| Padayappa | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | K. S. Ravikumar |
| Produced by | Krishna Rao Sathya Narayanan Vittal Prasad |
| Written by | K. S. Ravikumar |
| Starring | Rajinikanth Sivaji Ganesan Ramya Krishnan Soundarya |
| Music by | A. R. Rahman |
| Cinematography | S. Murthy Prasad |
| Editing by | Thanigachalam |
| Studio | Arunachala Cine Creations |
| Release date(s) | April 10, 1999 |
| Running time | 172 minutes |
| Country | India |
| Language | Tamil |
Padayappa (Tamil: படையப்பா, Paṭaiyappā ?) is a 1999 Tamil drama film written and directed by K. S. Ravikumar. The film features Rajinikanth, Soundarya and Ramya Krishnan playing lead roles, whilst Sivaji Ganesan, Lakshmi and Nassar play pivotal supporting roles. With soundtrack composed by A. R. Rahman, it was highly successful at box office.[1]
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Padayappa (Rajinikanth) is an engineer who visits his hometown to attend his sister's wedding. His sister is engaged to the son of his maternal uncle. During this happy occasion, Padayappa's father's foster brother (Manivannan) demands a share in the family property. But, standing true to his words that the family property should not be divided, Padayappa's father (Sivaji Ganesan) gives the entire property to him.
His family is then forced to leave their home. Due to this shock, his father suddenly dies. His sister's wedding is then cancelled because the groom went for money and married his uncle's daughter. Also, Nilambiri (Ramya Krishnan), the spoilt daughter of his maternal uncle, is in love with him.
Meanwhile, Padayappa finds out that the hill that he owns has granite, and he digs it out and once again becomes a very famous name in the city as he does a lot of service to the poor. His family, once again, is able to settle down. His sister gets married to an engineer Padayappa hired, and Padayappa maintains his father's position in the village.
Padayappa is in love with Vasundhara (Soundarya), Nilambari's servant. When Nilambari finds this out, she goes crazy. Her parents beg Padayappa's widowed mother to allow Nilambari to marry Padayappa. Padayappa obeys his mother's orders to get married. However, Padayappa's mother becomes wise and tells off her brother in front of the entire village, giving a proposal of marriage to Vasundhara's mother instead of her brother, not letting her brother forget the humiliation he put her through when Padayappa's father died. Nilambari's dad commits suicide in humiliation. Nilambari tries to kill Vasundhara, but is not successful.
After the wedding, Nilambari retreats into a room in her brother's house, only having Padayappa in her mind for 18 years. However, when her brother finally wakes her up, she plans her revenge on Padayappa, now a father of two adult daughters. Nilambari's brother also has a son, Chandru Prakash (Abbas) who studies in the same college as Padayappa's elder daughter (Preetha Vijayakumar). He is told by Nilambari that he should make Padayappa's daughter fall in love with him. At the same time Padayappa plans to get his eldest daughter married to his sister's son.
As a tradition in their village the groom and bride are asked if they both are not being forced to marry each other. Nilambari's plan is to make Padayappa's daughter say that she doesn't wish to get married to the groom that her parents want her to marry and that she is in love with someone else and in that process get Padayappa humiliated.
Her plan works, but Padayappa retaliates and makes his daughter's lover confess that he really fell in love with her, even though he was told only to act. Padayappa decides to take him to his house for the marriage, with Nilambari and her brother chasing behind. The chase sees Nilambari's brother killed in a car accident.
After a dramatic fight scene, the marriage takes place. Nilambari reaches the temple where the marriage is conducted and in anger tries to kill Padayappa. But Padayappa succeeds in saving her life by preventing a bull from attacking her while dodging the bullets fired from the gun. Rather than live with the humiliation of knowing that she was unsuccessful in avenging her father's death and having her life saved by her enemy, Nilambari commits suicide.
Ramya Krishnan replaced Simran in the film and thus made a comeback in Tamil films.[2] Actress Shalini who had appeared in a series of successful Tamil and Malayalam films in the late 1990s was first approached to play the role of Padayappa's sister in the film, which she refused eventually handing the role to Sithara.[3]
The film began its shoot in December 1998 and continued at the AVM Studios throughout the month. Reports suggested that the film's title may be changed to Giri during production to avoid any religious connotations, but the makers of the film later opted to go through with the original title.[4]
The film opened on 10 April 1999, four days prior to the Tamil New Year, and took the biggest opening ever with 200 prints being released.[5] The film became a blockbuster at the commercially and earned over twenty crores profit.[6][7] It ran for one hundred days across 86 cinema halls, creating a new record for such widespread success.[8] The film's rights were sold to distributors in Japan for $50,000, the highest any Indian film has fetched for commercial release in 1999.[9]
The critic from Rediff.com gave a verdict that "if you are a Rajni fan, this film is vintage stuff", praising the performances from Rajinikanth and Ramya Krishnan.[10] The New Indian Express labelled it a "heady cocktail of comedy, action, songs, sentiment and the usual mannerisms", while also prasing the performances from the duo. The Deccan Herald also gave the film a positive verdict claiming that the "positive energy generated by this film is simply astounding", labelling Rajinikanth's role as "terrific".[11] However the Times of India was critical of the film's allusions to the actor's political career and labelled that there's "more style than substance".[12]
Ramya Krishnan won the Filmfare Best Tamil Actress Award for portraying the character of Nilambari and critics lapped up her perfromance.[13] The success of the film led to a film being named after a song, "Minsara Kanna" starring Vijay with actress Kushboo appearing in a strong negative role much alike Ramya Krishnan's in Padayappa.[14]
| Padayappa | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Soundtrack album by A. R. Rahman | ||||
| Released | 1999 | |||
| Recorded | Panchathan Record Inn | |||
| Genre | Feature film soundtrack | |||
| Producer | A. R. Rahman | |||
| A. R. Rahman chronology | ||||
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Scored by A. R. Rahman and lyrics penned by Vairamuthu, the movie features a successful and critically acclaimed soundtrack. The soundtrack was a phenomenal success and created unprecedented sales in retail shops. It was reported that the audio shops ran out of cassettes and had to put up boards notifying that it was out of stock.[15]
| Song | Artist(s) |
|---|---|
| "En Peru Padayappa" | S. P. Balasubrahmanyam |
| "Minsara Kanna" | Srinivas, Nithyasree Mahadevan |
| "Suthi Suthi" | S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, Harini |
| "Vetri Kodi" | Palghat Sreeram & Chorus |
| "Kicku Eruthey" | Mano, Febi |
Padayappa at the Internet Movie Database
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