Kadhal Kondein
Encyclopedia
Kaadhal Kondein is a 2003 Indian
Tamil
drama film
written and directed by Selvaraghavan
, starring his brother Dhanush
and newcomer Sonia Agarwal
in lead roles, whilst newcomers Sudeep, Nagesh
and Daniel Balaji
play supporting roles. The film, which has music scored by noted musician Yuvan Shankar Raja
and cinematography handled by Arvind Krishna
, released on 4 July 2003, winning critical acclaim and becoming a commercial success upon release, and is considered as the breakthrough film of Dhanush that catapulted him into the main foray of lead actors in the Tamil film industry. The film was later remade in Telugu
in 2004, as Nenu
with Allari Naresh
and Veda replacing Dhanush and Sonia Agarwal, respectively. It has also been remade in Kannada
in 2009, as Ravana with Yogeesh Hunsoor and Sanchita Padukone
in the lead, and in Bengali
in 2010, as Amanush
starring Soham Chakraborty and Srabanti Malakar
. Selvaraghavan
won the Filmfare Best Director Award
for this film.
The story explores the mind of a youth who is mentally and physically abused in his childhood. The lack of a mother's love haunts the protagonist throughout the film as the girl of his infatuation is killed. Becoming a psychopath, he desperately tries to woo his newly found lady love and his efforts culminate in a superb nail-biting cliffhanger.
), is an introvert but a genius. He is forcibly sent to college by the father but is a complete misfit in class. Though shunned by the rest of his class, Divya (Sonia Agarwal
) becomes his friend and he gradually warms up to her too. His feelings soon turn into love but he realizes that Divya considers him as only a friend. But he is unwilling to let her go. Meanwhile Vinod learns that Divya is in love with another classmate, Aadhi (Sudeep).
Divya's father is enraged on learning about her love. He shuts her up and prevents her from contacting anyone. But Vinod comes and meets her on the pretext of getting some old clothes for himself to wear. Pitied by Vinod, her father allows him. But Vinod uses the chance and escapes with Divya. He convinces her that she will meet Aadhi at Ooty.
Vinod has set up a secret place in Ooty for executing his plan of wooing Divya. He makes her stay with him, while convincing her by talking about the never-impending Aadhi's arrival. On one such day, he reveals his miserable past, when he was made to work for paid labour after being orphaned at an early age. He revolts against the oppression one day against the illegal child labour in vogue at his place. Promptly he is beaten black and blue for his profanity. Moreover he also loses his girlfriend to rapists in that place, who also kill her. Somehow he manages to escape from them and seeks refuge in the place of a church father.
Divya is really touched by his past. Incidentally the police and Aadhi arrive at the place. While Vinod was away to get some food, they try to make Divya understand that Vinod was a psychopath. Yet Divya scoffs at their claims, citing his gentlemanly behaviour over the days she was put up alone with him. Vinod, learning that the police have arrived at the scene, begins to indulge in mass violence. He opens fire, killing a police constable. Forcing them out of their hideout, he manages to evade the police Inspector and Aadhi and successfully brings Divya back to their original place of stay.
Divya soon identifies the tiger out of the cow's skin. Vinod pleads with her, telling her that all he wanted in his life was her presence with him. But Divya called him a friend and stated her inability to accept him as her partner for life.
Meanwhile Aadhi regains consciousness and comes back to attack Vinod and rescue his girlfriend. A violent fight follows, where Vinod defies his puny self and treats Aadhi with disdain. The fight culminates with Vinod, Aadhi and Divya teetering at the edge of a slippery cliff.
