Tamil cinema has huge numbers of political satire flicks. Some of them are remembered and the rest are just considered as a mere attempt or a failure. But there are some movies that create a foundation and standards for the upcoming similar genre movies. Amaidhi Padai, released before almost 20 decades is one such film.
Cast and Crew:
Directed and written by Manivannan (also played an important role in the movie as Manimaran) this movie is purely witty and engaging. This movie clearly shows how talented and skilled where our south Indian directors when it came to character narration, establishment, portrayal, and methodology of storytelling with timely humor.
The main role was enacted by Sathyaraj (double role). Sathyaraj’s performance was a clear statement to all the Tollywood fraternity that he can enact a negative shade creating chills and at the same time also uphold your spirits by doing a positive role within the same frame. His performance just took the cinematic experience to a whole new level at that time.
The female lead roles were enacted by Kasthuri and Ranjitha.
Story Line
The story revolved around a Nobody (Amavasai) who with the help of his wit and mesmerizing speaking skills joins a political party whose leader is Manimaran.
He starts to show his true colors while gaining power within the party and village. The transformation scene from Amavasai to Nagaraja Cholan was simply amazing.
The story being simple. The fact that this movie stood the test of time is obviously because of the cast and direction skills of Manivannan.
Some dialogues were so well placed that. Even if the situation was evil and inhumane, one can’t help but appreciate the wit and political dirty games of Amavasai aka Nagaraja Cholan.
The Music and BGM for the film is scored by Isai Ngani Ilayaraja was also an icing on the cake. But was not much memorable like the rest of his albums.
Motive of the Movie
Some socio-political topics like caste discrimination, violation of women’s rights, misuse of political power are rarely mentioned on the Big Screens. Even if they are mentioned, the crew always has a fear of being criticized by the audience of different ideologies. But why did Amaidhi Padai with so many references and clear mention of loopholes behind the socialistic ideology was welcomed with an open heart and laughter? That is the genius of Manivannan in blending the ideologies within a single character (Amavasai).
The Genius Director clearly depicted the negative side of ideology-based politics when it happens to fall in the wrong hands and how the people concerned don’t even know that the root cause of all their problems is because of the leader they have elected. The problems were so neatly depicted with humor that it will be always etched in the viewer’s hearts and also make them think.
Revealing the story here would be a sin as it is a movie which should be experienced personally with all the genius of the director and the lead actor.
The movie had a just ending and also it was logical.
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