Kadhal Desam

In Chennai, a traditional rivalry has always existed between the students of Pachaiyappa's and Loyola colleges. Karthik is a poor orphan who studies in Pachaiyappa's, a hobo in a rented room, travels by the bus, hangs out with a number of friends, and is the captain of his football team. He is also a good poet and daydreams about his dream girl. Arun, by contrast, comes from a wealthy family, studies in Loyola, drives his own car, hangs out with numerous friends, and is also the captain of his football team. In a nasty intercollege riot, Arun saves Karthik's life. So in return, Karthik lets Arun win in a soccer game because he thinks Arun cannot take losses easily. Arun realises that the victory is because of Karthik's sacrifice.

They become good friends, setting a good example of friendship to others in their college. Things go smooth until a new girl Divya joins the college. Both Arun and Karthik fall in love with her, but neither of them realises that both are in love with the same girl. Following a sequence of events, when they realise that both are loving the same girl, their friendship is strained, and they fight with each other. At the end, Divya says that she likes them both but does not want to choose one, thereby losing the other and disrupting their friendship. Hence the film ends with Arun and Karthik regaining their friendship and remaining friends with Divya.

The soundtrack for the film was composed by A. R. Rahman, with lyrics by Vaali. The soundtrack was also released in Telugu as Prema Desam and in Hindi with the title Duniya Dilwalon Ki, with lyrics written by P. K. Mishra and Mehboob Kotwal.

Kathir revealed that the first song to be recorded was "Kalloori Saalai", he wanted it to be a fast number, but wanted it to start the song "with a melodious line". Rahman asked for a dummy lyric for it which started with "Inbathai karuvakkinal penn", which Vaali liked and retained it for the final cut as well.[2]

For the song "Musthafa Musthafa", Kathir wanted a song on the lines of an old song "Paravaigal Meethu", which was about friendship. Rahman gave him the tune during a flight journey which Kathir liked it.[2]

Kadhal Desam was released on 23 August 1996.[11] D. S. Ramanujam from The Hindu wrote "Grandiose trappings in the form of giant sets, never before erected on such a scale in an Indian movie, offer a fitting backdrop for a love story.[12] R. P. R. of Kalki praised Rahman's music, Anand's cinematography and grand sets but panned Abbas's acting, unnecessary villain track and Kunjumon's acting attempt.[13]

The film's initial response was average as audience found the second half to be boring which prompted Kunjumon to approach editor B. Lenin who managed to re-edit the film especially trimming the length of the climax fight,[14] and the film became a large commercial success.[15] Rahman won his fifth consecutive Filmfare Award for Best Music Director – Tamil,[16] and Anand received the Screen Award South for Best Cinematography.[17]

Kadhal Desam was dubbed and released in Telugu as Prema Desam and became an equally big success.[2][18] The Hindi dubbed version, Duniya Dilwalon Ki, however, did not perform as well.[19][20] The film was remade in Bangladeshi Bengali as Narir Mon.[21]

The climax of Kadhal Desam broke a taboo in the Tamil film industry, where a love triangle would be decided with a happy ending.[22] Post-success, Abbas revealed that he felt that "Mustafa Mustafa" song catapulted him to stardom and enjoyed a strong female base after Kadhal Desam.[23] The success of the film prompted Rahman to collaborate with Kathir again in Kadhalar Dhinam (1999) and Kadhal Virus (2002). As a result of respect for his first director, Abbas made a guest appearance in the latter film. The film triggered off a string of youth-based stories in films with Minsara Kanavu and Ullaasam featuring similar story lines.[24]

"Kalluri Saalai" and the instrumental theme of the song and flowers falling on the road was parodied in Tamizh Padam 2 (2018).[25]

• Kadhal Desam at IMDb