While Divya clutches a tree bark tightly, Vinod and Aadhi slip out and barely manage to hold either of her hands. Divya is forced to a situation where she needs to choose between her boyfriend and friend. Aadhi's pleas notwithstanding, Divya doesn't have the heart to kill Vinod. The epic of a cliffhanger finally ends with Vinod smiling wryly at Divya and letting go of her hands himself. He falls to his death into the abyss.
and music composer Yuvan Shankar Raja
came together again after their earlier successful collaboration in Thulluvadho Ilamai
(2001), for which Selvaraghavan worked as a writer. The soundtrack of Kaadhal Kondein released on 20 March 2003, featuring seven tracks with lyrics written by Pazhani Bharathi and Na. Muthukumar
. The music, especially the film score, received universal critical acclaim, establishing composer Yuvan Shankar Raja as one of the "most sought after music directors" in the Tamil film industry.
More than one year after the release of the film, an "original soundtrack" was released, that followed the Hollywood-style. This is said to be the first time, an original soundtrack was released for a film in India as the soundtracks released in India do not contain any film score pieces but full songs that feature in the film itself. The OST of Kaadhal Kondein contains 20 tracks overall, which includes the seven earlier released tracks, four "montage" bit songs, that featured in the film, but not in the soundtrack, and nine pieces from the actual film score, which were titled as "Theme Music".
Cinema of India
The cinema of India consists of films produced across India, which includes the cinematic culture of Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Orissa, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal. Indian films came to be followed throughout South Asia and...
Tamil
Tamil cinema
Tamil cinema is the film industry based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, dedicated to the production of films in the Tamil language. It is based in Chennai's Kodambakkam district, where several South Indian film production companies are headquartered...
drama film
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
written and directed by Selvaraghavan
Selvaraghavan
-Personal life:Selvaraghavan is the son of film director Kasthuri Raja, elder brother of actor Dhanush and has two sisters, who are both doctors. On 15 December 2006, he married actress Sonia Agarwal, with whom he had previously worked with on three films...
, starring his brother Dhanush
Dhanush
Venkatesh Prabhu Kasthuri Raja , better known by his stage name Dhanush , is an Indian film actor, occasional playback singer and lyricist, working in the Tamil film industry...
and newcomer Sonia Agarwal
Sonia Agarwal
Sonia Agarwal is an Indian film actress and model. Having predominantly acted in Tamil films, she is probably best known for her performances as Divya...
in lead roles, whilst newcomers Sudeep, Nagesh
Nagesh (actor)
Nagesh , was a Tamil film actor, mostly remembered for his roles as a comedian during the 1960s. He is regarded as one of the most prolific comedians in Tamil cinema....
and Daniel Balaji
Daniel Balaji
Daniel Balaji is a film actor from south india.-Career:His first role was in the television serial Chithi, where he played a character named Daniel...
play supporting roles. The film, which has music scored by noted musician Yuvan Shankar Raja
Yuvan Shankar Raja
Yuvan Shankar Raja is an Indian film score and soundtrack composer, singer and occasional lyricist. He has predominantly scored music for Tamil as well as several Telugu films. His musical career began in 1996, at age 16, as he composed the film score for Aravindhan...
and cinematography handled by Arvind Krishna
Arvind Krishna
Arvind Krishna is an Indian cinematographer, who has worked in the Tamil and the Hindi film industries .-Career:Arvind Krishna, always passionate about photography and studied Visual communication at the Loyola College in Chennai, after which he joined ace cinematographer P. C. Sreeram and worked...
, released on 4 July 2003, winning critical acclaim and becoming a commercial success upon release, and is considered as the breakthrough film of Dhanush that catapulted him into the main foray of lead actors in the Tamil film industry. The film was later remade in Telugu
Telugu language
Telugu is a Central Dravidian language primarily spoken in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India, where it is an official language. It is also spoken in the neighbouring states of Chattisgarh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Orissa and Tamil Nadu...
in 2004, as Nenu
Nenu
Nenu is a Telugu film released on April 15, 2004 starring Allari Naresh, Veda, and Abhishek. This film was directed by E. Sathibabu and produced by Mullapudi Brahmanandam. It's a remake of Tamil blockbuster "Kaadhal Kondein".-Plot:...
