*ing Bharath, Sandhya, Sukumar, Dhandapani, Alax, Krishnamoorthi, Arunkumar, Charanya, Meenakshi, Jeya Durga, Kousalya....
	'Kadhal' Songs
	'Kadhal' Preview
	Producer: Shankar (Banner - 'S' Pictures)
	Director: Balaji Sakthivel
	Music: Joshua Sridhar
Year of release: Dec 2004

'Kadhal' is based on the real life incident of director Balaji Shakthivel. The movie is a bold attempt by director Shakthivel to bring in realism in film making and foregoing the temptation to make it commercially appealing. The film is totally character driven. It is a love story without frills but the climax of the lover boy going around as a madman and the girl's hubby accepting the lover boy also seems to be bit contrived though the director claims that the inspiration for the subject came to him when he spoke to the hubby who traveled with him.

Story
Aishwarya (debutant Sandhya) is the only daughter of the local bigwig (Dhandapani) in Madurai who is a plus2 student of St. Joseph’s school. Murugan (Bharath) is mobike mechanic and stays in the nearby slums with his mother. Aishwarya meets him on her way to school and love sparkles between them instantly. In the meantime Aishwarya attains puberty and her parents fix her marriage with her cousin from America. Aishwarya who is against the proposal, persuades Murugan and they elope to Chennai. They go to their only friend Stephen (Sukumar), a road side small time vendor who stays in a bachelor’s mansion. He with his other mansion friends gets Murugan married to Aishwarya. In the meantime Aishwarya’s uncle (Krishna Moorthy) manages to trace both of them and brings them back home promising to settle the issue amicably with Aish’s father. The story takes a turn in the climax.
Music
Joshua Sridhar’s music is impressive.

Performance
Bharath has improved leaps and bounds as an actor and he has come out with a natural and subdued performance. It is hard to believe that Sandhya is a debutant and she is a scene stealer. The rest of the cast are all making their first appearance on screen are top notch. The 7-year-old boy (Arun Kumar) is terrific. The comedy track of Sukumar, the Vadivelu look-alike is good.
Verdict
Above Average.