Padayappa

Padayappa is a mechanical engineer who returns to his village Jalakandapuram to attend his sister Nandhini's engagement to Suryaprakash, the son of their maternal uncle Rajarathnam. His father, Dharmalingam, is a respected village chieftain. During his stay, Padayappa comes across Vasundhara, Rajarathnam's maid, and falls in love with her. Suryaprakash's sister, Neelambari, also falls in love with Padayappa, making Vasundhara scared to admit her feelings. Dharmalingam's younger brother Ramalingam demands a share in the family property because he wants wealth and respect like his brother, but Dharmalingam refuses to divide the property and instead gives the entire property and wealth to Ramalingam. The family leaves their home the same evening to go to Padayappa's home in Madras, but unable to bear the shock, Dharmalingam dies just as they leave. Within days, Suryaprakash marries Ramalingam's daughter Meena without the villagers' knowledge, craving their newfound wealth and status. Padayappa's mother, Savitri is insulted by Rajarathnam, but she blesses the couple and leaves. While Padayappa sets to clean his land for agriculture, Ramalingam's spy finds small rocks, and he discovers that a hill on that property is solid granite, which is very valuable. He tries to get that granite hill by giving the family property back to Padayappa, but after many obstacles, Savitri cancels the deal. Ramalingam tries to force them to sign over, and reveals the reason for the deal. Padayappa beats up his men and leaves with his family. He starts the granite business, becoming wealthy and taking over the chieftain position of his father while his family settles in a new mansion and regains their respect. Nandhini marries Sivaraman, one of the chief engineers who works in Padayappa's company. Neelambari learns about Padayappa's love for Vasundhara and is furious; she tries to harm herself. Her parents beg Savitri to allow Neelambari to marry Padayappa. However, to everyone's surprise, Savitri proposes marriage to Vasundhara; she was aware of Padayappa's love for Vasundhara, and wanted to get revenge on Rajarathnam for humiliating her. Unable to bear the humiliation, Rajarathnam commits suicide the same night. Neelambari vows to get revenge, but fails twice, and Padayappa marries Vasundhara. Suryaprakash brings Neelambari to his home, but she locks herself in her room, and refuses to come out, watching Padayappa's wedding video on repeat. 18 years later, Neelambari is still staying in her room, while Suryaprakash has become the home minister. Ramalingam is in financial straits, and he and his family are in danger of being evicted from their home. Suryaprakash refuses to help because it would endanger his position. Padayappa comes to their rescue, saving Ramalingam and his family. Ramalingam becomes indebted to Padayappa and seeks forgiveness for his misdeeds. Padayappa pardons him. Neelambari plans her revenge on Padayappa, now a father of two daughters. Suryaprakash also has a son, Chandraprakash alias Chandru, who studies at the same college in Chennai as Padayappa's elder daughter, Anitha. Neelambari advises Chandru to make Anitha fall in love with him. At the same time, Padayappa plans to get Anitha married to Nandhini's son Sarathi. Neelambari, having made Chandru pretend to fall in love with Anitha, plans to humiliate Padayappa by making Anitha say that she does not wish to marry a groom of her parents' choice, and that she is in love with someone else. At the marriage ceremony, after Anitha does what Neelambari told her to do, Padayappa then makes an oath to unite Anitha with her lover by the next Muhurta. Padayappa discovers that Chandru really did fall in love with Anitha, even though he was initially only pretending to do so on Neelambari's orders. When Padayappa takes Chandru and Anitha to the temple to get married, Neelambari and Suryaprakash give chase to stop them. During the chase, Suryaprakash is killed in a car accident. Armed with a machine gun, Neelambari reaches the temple where Chandru and Anitha are married, and tries to kill Padayappa. Instead, Padayappa saves her life by preventing a bull from attacking her, while at the same time dodging the bullets she fires at him. Furious at being defeated again, Neelambari commits suicide, promising to take revenge on Padayappa in her next birth, but Padayappa is certain it will never work. He prays for her soul to find peace. == Cast ==

