Kandaen

Kanden
Directed by	A. C. Mugil
Produced by	TCS
Written by	A. C. Mugil
Starring	Shanthnoo Bhagyaraj Rashmi Gautam Santhanam
Music by	Vijay Ebenezer
Cinematography	Prashanth D'Misale
Production company	Sri Sivaselvanayakiamman Movies
Release dates	20 May 2011 (2011-05-20)
Running time	132 minutes
Country	India
Language	Tamil

Kandaen (Tamil: கண்டேன்; English: I Saw) is an Indian Tamil romantic comedy film written and directed by Mugil, and produced by TCS. It stars Shanthnoo Bhagyaraj and Rashmi Gautam in lead along with Santhanam in a pivotal role. The film, which was launched in May 2010, created curiosity after noted film-maker Gautham Menon's newly launched audio label selected the film's soundtrack to be its first release.^[1] It was released on 20 May 2011 to average reviews from critics and was performed averagely at the box office, but Shanthnu's and Santhanam's comedy was appreciated.^[2][3]

Plot

Vasanth (Shanthnoo Bhagyaraj) is an engineer who comes from Chennai to visit his grandfather(Vijayakumar) who claims to be ill. When he arrives at his hometown, he finds that a marriage has been arranged for him and that his grandfather isn't really ill. To escape from the marriage, he lies, saying that he is in love with a girl. The grandfather wants to see the girl as soon as possible, and Vasanth returns to Chennai.

Vasanth falls in love with a pretty girl named Narmada (Rashmi Gautam) at first sight. He acts blind and she eventually falls for him, too. They date and Narmadha's father (Ashish Vidyarthi), a police commissioner, gets to know about his daughter's love. He refuses, not wanting to marry his only daughter to a blind man. The pair decide that they will marry at the register office without the consent of their parents. During the proceedings of the marriage, Narmada finds out that Vasanth isn't actually blind but had acted like one to win her heart. Narmada is angered and leaves the registrar's office, but forgives him after he apologizes. Narmada's father finally agrees to their marriage, and the two get engaged. In the light of the engagement, Vasanth treats his friends to a night in a bar. They get drunk, and Vasanth gets involved in a fight during which he is hit by an iron rod on the back of his head, damaging his nerves and losing his eyesight.

The doctor convinces him that there are laser treatments to get his eyesight back. She says that he has to undergo an operation but he has to wait until the head wound heals, and also that the surgeon will have to fly in from London. She tells him to rest and asks Vasanth's friend Saami(Santhanam) to take care of him. Vasanth is then discharged from the hospital, but he asks the doctor not to tell anybody about his blindness before he leaves. Then one day, Narmada and her father suddenly come home with her father's friend. Narmadha's father says that he would not have accepted Vasanth if he had been blind, and Vasanth and his friend realise that they cannot know that Vasanth is blind. Vasanth wants to tell Narmada that he is blind, but she gets angry when he mentions blindness. She tells him that she is glad he was only pretending to be blind, as living with a blind person would be extremely hard. Feeling down, Vasanth doesn't tell her about his accident.

One day, while crossing a road, Vasanth asks a girl for help. Narmada sees this and misunderstands, thinking that he is cheating on her as a sense of deja vu hits her – it is similar to their first meeting, when Vasanth pretended to be blind. Narmadha's father comes to know about this. He decides to marry Narmada off to another boy on the same marriage date, but she asks for a break and says that she wants to go to London to study. Saami comes to know about this. Also, the ophthalmologist who's coming from London for Vasanth's operation had his flight cancelled. So Vasanth, along with his doctor in Chennai, boards the flight to London – on which Narmada is also travelling. Another coincidence occurs when the air hostess is the same girl who had helped Vasanth cross the road earlier. She tries to warn the air-hostess, saying that he deceives girls by pretending to be blind. The air hostess, on the other hand, manages to tell Narmada the truth and she comes to know about Vasanth's blindness. They reconcile, and as the movie comes to an end, Vasanth has a successful operation and they return to India happily to get married.

Cast

• Shanthnoo Bhagyaraj as Vasanth
• Rashmi Gautam as Narmada
• Santhanam as Saami
• Vijayakumar as Vasanth's grand father
• Ashish Vidyarthi as Narmadha's father
• Nimmi as the Doctor

Release

The satellite rights of the film were secured by STAR Vijay. The film was given a "U" certificate by the Indian Censor Board.

Reception

The film received mixed reviews. Rashmi Gautam was praised for her acting and glam quotient. Behindwoods quoted that "she was the film's glam quotient and showed streaks of brilliance."^[4] Indiaglitz also praised her that "she is a welcome addition to the list of Tamil heroines and that she emoted well and interestingly after a long gap one got to see a heroine hogging major share in a movie."^[5] Rohit Ramachandran of nowrunning.com rated it 2.5/5 stating that "Kandaen is a romantic comedy without a heartbeat but enough pulse to crack you up."^[6]

Soundtrack

Kanden
Soundtrack album to Kanden by Vijay Ebenezer
Released	9 December 2010
Recorded	2010
Genre	Feature film soundtrack
Language	Tamil
Label	Photon Kathaas Music
Producer	Vijay Ebenezer

Film score and soundtrack of Kanden are composed by noted evangelical composer, Vijay Ebenezer, who made his debut into film music with the project. The audio rights of Kanden, were bought by Gautham Menon after Singer Krish and Vijay had given a copy to Menon following the recommendation of actress Sangeetha and producer Sebastian. Menon impressed, wanted to release the audio under his newly launched label, Photon Kathaas Music. The music garnered positive reviews. Behindwoods quoted that the "It was a pretty decent effort composed by a newcomer. "^[7]

The launch of Menon's banner and the film's album was held on December 9, 2010 at a ceremony featuring several chief guests including Suriya, K. Bhagyaraj and prominent composers Yuvan Shankar Raja and Harris Jayaraj.^[8] The following a day, a promotional event was held at Odyssey in Chennai, with live renditions from the album. The event featured performances from Chinmayi, Suchitra and Krish whilst Gautham Menon, Shanthnoo Bhagyaraj and Karthik Kumar were also in attendance.^[9]

References

External links

• Kanden at JointScene.com