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Thanikattu Raja
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Wikipedia article
'Thanikattu Raja' is a 1982 Indian Tamil-language action film written and directed by V. C. Guhanathan, and Produced by D. Ramanaidu. It stars Rajinikanth, Sridevi and Sripriya, with Jaishankar, Vijayakumar, Sathyakala and Y. Gee. Mahendra in supporting roles. The film was a hit at the box office especially B and C centre. the film had music by Ilayaraja and cinematography handled by P. S. Nivas.
Plot
Soori (Rajinikanth) is a rebellious young man who works as a mechanic and often lands in trouble fighting for justice. He falls in love with a rich girl Vaani (Sridevi), but Vaani's father plots to break their relationship through his manager (Vijayakumar). In the ensuing melee, Soori murders the manager to save Vaani's honour. Soori is about to be sentenced to death and Vaani finds that the only way she can save Soori is by marrying a rich, roguish man (Jaishankar) who uses his money to get Soori's death penalty commuted to a prison term.
After his release, Soori is distraught at losing Vaani and takes to drinking. He moves to his village where he becomes immensely popular among the villagers due to his righteous work and progressive activities. He offers protection to a village damsel Vidhya (Sripriya) to escape from being forced to be a prostitute and later marries her but still remains alcoholic. Vaani meets and advises him to stop drinking and turn over a new leaf. Despite being abused by her husband and falsely accused of hobnobbing with Soori, Vaani maintains the sanctity of her marriage. Whether Soori and Vaani's lives return to normal forms the rest of the story.
Cast
* Rajinikanth as Soori (Sooriya Prakash)
* Sridevi as Vani
* Sripriya as Vidhya
* Jaishankar as Ethiraj
* Major Sundarrajan as Jayaprakash
* Sangili Murugan as Vadivelu
* Y. G. Mahendran as Ravi
* Vijayakumar as Vasu
* Senthamarai as Landlord
* V. K. Ramasamy as 'Salaiyur' S.K.R
* Venniradai Moorthy as Kannisamy
* Thengai Srinivasan as Siva (Kanakkupillai)
* R. S. Manohar as Rajasekhar
* Sathyakala as Seetha
* Rajesh as Ethiraj's brother
* K . Kannan as Paranthaman
* Master Haja Sheriff
* K. Natraj as Village people
* C. L. Anandhan as Henchman
* Oru Viral Krishna Rao as Tea shop owner
* M. R. R. Vasu as Uncle of Vidya
* Usilai Mani as Village people
* Y. Vijaya as Madhavi
* Idichapuli Selvaraj as Ponnusamy
* Jr. Manohar as Friend of Soori
* I. S. Ramachandran as Ramu
* V. Gopalakrishnan as Sangaralingam
* Silk Smitha as (Special Appearance)
Themes
According to 'Jump Cut', 'Thanikattu Raja' "explores the connections between landlords and politicians, who together oppress the rural population".
Soundtrack
;Tamil
The soundtrack was composed by Ilaiyaraaja and had six songs. "Mullai Arumbe" did not feature in the movie but was part of the album. The lyrics for the songs were written by Vaali and Panchu Arunachalam.
;Hindi
Brij Bihari wrote the lyrics for all the songs in the Hindi dubbed version.
Release
The film was released on 12 March 1982. It was later dubbed in Hindi as 'Aaj Ka Dada', released on 13 July 1985.
References
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