Kadhalan (காதலன்) is the soundtrack to the 1994 Tamil film of the same name, directed by Shankar. The soundtrack, released as Kadhalan: The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, features 9 songs composed by A. R. Rahman and lyrics penned by Vairamuthu, Vaali, Shankar and Thirikudarasappa Kavirayar. Owing to the immense national popularity of the song Mukkabla, the soundtrack was subsequently dubbed in Hindi as Humse Hai Muqabala and in Telugu as Premikudu. Lyrics for this versions were written by P. K. Mishra and Rajashri respectively.

This soundtrack earned A. R. Rahman national acclaim. New styles were experimented with, as in the song "Pettai Rap", a Madras bashai song which was written in a rap-like style, interspersing Tamil with English words.

The song "Muqabla" was plagiarised freely by Bombay's tunesmiths and nearly a dozen versions of the song were churned out, a feat that earned "Muqabla" and Rahman a place in the Limca Book of Records, the Indian equivalent of the Guinness Book of Records.

Following the success of the film in Tamil Nadu, it was subsequently dubbed and released in Hindi with title Humse Hai Muqabala. A soundtrack album was released in Hindi which had lyrics penned by P. K. Mishra. This version of the film could not do well but the soundtrack became a runaway success in North India.

The acclaimed soundtrack earned Rahman his consecutive third Filmfare Best Music Director Award. P. Unnikrishnan got the break as a playback singer through this film. His rendition of the romantic song Ennavale Adi Ennavale won him the precious National Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer.

In 2014, the song "Urvasi" inspired the song "It's My Birthday" by American rapper will.i.am.

...
Wikipedia