Kadhal Sadugudu

Kadhal Sadugudu
Directed by	V. Z. Durai
Written by	Balakumaran (Dialogue)
Screenplay by	V. Z. Durai
Story by	V. Z. Durai
Produced by	S. S. Chakravarthy
Starring	Vikram Priyanka Trivedi Prakash Raj Vivek
Cinematography	M. S. Prabhu
Edited by	Suresh Urs
Music by	Deva
Production company	NIC Arts
Distributed by	NIC Arts
Release date	13 April 2003 (2003-04-13)
Running time	147 minutes
Country	India
Language	Tamil

Kadhal Sadugudu (transl. Love is a game) is a 2003 Indian Tamil-language romantic drama film written and directed by V. Z. Durai and produced by S. S. Chakravarthy. The film stars Vikram, Priyanka Trivedi, Prakash Raj, and Vivek. The music was composed by Deva with cinematography by M. S. Prabhu and editing by Suresh Urs. The film released on 13 April 2003. The film's title is based on a song from Alaipayuthey (2000).

Chithambaram is an important man in his village. He is adamant and always sticks to his decisions. When the temple festival starts, Chithambaram's daughter Kausalya goes to her grandfather's house to celebrate. There, she meets Suresh, and they fall in love. Chithambaram gets into many conflicts with Suresh, not even knowing who he is. Everything Suresh does is unintentional, but Chithambaram does not realize this. Therefore, Chithambaram ends up with a very negative opinion of Suresh. One day, everyone in Kausalya's grandfather's home finds out that Suresh and Kausalya are in love, unbeknownst to Chithambaram. On seeing this, they try to get Chithambaram to agree to the wedding. Chithambaram, however, stubbornly sticks to his decision that the marriage should not take place.

Suresh asks Chithambaram what would make him happy, and Chithambaram says that he would be happy if Suresh dies. Realizing that arguing further would be futile, Suresh decides to go back to Madras. Meanwhile, Ilavarasu gets attracted towards Kausalya's physique and begins molesting her. She somehow manages to escape and reports it to her father, but she feels that she is insecure and needs a companion. Kausalya tries to join Suresh at the railway station to go with him, but Suresh refuses, saying that if he marries her, it will be with her father's permission. At that time, Chithambaram arrived at the station to prevent his daughter from eloping with Suresh. He hears this conversation and finally decides to accept Suresh as his daughter's love, and Suresh agrees.

The film was developed under the title of Adhisayam, with director V. Z. Durai revealing he insisted on Vikram being cast in the lead role. Meena was initially considered for the lead role, before the producers confirmed Priyanka Trivedi, for whom the project was also meant to mark her Tamil film debut. However, delays meant that two other films released beforehand.^[1][2] The film began its schedules in May 2001, when Vikram had simultaneous shooting schedules for his other action masala films such as Dhill (2001), Kasi (2001), Gemini (2002), Samurai (2002) and King (2002), which were released during late 2001 and mid 2002 respectively, and the schedules continued till September 2002 when the actor was filming his portions for the early 2003 releases such as Dhool (2003) and Saamy (2003), and hence Vikram was seen with those seven looks and getups throughout the film.^[3]

Music for the soundtrack was scored by Deva. Lyrics written by Vairamuthu. The initial line of the song "Putham Pudhiyadha" was lifted from "Tu Tu Hai Wahi" from the movie Yeh Vaada Raha.

The film opened to mixed reviews, with Malathi Rangarajan of The Hindu noting that the film is neither "action packed nor a haunting family drama", adding that time you wish it "were a little more brisk and dynamic".^[4] A further reviewer with BizHat.com wrote that the film was a "disappointment" and left "no impact" on viewers.^[5] Visual Dasan of Kalki praised the acting of Vikram, Prakash Raj and Priyanka and concluded saying apart from the background music, the songs and lyrics are not memorable, but the magnetic dialogue and direction keep us glued to our seats.^[6] Cinesouth wrote "Within the first few scenes, the audience is able to predict the story and screenplay and the film moves in exactly the same path. This has made the film very weak".^[7] Post-release, the film's comedy track by actor Vivek has garnered appreciation from film critics.^[8]

The film performed poorly at the box office, coming after several successful films for Vikram during the period.^[9] Vikram later claimed that he was taken for a "royal ride" and that the story went through several changes after the initial narration. He also alleged that the producer S. S. Chakravarthy was increasingly loyal to another actor, Ajith Kumar, and was not interested in portraying Vikram in good light.^[10] The film was later dubbed into Hindi and released in 2014 under the title Aparichit 2 in WAM Medias Youtube Channel, though it had no connection with the first part of Anniyan (2005), which was dubbed into Hindi as Aparichit.

• Kadhal Sadugudu at IMDb