Kadhal (English: Love) is a 2004 Tamil romantic drama film based on a true story, directed by Balaji Sakthivel, starring Bharath and Sandhya in her feature film debut. It was produced by S. Shankar and featured music composed by Joshua Sridhar. The film opened to critical acclaim and was a high commercial success. Upon release, the film was dubbed into Telugu as Premisthe. It was also remade in Kannada as Cheluvina Chittara in 2007, Bengali as Chirodini Tumi Je Amar in 2008 and in Punjabi as Ramta Jogi in 2015.
Murugan (Bharath) is a diligent scooter mechanic in Madurai and life goes on smoothly for the young man until a rich student Aishwarya (Sandhya) sets eyes on him. The infatuation reaches a dangerous level when she coaxes Murugan to take her from the constraint of her family, who have other plans about her future. The naïve Murugan hesitantly yields to her charm and the two run away to Chennai. Murugan's friend Stephen (Sukumar) helps them in their hour of crisis and the lovers unite in marriage. But Sandhya's family dotes on her and is not going to give up so easily. The family tracks down the couple and eventually separates them after knowing that Murugan is a low caste. Aishwarya agrees to marry another man to save Murugan's life after he is being beaten by her father. While she believes this decision is best and moves on with her life, she one day (while on the road with her husband and daughter) runs into Murugan who has suffered permanent brain damage. Knowing that she made a mistake and not knowing how to undo the sins of her father, the movie ends with Aishwarya and her husband deciding to take care of Murugan.
