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Amaidhipadai

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Amaidhipadai (transl. Peacekeeping Force) is a 1994 Indian Tamil-language political satire film, written and directed by Manivannan. The film stars Sathyaraj (in a dual role), Ranjitha, Kasthuri and Sujatha. It revolves around a politician who builds his career through unethical means, while his son, an honest law enforcer, seeks to take him down.

Amaidhipadai
Theatrical release poster
Directed byManivannan
Written byManivannan
Produced byK. Balachandran
U. K. Senthil Kumar
K. N. Ilamurugan
StarringSathyaraj
Ranjitha
Kasthuri
Sujatha
CinematographyD. Shankar
Edited byP. Venkateshwara Rao
Music byIlaiyaraaja
Production
company
M. R. Films International
Release date
  • 13 January 1994 (1994-01-13)
Running time
160 minutes
CountryIndia
LanguageTamil

Amaidhipadai was released on 13 January 1994. It went on to run more than 25 weeks and was a silver jubilee hit. The film has since developed a strong cult following. It was remade in Telugu as M. Dharmaraju M.A. (1994), and in Hindi as Jallaad (1995). A spiritual successor, Nagaraja Cholan MA, MLA was released in 2013, with Sathyaraj returning.

Plot

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In 1968, Amavasai is a lazy and transient man, but he is certainly shrewd. He gets acquainted with politician Manimaran "Mani", an MLA of the Palladam constituency belonging to the ruling party. Amavasai helps Mani with some petty tasks during his election campaign. He later becomes Mani's close associate. Meanwhile, Amavasai lusts after a village belle Thayamma and manages to entrap her with false promises of love. One day, he drugs and rapes Thayamma.

During the prepoll events of the 1971 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election, Mani's party refuses to give him the ticket. Mani instructs Amavasai to stand for the MLA election as an independent candidate to teach his party a lesson. Amavasai campaigns hard and also renames himself Nagaraja Cholan (lying about being a Chola descendant) to elevate his social status. Amavasai wins the election by a huge margin, while Mani's party manages to retain power with huge majority. Amavasai rejoins the party immediately and his behaviour also changes as he grows more arrogant much to Mani's shock. After his electoral win, he forces Mani to become his crony.

Amavasai, knowing that a local zamindar is looking for a groom for his daughter, Sivakami, quickly arranges to be married to her as he wants to become rich and respected. He abandons the now pregnant Thayamma. Distraught over this betrayal, Thayamma and her parents call for a panchayat, where Amavasai successfully defends himself. Thayamma's family move out of the village to avoid humiliation. Amavasai marries Sivakami and gets the latter's palace as dowry. The same day, Thayamma gives birth to a boy and dies. Sivakami vows to be celibate as Amavasai refused to adopt Thayamma's infant son.

Over the next 24 years, Amavasai grows into a highly influential and corrupt politician. He builds a strong political network through shortcuts. He has been re-elected to his position as MLA for five elections. To remain in power, he kills anyone who comes in his way. His ultimate goal is to become Chief Minister where he will have all the power to do whatever he wants, and no one can stop him.

Raised by his maternal grandparents in a village afar, Thayamma's son, Thangavel becomes a Reserve Police constable. Thangavel is betrothed to a twelfth grade girl, Kuyili. They fall in love, but during their engagement event, a dispute arises as people ask about Thangavel's father's identity, and the wedding is cancelled. An enraged Thangavel asks his grandparents about his father, but they remain silent. He accuses his mother of being characterless to which his grandfather slaps him and tells him about Amavasai. Upon learning the truth about his father and his corruption which led to the betrayal and death of his mother, Thangavel seeks revenge.

Simultaneously, the state assembly is about to be dissolved earlier to hold the general elections. Amavasai realises that even if the party nominates him, the voters will not support him as they are fed up with his corrupted ways. He instigates a caste-based riot in his constituency and pretends to stop it, so that the people will re-elect him. A police inspector, who belongs to the Dalit caste is burnt alive by Amavasai, and the riot intensifies.

Thangavel is posted as the riot police's head constable where he has to protect Amavasai. Thangavel saves Amavasai from an assassination attempt. Later, he goes to Amavasai's house and reveals his identity. He challenges his father that he will stop all his illegal activities and kill him. Amavasai brushes off his threats.