Development In September 1998, Rajinikanth announced his next project, titled Padayappa, with K. S. Ravikumar as director. It also marks Ravikumar’s second collaboration with Rajinikanth after Muthu. The story of this film was taken in part from the historical Tamil novel, Ponniyin Selvan, by Kalki Krishnamurthy. Ravikumar had simultaneously discussed another script with Rajinikanth titled Hara, but the actor preferred to do Padayappa first. A. M. Jyothi Krishna, son of producer A. M. Rathnam, was involved in the development of the film's script. Casting Rajinikanth was cast as the title character, a city-based engineer who returns to his ancestral village. Padayappa's cousin Neelambari is based on Nandini, a vengeful woman in Ponniyin Selvan. It was Ravikumar who suggested Krishnan's name for the role to Rajinikanth. She said she accepted the role because "it was opposite a superstar and that too the character was a negative one, no one was ready to do it, but I did it. I didn't have any second thoughts." According to Aishwarya Rai, she was also considered for the role, a claim Rajinikanth supports. who had earlier worked with Rajinikanth in Arunachalam (1997). Ramesh Kanna was chosen to play Murugesan after Rajinikanth was impressed with his performance in Unnidathil Ennai Koduthen (1998). Apart from acting, Kanna also worked as the film's co-director. and was filmed in one take using two cameras. Around 2,000 extras were used for the scene. Filming also took place in Mysore. The Vadapalani-based shop, D. V. Nehru wigs, supplied the wigs that were sported by Ganesan. In a 2016 interview with The Hindu, Ravikumar mentioned that the scene where Padayappa uses his shawl to pull down a swing from the ceiling on which he sits after not being given a chair to sit by Neelambari, was inspired by a sequence in the Indian epic Ramayana, where Hanuman makes a seat using his tail after Ravana does not provide him a chair to sit. == Themes ==

Writing for PopMatters, Ranjani Krishnakumar noted that Padayappa underlined Rajinikanth's political manoeuvres, evident when his character's lover sings "Kaadhal therdhalil kattil sinnathil vetri petru nee vaazgha" (In the election of love, with the symbol of bed, may you win and flourish). P. C. Balasubramanianram and N. Ramakrishnan, in their book, Grand Brand Rajini, said, "Padayappa, in one way, stands testimony to Rajini's life itself." == Music ==

The film's soundtrack and background score were composed by A. R. Rahman, with lyrics by Vairamuthu. The soundtrack was released through Star Music. Strips of herbal rejuvenator capsules were sold along with the film's music cassettes. Before the film's release, Rahman asked Ravikumar if the soundtrack could be released in August 1999. Ravikumar informed Rahman that he had already discussed a release date with the press, and that Rahman would be blamed for any delay. To make the deadline, Rahman did a live re-recording of both the soundtrack and score to finish them on time. The credits for the song "Vetri Kodi Kattu", sung by Palakkad Sreeram, initially went to Malaysia Vasudevan, who publicly stated that the credits for the song should have been attributed to Sreeram. Rahman requested the company who manufactured the audio cassettes to make the change. The song "Minsara Kanna" is based on the Vasantha raga, "Minsara Kanna" established Srinivas as a leading singer in the film industry. Srikanth Srinivasa of the Deccan Herald wrote, "The music by [Rahman], to Vairamuthu's lyrics, sounds good while the movie is on, though whether without the presence of [Rajinikanth] they would have, is another thing." S. Shiva Kumar of The Times of India was more critical of the soundtrack, and called it "lacklustre". == Release ==

Padayappa was released theatrically on 10 April 1999 on the eve of Tamil New Year's Day. It was the first Tamil film to be released worldwide with over 200 prints, and 700,000 audio cassettes. The film's rights in Japan were sold for US$50,000, which was the highest an Indian film fetched for commercial release in 1999. Co-producer Thenappan registered the film posters as a Class 34 trademark in 1998, to be used for trademarking such items as beedis, cigarettes, cheroots and tobacco, making it the first instance of brand extension in the Tamil film industry. The pre-release business of the film's overseas rights amounted to . According to an estimate by trade analyst Sreedhar Pillai, the value of the theatrical and satellite rights for Padayappa was approximately . Re-release The film was re-released on 12 December 2025, coinciding with Rajinikanth's 75th birthday. == Reception ==