with Allari Naresh
Allari Naresh
Allari Naresh is an Indian film actor who stars in Tollywood films. He is the son of Telugu veteran director and producer EVV Satyanarayana. He got the tag Allari before his name after the success of his first film. But his debut film in Tamil, Kurumbu which was a remake of Allari.-Film...
and Veda replacing Dhanush and Sonia Agarwal, respectively. It has also been remade in Kannada
Kannada language
Kannada or , is a language spoken in India predominantly in the state of Karnataka. Kannada, whose native speakers are called Kannadigas and number roughly 50 million, is one of the 30 most spoken languages in the world...
in 2009, as Ravana with Yogeesh Hunsoor and Sanchita Padukone
Sanchita Padukone
Sanchita Padukone is an Indian film actress, who predominantly acts in Tamil and also appears in Kannada films and Telugu films. Although she hails from the same village as her namesake Deepika Padukone, she has denied media reports that the pair were cousins.- Filmography :- External links :...
in the lead, and in Bengali
Bengali language
Bengali or Bangla is an eastern Indo-Aryan language. It is native to the region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises present day Bangladesh, the Indian state of West Bengal, and parts of the Indian states of Tripura and Assam. It is written with the Bengali script...
in 2010, as Amanush
Amanush (2010 film)
All lyrics are written by Priyo Chattopadhyay and Goutam-Sushmit....
starring Soham Chakraborty and Srabanti Malakar
Srabanti Malakar
Srabanti Chatterjee Biswas , born 13 August 1987, Amritsar, India) is a Bengali Film actress.-Early Life:Early in her career, Srabanti worked in several Bengali telefilm serials, including Sudhu tomari jonnyo and Janmobhumi...
. Selvaraghavan
Selvaraghavan
-Personal life:Selvaraghavan is the son of film director Kasthuri Raja, elder brother of actor Dhanush and has two sisters, who are both doctors. On 15 December 2006, he married actress Sonia Agarwal, with whom he had previously worked with on three films...
won the Filmfare Best Director Award
Filmfare Best Director Award (Tamil)
The Filmfare Best Director Award is given by the Filmfare magazine as part of its annual Filmfare Awards South for Tamil films. The Award was first given in 1972 with P. Madhavan being the first recipient.K...
for this film.
The story explores the mind of a youth who is mentally and physically abused in his childhood. The lack of a mother's love haunts the protagonist throughout the film as the girl of his infatuation is killed. Becoming a psychopath, he desperately tries to woo his newly found lady love and his efforts culminate in a superb nail-biting cliffhanger.
Plot
Vinod (Dhanush), who has grown up under the care of a church father (NageshNagesh (actor)
Nagesh , was a Tamil film actor, mostly remembered for his roles as a comedian during the 1960s. He is regarded as one of the most prolific comedians in Tamil cinema....
), is an introvert but a genius. He is forcibly sent to college by the father but is a complete misfit in class. Though shunned by the rest of his class, Divya (Sonia Agarwal
Sonia Agarwal
Sonia Agarwal is an Indian film actress and model. Having predominantly acted in Tamil films, she is probably best known for her performances as Divya...
) becomes his friend and he gradually warms up to her too. His feelings soon turn into love but he realizes that Divya considers him as only a friend. But he is unwilling to let her go. Meanwhile Vinod learns that Divya is in love with another classmate, Aadhi (Sudeep).
Divya's father is enraged on learning about her love. He shuts her up and prevents her from contacting anyone. But Vinod comes and meets her on the pretext of getting some old clothes for himself to wear. Pitied by Vinod, her father allows him. But Vinod uses the chance and escapes with Divya. He convinces her that she will meet Aadhi at Ooty.
Vinod has set up a secret place in Ooty for executing his plan of wooing Divya. He makes her stay with him, while convincing her by talking about the never-impending Aadhi's arrival. On one such day, he reveals his miserable past, when he was made to work for paid labour after being orphaned at an early age. He revolts against the oppression one day against the illegal child labour in vogue at his place. Promptly he is beaten black and blue for his profanity. Moreover he also loses his girlfriend to rapists in that place, who also kill her. Somehow he manages to escape from them and seeks refuge in the place of a church father.