Thangavel is transferred to regular police and gets posted as a Sub-inspector in the same area. Thangavel meets Sivakami and realises she is a good woman. He begins to see her as a motherly figure in his life. They decide to plot Amavasai's downfall together. Thangavel informs the CBI of Amavasai's activities while Sivakami plans to testify against Amavasai. Amavasai learns of this and plans to kill both. Thangavel fails to stop Amavasai's henchman from murdering Sivakami. During her funeral, Amavasai feigns grief which provokes Thangavel into beating up Amavasai in public. Thangavel is arrested.

A crooked tantric advises Amavasai to get remarried to a young girl to ensure his re-election. He kidnaps Kuyili and her younger sister. He forces Kuyili into agreeing to marry him by threatening to kill her sister. He then takes part in a tantric wedding ritual. Thangavel escapes from prison, reaches his father's house, rescues the girls and stops the ritual. After fighting Amavasai and his henchmen, Thangavel holds Amavasai at gunpoint. Amavasai begs Thangavel to spare his life but, remembering all the atrocities committed by his father, including the deaths of his mother and stepmother, Thangavel shoots Amavasai. In his dying moments, Amavasai throws flowers on Thangavel and Kuyili, and wishes them well.

Cast

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Uncredited

Production

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Sathyaraj was enjoying good success as a lead actor, when his friend, director Manivannan narrated the script of Amaidhipadai to him. He initially considered rejecting the script as he was not interested in playing a negative role. But after being impressed by the narration, he accepted to do the film.[3][4][5] While filming the scene where Amavasai (Sathyaraj) rapes Thayamma (Kasthuri), Sathyaraj acted carefully to prioritise the actress' comfort; the scene took four hours to shoot.[6] The film, according to Ashish Rajadhyaksha and Paul Willemen, indirectly criticises the real-life political party Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam's (DMK) penchant for nepotism.[7]

Soundtrack

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The music was composed by Ilaiyaraaja.[8] The song "Anjugajam Kanchipattu" which features in Manivannan's later film Raasamahan (1994) was originally composed for this film.[9]

Song Artist(s) Lyrics
"Sollividu Velli Nilave" Mano, Swarnalatha Vaali
"Enakku Unnai Ninaicha" Swarnalatha Pulamaipithan
"Ada Naan Aatchu" Mano Pulamaipithan
"Muthumani Ther Irukku" Mano, S. Janaki Vaali
"Vetri Varuthu" Mano, S. N. Surendar, Deepan Chakravarthy Ponnadiyan
"Amma Thaaye" Ilaiyaraaja

Release

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Amaidhipadai was released on 13 January 1994, the week of Pongal.[10] Despite facing competition from other Pongal releases like Mahanadhi, Sethupathi IPS and Veetla Visheshanga, it emerged a major success,[11] running for over 25 weeks in theatres, thus becoming a silver jubilee film.[12][13]

Critical reception

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Malini Mannath of The Indian Express lauded Sathyaraj's performance as Amavasai, adding, "The scenes of the steady rise of the sly cunning man have been well built up by Manivannan. The dialogues are provocative and delivered in his inimitable way by Sathyaraj".[14] K. Vijiyan of New Straits Times wrote "A pretty much straight-forward story but it is Manivannan's super handling and interesting dialogues that place this movie above the average".[15] Thulasi of Kalki felt the film's story was similar to Mr. Bharath (1986), only the screenplay and dialogues were different, praised the performances of Sathyaraj and Manivannan but felt Sundarrajan and Ranjitha were underutilised and found stunts as childish and also there were too many songs but the background music was superb.[16]

Legacy

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Amaidhipadai attained cult status in Tamil cinema.[17] Following Manivannan's death in June 2013, The Hindu wrote that this film "set the standards for political satire" in the industry.[18] It was remade in Telugu as M. Dharmaraju M.A. (1994), and in Hindi as Jallaad (1995).[19] Manivannan directed a spiritual successor titled Nagaraja Cholan MA, MLA (2013) with Sathyaraj reprising the role of Amavasai.[20] Sathyaraj again reprised the role in Tughlaq Durbar (2021).[21]

