1. Plot

2. Cast

3. Production

4. Soundtrack

5. Release
    Critical reception  Box office 

6. References

Plot

The film director Velu Prabhakaran (Velu Prabhakaran) has directed a controversial film containing nudity and the censor board banned the release of the film thus Velu Prabhakaran is caught in legal battles to release the film. One day, after a court hearing, goons attack Velu Prabhakaran and he is rushed to hospital in a serious condition. The police investigate the attempted murder and a female journalist (Stefi), who has recently interviewed Velu Prabhakaran, is interrogated by the police. A few days ago, Velu Prabhakaran told her the story of his film who was about three women: Raani (Shirley Das), Thangam (Preity Rangayani) and Saroja (Babilona) who hailed from the village Vishnupuram. The three women have one common problem: lust.

Vishnupuram is affected by the communal riots, riots frequently broke out between upper-caste people and lower-caste people. During a riot, the lower-caste girl Raani is saved by the upper-caste boy Sakthi (Jai Rathan) and they then fall in love with each other. Sakthi is the son of the heartless caste leader Reddiar while Raani is the niece of the brute Karuppaiah, Reddiar and Karuppaiah are archenemies. A bachelor school teacher (Adhiroopan) falls under the spell of his maid Thangam, a poor single mother. Thangam was dumped by her boyfriend after she was pregnant by him, therefore, Thangam was rejected by her brother Pazhani and her sister-in-law Saroja. One day, the teacher gives Thangam a glass of milk mixed with sleeping pills and rapes her. He promises to marry Thangam but later, he announces to her that his family arrange his wedding with a woman of his caste. Feeling betrayed by a man for the second time, Thangam spits on his face and he leaves the village. Saroja, who would do anything for money, has an affair with Reddiar, one day, Pazhani caught Saroja sleeping with Reddiar and Reddiar brutally kills him.

After telling the story, Velu Prabhakaran shared with the journalist his troubled love life and the reason which prompted to direct this film. Back to the present, the police arrest the culprit: Velu Prabhakaran's ex-wife, who wanted to hide her previous marriage from her new husband, hired goons to kill him.

A few months later, Velu Prabhakaran, now healed, meets the journalist and tells her the climax of his film. The young lovers decided to elope but Reddiar catches the young lovers and beheads Raani, in turn, his son Sakthi murders him. The journalist then proposes her love to Velu Prabhakaran, he tells her that he doesn't believe in love but he believes in lust.

Cast

• Shirley Das as Raani
• Preity Rangayani as Thangam
• Stefi as Journalist
• Velu Prabhakaran as Himself
• Jai Rathan as Sakthi
• Adhiroopan as Teacher
• Sampath Ram as Karuppaiah
• Babilona as Saroja
• Sundar
• Srilekha as Raani's mother
• Poochi Senthil
• Suruli Manohar
• Aavadi Manoharan
• Anbu Thennarasu
• Saakshi Siva as Police Inspector

Production

Velu Prabhakaran began work on the production of a film titled Kadhal Arangam in 2004, writing the story, screenplay and dialogue for the project.^[3] Velu Prabhakaran revealed that the film would expose the falsehood of kama in society, though he later gave directorial credits of the film to his brother Velu Raja. The film also takes on the prevailing caste system and explores sexuality. Thus, the censors were not willing to give it a certificate due to objectionable scenes and an ongoing battle with the censor board emerged in December 2004.^[4] In November 2006, Velu Prabhakaran held an emotional appeal at a press conference stating that "Suppression is what causes a lot of sex crimes. That is not so in western countries, that's why they don't make a big deal about displaying the body. Here, just the lack of a davani has the audience all agog".^[5] In 2009, the team finally agreed to tone down the scenes and mute certain dialogues and to compromise with the censors the film, they changed the title from Kadhal Arangam to Kadhal Kadhai.^[6][7] The director had reportedly inserted a few elements from this story of his life into the film and in the title credits of the film, Velu Prabhakaran included an extended scene which narrates his opinions and difficulties of the way the film released; while he also played the role of a film director in the venture, noting that parts were autobiographical.^[8][9]

Soundtrack

The film score and the soundtrack were composed by film composer Ilaiyaraaja. The soundtrack, released in 2009, features 2 tracks with lyrics written by Muthulingam and Muhammed Metha.^[10]

Release

The film was released on 17 July 2009 alongside Achchamundu! Achchamundu! and Vedigundu Murugesan.^[11]

Critical reception

The film mostly received negative reviews upon release. Indiaglitz stated, "The film takes a highly moral stance against exploitation of a woman's physique. But sadly, the movie is full of the exploitation of not one, but three women".^[12] A critic said, "Prabhakaranin's ‘Kadhal Kadhai’ is a film meant for absent-minded sex maniacs who can get gratified with their inner feelings watching this X-rated flick".^[13] Behindwoods.com rated the film 0 out of 5 and wrote, "If you must watch Kaadhal Kadhai, we would advise you not to tell home. You wouldn't want a dent in your morality or worst, sanity, would you ?".^[14] A critic from Bharatstudent rated the film 1 out of 5 and said, "More than documentary, less than porn film, please don't watch it".^[15]

Box office

The film took a good opening thanks to some steamy scenes and ended up as an average grosser at the Chennai box office.^{[16][17][18][19]} Despite being average grosser at the box-office, the film was dubbed into Telugu as Manmadhulu and released on 4 December 2009 by producer V. Suresh Chowdary.^[20]

References

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