Kaadhal Kondein is a 2003 Indian Tamil-language romanticpsychological thriller film inspired from Fear, a 1996 American psychological thriller directed by James Foley, written and directed by Selvaraghavan, starring his brother Dhanush and newcomer Sonia Agarwal in lead roles, whilst newcomers Sudeep Sarangi, 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, in Kannada in 2009 as Ravana, in Indian Bengali in 2010 as Amanush, and in Bengali Bangladesh in 2004 as Onno Manush. 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 nail-biting cliffhanger.
Plot
Vinod, who has grown up under the care of a church father Rozario, is an introvert but a genius. He is forcibly sent to college by Rozario but is a complete misfit in class. Though shunned by the rest of his class, Divya becomes his friend, and he gradually warms up to her. His feelings soon turn into love, but he realizes that Divya considers him as only a friend and learns that she is in love with another classmate, Aadhi. Divya's father is enraged on knowing about her love. He locks her up and prevents her from contacting anyone. Vinod comes and requests to meet her on the pretext of getting some old clothes for himself to wear. Pitying Vinod, her father allows him to meet Divya. Vinod escapes with Divya and 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 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. 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. After some days he kills the woman running the orphanage and also kills the rapist, helped by other children. They manage to break the place, escape from there, and seek refuge in the place of Rozario. Divya is touched by his past. Incidentally, the police and Aadhi arrive at the place. While Vinod was away to get some food, they try to explain to Divya that Vinod is a psychopath. Divya scoffs at their claims, citing his gentlemanly behaviour over the days that she has been alone with him. Vinod, learning that the police have arrived at the scene, begins to indulge in 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 in the cow's skin. Vinod pleads with her, telling Divya that all he wanted in his life was her presence, but she 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 choose between her boyfriend and friend. Aadhi's pleas notwithstanding, Divya does not have the heart to kill Vinod, who smiles wryly at Divya and lets go of her hands himself, falling to his death in the abyss.
Following the success of the previous film Thulluvadho Ilamai, the team chose to collaborate again with the psychotic romantic thriller Kaadhal Kondein, credited as Selvaraghavan's first film. The venture, produced by his home production, also marked the first collaboration of Selvaraghavan with cinematographer Arvind Krishna, whom he would later associate with newcomer Sonia Agarwal. Selvaraghavan had written the script for the film in the late 1990s and had first narrated the story to Dhanush in their shared bedroom at home, before asking him to play the lead role of Vinod.
Soundtrack
For Kaadhal Kondein, director Selvaraghavan and music composer Yuvan Shankar Raja came together again after their earlier successful collaboration in Thulluvadho Ilamai, 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 Tamilfilm industry. More than one year after the release of the film, an "original soundtrack" was released, that followed the Hollywood-style. It was said to be the first time, that 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".
Release
The film opened in July 2003 to critical acclaim and commercial success. A reviewer from The Hindu noted, "his story, screenplay, dialogue and direction are focussed and hit the bull's eye straightway — hardly missing the mark."
Since its release, the film has been remade into several Indian languages; Boney Kapoor bought the rights to remake the film in Hindi, but the project did not materialise. The film was later remade in Telugu as Nenu, in Kannada as Ravana, in Indian Bengali as Amanush, and in Bangladeshi Bengali as Onno Manush.
Legacy
The film provided career breakthroughs for both Selvaraghavan and Dhanush in the Tamil film industry. The success of the song "Devathaiyai Kandaen" prompted Boopathy Pandian to name his 2005 film starring Dhanush after the song title.