Divya is really touched by his past. Incidentally the police and Aadhi arrive at the place. While Vinod was away to get some food, they try to make Divya understand that Vinod was a psychopath. Yet Divya scoffs at their claims, citing his gentlemanly behaviour over the days she was put up alone with him. Vinod, learning that the police have arrived at the scene, begins to indulge in mass violence. He opens fire, killing a police constable. Forcing them out of their hideout, he manages to evade the police Inspector and Aadhi and successfully brings Divya back to their original place of stay.
Divya soon identifies the tiger out of the cow's skin. Vinod pleads with her, telling her that all he wanted in his life was her presence with him. But Divya called him a friend and stated her inability to accept him as her partner for life.
Meanwhile Aadhi regains consciousness and comes back to attack Vinod and rescue his girlfriend. A violent fight follows, where Vinod defies his puny self and treats Aadhi with disdain. The fight culminates with Vinod, Aadhi and Divya teetering at the edge of a slippery cliff.
While Divya clutches a tree bark tightly, Vinod and Aadhi slip out and barely manage to hold either of her hands. Divya is forced to a situation where she needs to choose between her boyfriend and friend. Aadhi's pleas notwithstanding, Divya doesn't have the heart to kill Vinod. The epic of a cliffhanger finally ends with Vinod smiling wryly at Divya and letting go of her hands himself. He falls to his death into the abyss.
Cast
- Dhanush as Vinod
- Sonia AgarwalSonia AgarwalSonia Agarwal is an Indian film actress and model. Having predominantly acted in Tamil films, she is probably best known for her performances as Divya...
as Divya - Sudeep as Aadhi
- NageshNagesh (actor)Nagesh , was a Tamil film actor, mostly remembered for his roles as a comedian during the 1960s. He is regarded as one of the most prolific comedians in Tamil cinema....
as Father Rozario - Daniel BalajiDaniel BalajiDaniel Balaji is a film actor from south india.-Career:His first role was in the television serial Chithi, where he played a character named Daniel...
as Police Inspector - Srikanth
Soundtrack
Kaadhal Kondein, director SelvaraghavanSelvaraghavan
-Personal life:Selvaraghavan is the son of film director Kasthuri Raja, elder brother of actor Dhanush and has two sisters, who are both doctors. On 15 December 2006, he married actress Sonia Agarwal, with whom he had previously worked with on three films...
and music composer Yuvan Shankar Raja
Yuvan Shankar Raja
Yuvan Shankar Raja is an Indian film score and soundtrack composer, singer and occasional lyricist. He has predominantly scored music for Tamil as well as several Telugu films. His musical career began in 1996, at age 16, as he composed the film score for Aravindhan...
came together again after their earlier successful collaboration in Thulluvadho Ilamai
Thulluvadho Ilamai
Thulluvadho Ilamai is a 2002 Indian Tamil film, directed by Kasthuri Raja, written by his son Selvaraghavan and introducing his second son Dhanush as an actor, who enacted the lead role character...
(2001), for which Selvaraghavan worked as a writer. The soundtrack of Kaadhal Kondein released on 20 March 2003, featuring seven tracks with lyrics written by Pazhani Bharathi and Na. Muthukumar
Na. Muthukumar
Na. Muthukumar is a Tamil poet and lyricist, who writes lyrics for Tamil film songs.-Career:Muthukumar began his career wanting to be a director and worked under Balu Mahendra for four years. But then he became a lyricist, beginning with the lyrics for the songs of the Tamil film Veera Nadai,...
. The music, especially the film score, received universal critical acclaim, establishing composer Yuvan Shankar Raja as one of the "most sought after music directors" in the Tamil film industry.
