Adi Thadi

Adi Thadi (pronunciation^ⓘ; transl. Whacking) is a 2004 Indian Tamil-language action comedy film. It stars Sathyaraj, Abbas, Napoleon and Rathi, and was directed by T. Shivraj. It was later remade in Telugu as Political Rowdy in 2005 with Mohan Babu, Charmee Kaur and Prakash Raj enacting the roles of Sathyaraj, Rathi and Napoleon respectively. Abbas reprises his role in the Telugu film.^[1]

Adi Thadi
Poster
Directed by	T. Shivraj
Produced by	S. Gnanasundari
Starring	Sathyaraj Abbas Napoleon Rathi Sukanya
Cinematography	R. Selva
Edited by	Udayashankar
Music by	Deva
Production company	Sundari Films
Release date	5 March 2004 (2004-03-05)
Country	India
Language	Tamil

Plot

Tirupati is a criminal who commands respect from state heads like the CM. He hates women and remains a bachelor even at the age of 50. A naughty college student Priya grabs Tirupati's attention though a beauty contest, and there he falls in love with her and proposes to her. Then, Priya's life turns to disaster because she gets tortured by Tirupati and his henchmen. With the help of his brother Surya, Tirupati changes his appearance to look younger. To escape from this problem, Priya contacts her boyfriend Arjun. The rest is all about how all ends well.

Cast

• Sathyaraj as Tirupati
• Napoleon as Surya
• Abbas as Arjun
• Rathi as Priya
• Sukanya
• Vaiyapuri
• Raj Kapoor
• Nighalgal Ravi
• Chitra Lakshmanan
• Vadivel David
• Devan
• Gemini Ganesan as himself^[2] (special appearance)
• Deva in a special appearance in the song "Thagadu Thagadu"

Production

The film marked the directorial debut of T. Shivaraj who earlier assisted T. P. Gajendran and S. A. Chandrasekhar.^[3]

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was composed by Deva and lyrics were written by Piraisoodan, Kalidasan, Snehan and Deva Kumar.^[4] The song "Umma Umma" turned out to be a sensational chartbuster upon release.

No.	Song	Singers	Lyrics	Length (m:ss)
1	Umma Umma	Malathy Lakshman, Manikka Vinayagam	Deva Kumar	04:31
2	Machanukku	Pop Shalini, Prasanna	Kalidasan	04:26
3	Eppadi Samalipendi	Sridevi, Naveen		04:50
4	Thagadu Thagadu	Deva, Tippu, Ganga	Piraisoodan	04:43
5	Akkipachai	Anuradha Sriram	Snehan	05:12

Release and reception

Sify wrote "Sathyaraj's Adithadi starts off as a rollkicking comedy that peters out towards the end. It is a black comedy, a movie that makes light of serious and usually morbid situations with their own level of hilarity and cleverness".^[5] The Hindu wrote "You could double up in laughter, guffaw at the hero's audacity or wrinkle your nose in disgust at certain points, but surely you cannot ignore the film that reminds you so much of the `villainous' Satyaraj of yore."^[2] Chennai Online wrote "This picture makes no pretence about being anything other than what it is. A not-to-be-taken-seriously, unpretentious entertainer, hilarious at most times, an irreverent take-off on films depicting local 'dadas' and their ilk, the film is seen through the eyes of a 50-something local don, who falls in love with a teenager, and for once finds himself at a loss on how to go about it".^[6] G. Ulaganathan of Deccan Herald wrote "Director Shivraj begins well and what begins as a comedy somewhere midway becomes a little serious".^[7]

The relative success of the film prompted Shivraj and Sathyaraj to team up again for a film titled Devuda on fake godmen, though it was later shelved.^[8] Soon after, Shivraj began making Enakke Enakka with a new cast, but it was also cancelled.^[9]