanand Kirkire is an Indian lyricist, playback singer, writer, also a television serial writer, assistant director, dialogue writer, both in television and Hindi films.Kirkire won the National Film Award for Best Lyrics twice...

 and Vanamali

Vanamali

Mani Gopal , popularly known by his pen-name, Vanamali is a world-renowned Telugu lyricist and poet. He is the recipient of the prestigious Filmfare Best Lyricist Award. His works include the musical hit Arey Arey from Happy Days. He holds a Phd in Telugu literature from Madras...

 respectively. Mohit Chauhan

Mohit Chauhan

Mohit Chauhan is an Indian pop and playback singer, most known for his romantic ballads. He started his career singing Indian pop songs with the band Silk Route, which released two albums, Boondein and Pehchan. The song "Dooba Dooba" became a rave in the Indipop music scene. However, the band...

 was the male vocalist in the Hindi version while Shreya Ghoshal was retained in all the three versions.

Music video

Song shooting took place in Lençóis Maranhenses National Park

Lençóis Maranhenses National Park

The Lençóis Maranhenses National Park is located in Maranhão state, in northeastern Brazil, just east of the Baía de São José, between 02º19’—02º45’ S and 42º44’—43º29’ W. It is an area of low, flat, occasionally flooded land, overlaid with large, discrete sand dunes...

 in northeastern Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

. The music video featured the romantic pairing of Rajinikanth and Aishwarya Rai

Aishwarya Rai

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is an Indian film actress. She worked as a model before starting her acting career, and ultimately won the Miss World pageant in 1994...

. It was choreographed by Prabhu Deva and its shooting was completed in many weeks.

Release and reception

The song was released as part of the soundtrack album

Enthiran (soundtrack)

Enthiran is the soundtrack album to the 2010 Tamil science fiction film, Enthiran, directed by S. Shankar and starring Rajinikanth and Aishwarya Rai. The soundtrack album includes seven tracks composed by A. R. Rahman and was released Apsar Basha on July 31, 2010 by Think Music...

 of the film on 31 July 2010. However, it was aired on Suryan FM

Suryan FM

Suryan FM 93.5Sun Network owns two Radio brands: Suryan FM in Tamil Nadu and for other territories Red FM.The top slot is a result of a carefully planned thoroughly enjoyable, round-the-clock, wholesome entertainment-oriented package and there is a substantial localization of content to retain the...

 a day before the audio release. The song along with the entire soundtrack, broke several records in the Indian music industry, testified by its chart positions. Enthiran became the first album to reach the top of the US iTunes

ITunes

iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....

 chart. The song topped the charts for more than eight weeks. The Hindi version, "Pagal Anukan", peeked at #4 position in the weekly charts.

It also received favorable critical responses. A review on Rediff

Rediff.com

Rediff.com India is a news, information, entertainment, and shopping portal. It was founded in 1996 as "Rediff On The NeT" and is headquartered in Mumbai, India with offices in New Delhi and New York City, USA....

said, "Kadhal Anukkal is the melange of instruments that warble in a delighted fashion tell you that it's yet another scientifically romantic number.