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Padikkadavan (2009 film)
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Wikipedia article
'Padikkadavan' ( 'Illiterate') is a 2009 Indian Tamil-language masala film written and directed by Suraj. It stars Dhanush, Tamannaah, Vivek, Atul Kulkarni, Suman, Sayaji Shinde, and Pratap Pothan in the lead roles amongst a huge supporting cast in small pivotal and cameo roles. The music was composed by Mani Sharma with cinematography by A. Venkatesh and editing by Manoj. The film released on 14 January 2009 during Pongal and received a huge positive response. The film was successful grossing 15 crore in Tamil Nadu and established Dhanush as one of top 5 saleable heroes of Tamil cinema after then. Filming began in March 2008 and was released in Pongal 2009.
Plot
Radhakrishnan a.k.a. Rocky (Dhanush) is a 24 years old 10th grade dropout youth, who is looked down upon by his father Ramakrishnan (Pratap Pothan) because of his sharp contrast to the rest of the family, who are well-qualified in education. Rocky spends most of his time in a mechanic shop with his friends. Rocky's friends advise him to love and marry a well-educated girl so his name will be added with her name after marriage (i.e. indirectly he gets a degree after his name). He looks around by hovering around women's colleges to find a perfect girl for his mission. He succeeds in his attempt and makes Gayathri (Tamannaah), a well-educated rich girl, fall in love with him. He starts to love her and takes her to a shopping mall where she is confronted by a group of rogues who work for Rami Reddy (Sayaji Shinde), a rival of her father Samarasimha Reddy (Suman), a notorious don in Andhra Pradesh who protects his daughter by destroying the gang and taking her back to Andhra from Tamil Nadu. Rocky goes to thug-for-hire Assault Arumugam (Vivek) to help him marry Gayathri. Rocky saves Gayathri from Rami and follows her home, where he realizes that another Thirunelveli rowdy named Kasi Anandan (Atul Kulkarni), whose brother (Sashikumar Subramani) he accidentally kills, has put a price on his head. Kasi declares that if Rocky wins him in hand-to-hand combat, he will never be disturbed by him. Rocky accepts his deal and smashes him down. The movie ends as Rocky walks out while his gang applauds for him.
Cast
* Dhanush as Radhakrishnan a.k.a. Rocky
* Tamannaah as Gayathri
* Vivek as Assault Arumugam
* Atul Kulkarni as Kashi Anandan
* Suman as Samarasimha Reddy
* Sayaji Shinde as Rami Reddy
* Pratap Pothan as Ramakrishnan
* Meera Krishnan as Janaki Ramakrishnan
* Devadarshini as Kousalya Gowtham
* Chetan as Gowtham
* Dr. Sharmila as Kavitha
* Ganeshkar as Ganesh, Rocky's friend
* Suman Setty as Ramesh, Rocky's friend
* Mayilsamy as Mayilu (Mayilsamy), Rocky's friend
* Sendrayan as Kumaran, Rocky's friend
* Sashikumar Subramani as Pandi, Kasi's brother
* Bonda Mani as Bonda Mani
* Crane Manohar as Appa Rao
* Mahanadi Shankar as Subba Rao
* Cell Murugan as Cell Murugan
* Madhan Bob as Srinivasan, Gayathri's uncle
* Nirosha as Andal, Srinivasan's wife
* Aarthi as Thirukaani, Radhakrishnan's niece
* Swaminathan as Malaisamy, Thirukaani's father
* Santhana Bharathi as Ramalingam
* Karate Raja as Bhaskar
* Suruli Manohar as Maarimuthu, Aarumugam's sidekick
* Nellai Siva as Kothandam, a mechanic
* Dhandapani as Veerapandi, Kasi's enemy
* Pandu as Professor Sundaramurthy
* Balu Anand as Shanmugam
* Munnar Ramesh as Samarasimha Reddy's henchman
* Cool Suresh as Veerapandi's henchman
*Shankar as Tutorial college Student
* Ennatha Kannaiya as Kannaiya (guest appearance)
* Baba Bhaskar (special appearance in the song "Hey Vetri Velaa")
Music
The soundtrack consists of five songs composed by Mani Sharma. Four of them were reused from Telugu movies composed by Sharma.
Reception
Critical response
'Indiaglitz' wrote, "Padikathavan is worth a watch for its unadulterated masala". 'Behindwoods' wrote, "On the whole, Padikathavan struggles to identify itself between comedy and violence and ends up not being both".
References
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