Producer: Lalitha VM
Director: Kannan
Cast: Bharath, Santhanam, Sapan Saran, Tamannah
Music: Vidhyasagar
Singers: Udit Narayan, Hariharan, Suresh Wadkar, Lavanya, Rahul Nambiar, Rashmi Vijayan, Benny Dayal, Tippu

For those who may not know, Kanden Kadhalai is a reverse of what normally happens. And what normally happens is that a movie is made here (in the South, as some people call it), becomes a hit, and then it is remade in Hindi.

Kanden Kadhalai is a remake of Jab We Met, starring Tamannah and Bharath in place of Kareena Kapoor and Shahid Kapur. Jab We Met had excellent music, and it needed to because the story was light and fluffy and needed a powerful background score. So it must have been a challenge for Kanden Kadhalai to come up with something just as catchy. And when I looked up the credits on the CD, I went 'Hmmmmm.'

This is because I am not a particularly big fan of Vidyasagar, and most of my reviews of his movies tend to be middling (the music, not the reviews!). However, I must say I have been reconsidering my opinion of him and this positive feeling has become more concrete after I heard Kanden Kadhalai.

My pick of the album is ‘Suthudu’. This has as much to do with the quality of its singer (Hariharan) as it has to do with the tune and superb lyrics by Muthukumar. Hariharan has a world class voice and anyone who has heard him either in Southern languages or Hindi (with Leslie Lewis) or in English would have to put up a strong argument if they disagree. This song gives Hariharan's deep baritone – and man is it deep – a contrast with a flute. And this is a brilliant move.

The song ‘Venpanju’ is my second favourite on the album. It has a bouncy beat and tune. There is a thu-thu-thu type tarana that is sung beautifully by Udit Narayanan and my namesake, Karthik. My father was complaining about his pronounciation, but I thought it was alright. Lyrics here are by Yugabharathi and, unsurprisingly, he delivers since this is a love song – his speciality.

I was pleased to see the name Suresh Wadkar against the song ‘Naan Mozhi’. He has been one of my favourite singers since the time I heard the ethereal ‘Seene mein jalan, aankhon mein toofan’ from Gaman, a song I could not understand a line of, but he was able to communicate its pathos to me completely. Here, again, he has been given a song that is mid-tempo and that suits his style perfectly. How old must he be? Around 60 perhaps. But his voice, while it is mature, does not betray age.

These were the best tracks in the album. There are also numbers by Rahul Nambiar (‘Kattru Pudhithai’), and a duet by Lavanya and Rashmi Vijayan (‘Ododi Poren’) and these are good songs, but not as good as the ones mentioned above and I think that Vidyasagar took a cold hard look at the melodies and farmed out the best of them to his best talent; and that's how it should be.

One song that needs mention is ‘Oru Naal Iravil’ (sung by Tippu and Benny Dayal. This is the remake of the famous ‘Mauja Mauja’ from Jab We Met. Though that was a very Punjabi tune, it's come out quite well here as well, and rounds off what is an excellent album.