Kadal (; ) is a 2013 Indian Tamil-language drama film co-written, co-produced and directed by Mani Ratnam. The film stars an ensemble cast featuring Arjun, Aravind Swamy, Gautham Ram Karthik, Lakshmi Manchu and Thulasi Nair. The film marks the debut of Gautham Karthik and Thulasi Nair. The music was composed by A. R. Rahman. The film revolves around the life of fishermen who instill the fact that faith can sometimes lead to the triumph of humanity.

The film was dubbed into Telugu as Kadali. The film was released worldwide on 1 February 2013 to mixed reviews and became a box-office failure.

Plot Bergmans, a brilliant but unruly student, is thrown out of his seminary for sinning the flesh after being caught red-handed by fellow student Sam Fernando. Blaming the good-hearted Sam for his ouster, Bergmans vows revenge and challenges to prove that evil does reign supreme in this world. Sam finishes his education and training and arrives at a village as the new father of the local church. A local boy named Thomas of this village, the illegitimate son of a local fisherman named Chetty Barnabodas, has grown up in a rough neighbourhood following his mother's death and thus being forced to fend for himself.

Sam takes the rundown church and sceptical villagers in his stride and starts bringing about changes. Through a series of incidents, he also manages to get the unruly Thomas under his control and gets him to learn the tricks of the fishing trade from the villagers. A few years later, Thomas grows up very close to Sam, a well-respected person in the village. Thomas comes across Beatrice "Bea" when she is running away from her convent school group, which had gotten her admitted to the hospital. They keep running into each other a few times, and Thomas eventually likes her presence.

Meanwhile, as Sam meditates on the remote beach, he hears gunshots on the sand. On investigation, he finds an unconscious Bergmans in the waters. On seeing that the shooters are still lurking around trying to finish their job of killing Bergmans, he pulls him to safety into an abandoned ship to take care of his bullet injuries with the help of a local village woman as well as a woman named Celina from a distant village that Bergmans asks him to get. A few villagers, including Chetty, who see Sam running around in the dark with the two women, get suspicious and accuse the three of sleeping together. They call the Bishop, upon whose interrogation, Celina admits to the sin, and Sam gets unfairly implicated. One of the villagers is also killed in the ensuing mêlée, and Sam is sentenced to four years of rigorous imprisonment.

Bergmans visits Sam in prison and admits that he got the woman to implicate him falsely to prove that evil will always triumph. When Sam returns from prison, he discovers that Thomas has fallen in cahoots with Bergmans in his smuggling trade and has committed many sins in his desire to make the village people bow before him. Thomas and Bea have also fallen in love with each other and come to seek Sam's blessings. Thomas subsequently gets to know that Bea is Bergmans's daughter and he takes Bea to Bergmans's house to trigger some long-lost memories when she recalls all the previous horrific incidents of her father, including the one of killing her mother. Bergmans gets angry, abducts Sam and Bea in his boat, and goes out to sea to kill them. However, even after a few feeble attempts, Bergmans who claims to have no emotional ties to family finds himself unable to kill his own daughter.. Thomas comes chasing them, and after a long fight between the three, he and Sam subdue Bergmans.

The film ends on a note that good finally triumphs over evil, whether Sam and Thomas's triumph over Bergmans, Thomas's suppression of his sinister inclination and rejoining forces with Sam, or Bergmans's good nature coming out in his inability to kill Bea.

Cast As per the film's opening and closing credits.

Arjun as Bergmans (Meesakaran) Arvind Swamy as Father Sam Fernando Gautham Ram Karthik as Thomas Saran Shakthi as Young Thomas Lakshmi Manchu as Celina Thulasi Nair as Beatrice, Thomas's lover and Bergmans' daughter (voice-over by Krithika Nelson) Ponvannan as Chetty Barnabodas, Thomas's father Singampuli as Clarence Kalairani as Mother Superior Guru Somasundaram as Kovil Kutty Vinodhini Vaidyanathan as Chandi Mary Ramdoss as Masilamani Anand Verma as Church Father Senthi Kumari as Chetty's wife and Thomas's stepmother George Vijay Nelson

Uncredited Devi as Sahaya Mary, Thomas's late mother Eka Lakhani as Bergmans' late wife Baby Rakshana as Young Beatrice

Production

Development During a press meet in December 2009, actor Karthik revealed that his son, Gautham Karthik would make his debut in Mani Ratnam's next venture post completion of Ratnam's bilingual films Raavan and Raavanan. In July 2010, reports emerged that the film was titled as Pookkadai. Mani Ratnam stopped pre-production work on the film in late 2010 and moved on to plan a big-budget historical project titled Ponniyin Selvan, but months later was forced to shelve it due to financial issues. Later, owing to the speculated title of the former project, the team was unable to name the film Pookkadai as an aspiring director had already registered the name in 2007. Finally the working project was renamed as Kadal in February 2012. When Mani Ratnam had finished Raavanan, Jeyamohan started writing a 200-page novel for Kadal, which was later transformed by Mani Ratnam into a screenplay. Jeyamohan was signed to be a part of the script-writing team for the film in August 2011, while Rajiv Menon was also confirmed as cinematographer for the film, reuniting with Mani Ratnam after the successes of Bombay and Guru. As the film portrays Christianity, Rajiv Menon explored the way artistes capture biblical themes. For this he and Ratnam went through Simon Schama's documentary called Power of Art on Caravaggio. For the outdoor shootings they stuck to the contemporary way. Mani Ratnam's reconnaissance for the film, the process of designing the look was done when his assistants brought back hundreds of pictures after jaunting through the entire coastline of the state Tamil Nadu, including Rameswaram.