More than one year after the release of the film, an "original soundtrack" was released, that followed the Hollywood-style. This is said to be the first time, an original soundtrack was released for a film in India as the soundtracks released in India do not contain any film score pieces but full songs that feature in the film itself. The OST of Kaadhal Kondein contains 20 tracks overall, which includes the seven earlier released tracks, four "montage" bit songs, that featured in the film, but not in the soundtrack, and nine pieces from the actual film score, which were titled as "Theme Music".
| Track | Song | Singer(s) | Duration | Lyricist | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Devathaiyai Kandaen" | Harish Raghavendra Harish Raghavendra Harish Raghavendra is an Indian vocalist and actor from Chennai, India. His real name is Harish Ram Srinivas & son to a photographer P.V Raghavendran... |
5:11 | Na. Muthukumar Na. Muthukumar Na. Muthukumar is a Tamil poet and lyricist, who writes lyrics for Tamil film songs.-Career:Muthukumar began his career wanting to be a director and worked under Balu Mahendra for four years. But then he became a lyricist, beginning with the lyrics for the songs of the Tamil film Veera Nadai,... |
|
| 2 | "Manasu Rendum" | Shankar Mahadevan Shankar Mahadevan Shankar Mahadevan is an Indian music composer and singer. He is a part of the Shankar Ehsaan Loy trio team that composes for Indian films and a playback singer.-Early life:... |
6:41 | Pazhani Bharathi | |
| 3 | "Nenjodu" | Unnikrishnan, Sujatha Sujatha Mohan Sujatha Mohan , usually credited as Sujatha, is an award-winning Indian playback singer who is popular for singing in Malayalam and Tamil movies. She has also sung for Telugu, Kannada and Hindi movies. She is widely popular for her evergreen melodies and her sweet voice is considered to be her... |
6:25 | Na. Muthukumar Na. Muthukumar Na. Muthukumar is a Tamil poet and lyricist, who writes lyrics for Tamil film songs.-Career:Muthukumar began his career wanting to be a director and worked under Balu Mahendra for four years. But then he became a lyricist, beginning with the lyrics for the songs of the Tamil film Veera Nadai,... |
|
| 4 | "Kadhal Mattum Purivathillai" | Vijay Yesudas Vijay Yesudas Vijay Yesudas Kattassery , commonly credited as Vijay Yesudas, is an Indian playback singer, who has sung songs in Malayalam, Tamil, Hindi, Kannada, Tulu and Telugu.-Early life:... |
6:07 | Pazhani Bharathi | |
| 5 | "Thottu Thottu" | Harish Raghavendra Harish Raghavendra Harish Raghavendra is an Indian vocalist and actor from Chennai, India. His real name is Harish Ram Srinivas & son to a photographer P.V Raghavendran... |
5:16 | Na. Muthukumar Na. Muthukumar Na. Muthukumar is a Tamil poet and lyricist, who writes lyrics for Tamil film songs.-Career:Muthukumar began his career wanting to be a director and worked under Balu Mahendra for four years. But then he became a lyricist, beginning with the lyrics for the songs of the Tamil film Veera Nadai,... |
|
| 6 | "18 Vayathil" | Yuvan Shankar Raja Yuvan Shankar Raja Yuvan Shankar Raja is an Indian film score and soundtrack composer, singer and occasional lyricist. He has predominantly scored music for Tamil as well as several Telugu films. His musical career began in 1996, at age 16, as he composed the film score for Aravindhan... |
4:49 | Na. Muthukumar Na. Muthukumar Na. Muthukumar is a Tamil poet and lyricist, who writes lyrics for Tamil film songs.-Career:Muthukumar began his career wanting to be a director and worked under Balu Mahendra for four years. But then he became a lyricist, beginning with the lyrics for the songs of the Tamil film Veera Nadai,... |
|
| 7 | "Kaadhal Kondein" (Theme Music) | Instrumental Instrumental An instrumental is a musical composition or recording without lyrics or singing, although it might include some non-articulate vocal input; the music is primarily or exclusively produced by musical instruments.... |
1:07 |
Box office
- The film grossed $2 million at the box office.
- The story also opened up a new avenue of films with similar storylines like Chellamae and Kudaikkul Mazhai.