காதலன்

Kadhalan
StarringPrabhu Deva, Nagma, Vadivelu, Raghuvaran, Girish Karnad
Music ByA R Rahman
Lyric By Vairamuthu, Thirikudarasappa Kavirayar, Vaali, Shankar
SingersP. Unnikrishnan, S. P. Balasubramanyam, S. Janaki, Minmini, Kalyani Menon, Sunandha, Sujatha Mohan, Udit Narayan, Pallavi, P. Jayachandran, A R Rahman, Swarnalatha, Mano, Suresh Peters, Shahul Hameed, Theni Kunjarammal
Year 1994

Kadhalan is a 1994 Indian Tamil-language romantic thriller film written and directed by S. Shankar and produced by K. T. Kunjumon. The film stars Prabhu Deva and Nagma, while Raghuvaran, Girish Karnad and Vadivelu play other pivotal roles. The film's score and soundtrack were composed by A. R. Rahman. Kadhalan was dubbed in Hindi as Humse Hai Muqabala and in Telugu as Premikudu and performed well in both regions.

The film received positive reviews from critics and enjoyed commercial success upon release in September 1994. It won many recognitions and honours, including the Filmfare Best Director for S. Shankar and Filmfare Best Music Director for A. R. Rahman.

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 written 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. This song was penned by ace director S.Shankar. The synthesiser and the keyboard also feature while drawing from Tamil folk music. Playback singer Unnikrishnan made his singing debut with the song "Ennavale Ennavale" and the song was composed in Kedaram raga.

This soundtrack earned A. R. Rahman national acclaim. 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 song "Muqabla" was plagiarised freely by Bombay's tunesmiths and nearly a dozen versions of the song were churned out, a feat that earned "Muqabla" and Rahman a place in the Limca Book of Records, the Indian equivalent of the Guinness Book of Records.

Following the success of the film in Tamil Nadu, it was subsequently dubbed and released in Hindi with title Humse Hai Muqabala. A soundtrack album was released in Hindi which had lyrics penned by P. K. Mishra. This version of the film could not do well but the soundtrack became a runaway success in North India.

The acclaimed soundtrack earned Rahman his consecutive third Filmfare Best Music Director Award. P. Unnikrishnan got the break as a playback singer through this film. His rendition of the romantic song Ennavale Adi Ennavale won him the precious National Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer.

The Hindi version of the soundtrack, Humse Hai Muqabala, sold 2.5 million units in India. The song "Urvasi Urvasi" inspired the 2014 song "It's My Birthday" by American rapper will.i.am.

All lyrics written by Vaali, Vairamuthu, Thirikudarasappa Kavirayar, Shankar.