References

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  1. ^ "கிடார் கலைஞன் டு காமெடி நடிகர்... 'அல்வா' வாசுவின் மறுபக்கம்!". Ananda Vikatan (in Tamil). 17 August 2017. Archived from the original on 24 May 2024. Retrieved 24 May 2024.
  2. ^ "அமைதி படை படத்தில் சீமான் நடித்த காட்சியை பார்த்துள்ளீர்களா. இதோ வீடீயோவை பாருங்க". Behind Talkies (in Tamil). 30 March 2020. Archived from the original on 12 July 2023. Retrieved 12 July 2023.
  3. ^ "மணிவண்ணனின் 'அமைதிப்படை' மீண்டும் வில்லனா?: நடிக்க மறுத்தார், சத்யராஜ்" [Manivannan's Amaidhipadai a villain again? Sathyaraj initially refused to act]. Maalai Malar (in Tamil). 7 December 2013. Archived from the original on 7 December 2013. Retrieved 19 November 2013.
  4. ^ Rao, Subha (4 May 2013). "Many Shades of grey". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 11 September 2019. Retrieved 17 February 2017.
  5. ^ இளங்கோவன் (13 March 1994). "வில்லன் நடிப்பிலும் ஹீரோதான்!" [Even while playing a villain I'm a hero!] (PDF). Kalki (in Tamil). pp. 4–6. Retrieved 23 May 2023 – via Internet Archive.
  6. ^ "'அமைதிப்படை' அல்வா சீனில் அத்துமீறினாரா சத்யராஜ்..? சர்ச்சை பதிவுக்கு கஸ்தூரி கொடுத்த பரபரப்பு விளக்கம்" [Did Sathyaraj misbehave in the Amaidhipadai halwa scene? Kasthuri's explanation]. Asianet News (in Tamil). 26 November 2023. Archived from the original on 24 May 2024. Retrieved 24 May 2024.
  7. ^ Rajadhyaksha, Ashish; Willemen, Paul (1998) [1994]. Encyclopaedia of Indian Cinema. British Film Institute and Oxford University Press. pp. 516–517. ISBN 0-19-563579-5.
  8. ^ "Amaidhi Padai". Gaana. Archived from the original on 30 July 2021. Retrieved 30 July 2021.
  9. ^ arunachalam, Abiram (27 August 2023). "சீமான் எழுதிய கதை- பிரசாந்தின் ராசாமகன் உருவான கதை". Cinemakaaramcoffee (in Tamil). Archived from the original on 7 March 2024. Retrieved 24 May 2024.
  10. ^ Shivakumar, Vivek (13 January 2019). "25 Years Of Amaidhi Padai: The Politican [sic] As The 'Anti Hero'". Film Companion. Archived from the original on 30 July 2021. Retrieved 12 July 2023.
  11. ^ ராம்ஜி, வி. (17 January 2020). "94-ல், பொங்கலுக்கு கமல், விஜயகாந்த், சத்யராஜ், பிரபு, பாக்யராஜ்; 'மகாநதி', 'அமைதிப்படை', 'சேதுபதி ஐபிஎஸ்' செம ஹிட்டு!". Hindu Tamil Thisai (in Tamil). Archived from the original on 3 March 2020. Retrieved 30 July 2021.
  12. ^ "25 years of Amaidhi Padai: Everything you need to know about the Tamil political satire film; see pics". Times Now. 17 January 2019. Archived from the original on 16 January 2019. Retrieved 19 April 2020.
  13. ^ செல்வராஜ், என். (20 March 2017). "வெள்ளி விழா கண்ட தமிழ் திரைப்படங்கள்" [Tamil films that completed silver jubilees]. Thinnai (in Tamil). Archived from the original on 29 March 2017. Retrieved 24 May 2024.
  14. ^ Mannath, Malini (28 January 1994). "Best as villain". The Indian Express. p. 6. Retrieved 9 January 2019 – via Google News Archive.
  15. ^ Vijiyan, K. (12 February 1994). "Sathyaraj plays double role in political movie". New Straits Times. p. 13. Archived from the original on 18 April 2024. Retrieved 18 April 2024 – via Google News Archive.
  16. ^ துளசி (13 February 1994). "அமைதிப்படை". Kalki (in Tamil). p. 16. Archived from the original on 12 July 2023. Retrieved 12 July 2023.
  17. ^ "A sequel to Amaidhi Padai?". The Times of India. 1 August 2012. Archived from the original on 17 May 2021. Retrieved 19 April 2020.
  18. ^ Subramanian, Karthik (15 June 2013). "Master of character roles Manivannan passes away". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 9 May 2016. Retrieved 24 May 2024.
  19. ^ "Director Manivannan returns with 'Amaidhipadai' sequel". The New Indian Express. 12 October 2012. Archived from the original on 21 May 2022. Retrieved 25 April 2020.
  20. ^ Rao, Subha (11 May 2013). "Fifty and counting". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 11 September 2019. Retrieved 17 February 2017.
  21. ^ Shrikrishna, Aditya (11 September 2021). "Tughlaq Durbar Review: A Fun, Laidback Political Satire". The Quint. Archived from the original on 2 November 2021. Retrieved 2 November 2021.
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