Casting Akshara Haasan, daughter of actor Kamal Haasan and actress Sarika was initially approached to play the female lead role but declined due to her then lack of interest in acting. In December 2011, reports emerged that Hindi film actress Sonam Kapoor was signed on to play the role after being convinced by her father but the news was proven untrue. Jhanvi, daughter of producer Boney Kapoor and actress Sridevi, was also considered to play the role. Finally in January 2012, it was revealed that Samantha was confirmed to portray the lead female role, making film Kadal her most high-profile project to that point. After production had begun, Samantha was forced to opt out of the film in June 2012 due to her PMLE ailments. The director replaced the lead female by signing Thulasi Nair, the second daughter of actress Radha. Though Thulasi was auditioned for the role during the casting process, she was not selected as Ratnam opined that she was too young for the role. Post Samantha's exit, she was roped in. The child actress in Mani Ratnam's 2002 film Kannathil Muthamittal, Keerthana was approached for a role but she chose to join the film's team as an assistant director, instead.

In November 2011, actor Arjun was signed to play a pivotal role in the film, denying reports that he would play the villain, though this was later revealed to be misdirection. Lakshmi Manchu would be playing a village belle in a negative shade, making her debut in Tamil films. Actor Lal was considered for a supporting role in the film, but dropped the film due to his commitments to the Malayalam film Ozhimuri. Arvind Swamy who returned to films post twelve years, was signed to play a full-fledged role. Child artiste Saran, earlier seen in films such as Mudhal Idam and Mye, would be seen playing Gautham Karthik's childhood role. Baby Rakshana would be playing the role of childhood Thulasi. Mani Ratnam roped in Nayantara for a special role in the film which was confirmed in early July 2012. However, the actress opted out claiming unavailability of dates and meager scope of her character in the film.

Filming

Keeping principal photography under wraps, the director made the leading duo to undertake a 20-day acting workshop that was conducted by his crew. Later, a two-month acting workshop under the mentorship of actress Kalairani was also attended by them. The shooting of the film started in early March 2012 at Manapad, a sea village in Thoothukudi district. Scenes involving Arvind Swamy and Lakshmi Manchu were shot first. Later, in a schedule of five days, certain scenes were shot at Kottayam, Muhamma, backwaters and forts of Kochi in Kerala. The filming continued in Kerala throughout April 2012. A scene featuring the lead actors was shot at a church, created as a set in Tuticorin. Scenes were also canned in longest Indian lake Vembanad, Alappuzha. In the scenic interiors of Andaman & Nicobar Islands, twenty days filming schedule was completed by end of July 2012.

In an interview with Times of India in October 2012, Suhasini Mani Ratnam revealed that filming was in its final stages. On 31 October 2012, the crew shot the climax of the film in coastal suburbs of Chennai under the weather contrived by Cyclone Nilam. On 5 November 2012, the shooting of the film was completed except for a song to be canned in Alappuzha. This song schedule and patchwork for the film kicked off on 13 January 2013. By second last week of the same month the patch work and re-recording of the background score was completed. Post release of theatrical trailer, it was revealed that the filming of ten second osculating scene between lead actors took four hours to complete after several re-takes. The director had devoided the technicians and crew from the location to ease the situation for the actors. Post filming completions, the cinematographer stated that the film was set in a hard landscape. For initial portions of the film the crew created the barren look by emphasising sand colours and muffling vibrancy of costumes. Apparently, this was achieved to create an hostile environment in which the lead male character grows. Writer Jeyamohan told The Hindu, that the script was "deeply philosophical and spiritual", "but it has been narrated in an entertaining way, complete with songs and captivating frames. It is a grand saga..", he added.

Music

Director Mani Ratnam's usual associate music composer, A. R. Rahman composed the songs as well as the background score for the film. The lyrics of three songs were penned by Vairamuthu, the other three written by his son Madhan Karky and remaining one by rapper Aaryan Dinesh Kanagaratnam, making the album feature seven tracks in the soundtrack album. The original Tamil version of the album was released on 28 November 2012, by the record label Sony Music. It topped the Indian music charts, especially iTunes India. The Telugu version of the soundtrack album was released direct to stores on 19 December 2012 and was also launched in a grand event at H.I.C.C. Novotel, Hyderabad on 2 January 2013.

Release Gemini Film Circuit bought the theatrical rights of Kadal. The film was given a U certificate by the Censor Board after five minor cuts. ATMUS Entertainment secured the distribution rights of the film in USA. The original (Tamil) version was released in 54 screens and dubbed (Telugu) version in 20 screens. The film was premiered in most of the locations of the same country a day prior to the actual release.

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