Critical response Ananda Vikatan, in its original review of the film dated 25 April 1999, wrote that the original stamp of Rajinikanth style could be seen in the film several times, adding that Ramya Krishnan had matched Rajinikanth and created a royal path separately, and concluded that the film was exclusively made for Rajinikanth's fans, giving it a rating of 41 out of 100. Srikanth Srinivasa of Deccan Herald gave the film a positive verdict, claiming that the "positive energy generated by this film is simply astounding", and labelling Rajinikanth's role as "terrific". G. Ulaganathan of The New Indian Express praised the acting of Sivaji Ganesan and Ramya Krishnan but felt the film lacked a powerful villain and Rahman's score as routine. Malini Mannath of The Indian Express felt the film had nothing new to offer and was a rehash of Rajinikanth's old films and found Rahman's music mediocre but praised Krishnan's acting. D. S. Ramanujam of The Hindu wrote, "SET TO please and enthral his fans, Arunachala Cine Creations Padaiappa is loaded with scenes and dialogue that will tremendously boost Rajinikanth's image. Experienced director K. S. Ravikumar goes beyond the accepted limits of cinematic allowances to make the venture of a Bade Appa, so will be the verdict of Rajini's fans" while praising the acting of cast, set design, cinematography, humour and music. S. Shiva Kumar of The Times of India was critical of the film's allusions to the actor's political career, stating that the film was "more style than substance". Box office Padayappa was a major box office success; according to The Tribune, it was the highest grossing Tamil film at that point. The film had a theatrical run of 100 days in 86 theatre centres, The dubbed version was also a commercially successful venture, and had a theatrical run of 50 days in 49 theatres. Criticism from animal rights activists Nikhil Talreja, an animal activist, criticised one scene from the film which shows a bull charging at Vasundhara who is wearing a red sari. He accused the filmmakers of propagating the regressive myth that bulls charge at anything coloured red; the creatures are actually red–green colour blind. Talreja also criticised another scene propagating a similarly regressive myth, that snakes drink milk. He said, "Snakes are not mammals. They are reptiles [...] For snakes, this is biologically impossible. Snakes in general can open three times the actual size of their mouth and consume prey directly. They just don't drink milk." Accolades == Potential sequel ==

Padayappa final cut initially lasted for 19 reels, which was considered too lengthy. Rather than cut the film, Rajinikanth suggested to Ravikumar to allot two intervals. He screened the uncut film for actor Kamal Haasan, who told him not to go for two intervals. Haasan suggested Padayappa be edited in a way that would not disturb the storyline, so Ravikumar and the editor Thanigachalam managed to bring the film down to 14 reels. In December 2025, Rajinikanth said a sequel was being discussed, and would be titled Neelambari: Padayappa 2 if it comes to fruition. == Legacy ==

With the success of Padayappa, Ramya Krishnan, who up to that point in time had only performed glamorous roles, another song from the film, Vetri Kodi Kattu, became the name of a 2000 film directed by Cheran. Ramya Krishnan played the role of Malini in the film Arumugam (2009), in which her character was similar to Neelambari. Her character in the television serial, Kalasam, was also named Neelambari. Actress Priyamani, in an interview with Prathibha Joy of The Times of India, stated her character in the Kannada film Ambareesha (2014), is similar to Neelambari. In Chetan Bhagat's novel, 2 States: The Story of My Marriage (2009), when Krish Malhotra, the protagonist, travels to Nungambakkam by auto rickshaw, the driver stops to worship a poster of Padayappa. Some of the quotes from the film that became popular were: • "Idhu Anbala Serntha Koottam" (This crowd was formed out of love) - reused in "The Punch Song" from the film, Aaha Kalyanam (2014). • "En Vazhi Thani Vazhi." (My way is a unique way); It was also used as the title of a 2010 book on branding by Sridhar Ramanujam. • "Poda Aandavane Nammapakkam Irukan’’ (God is on our side); • "Adhigama Aasaipadra Aambalaiyum, Adhigama Kobapadra Pombalaiyum, Nalla Vazhndhadha Sarithirame Kidaiyathu" (There is no history of a man who desires too much or a woman who gets too angry living well), • "Kashtapadama Edhuvum Kidaikkathu. Kashtapadama Kidaikirathu Ennikkum Nilakkathu" (One can gain nothing without working hard for it. That which is gained without hard work will not last forever); • the English dialogue "Anger is the cause of all miseries. One should know how to control it, otherwise life will become miserable", • Neelambari's dialogue "Vayasanalum un style um azhagum inum unna vitu pogala" (Even though you have grown older, your style and beauty has not left you) is recreated in a skit scene in the film K.D. (2019), with Kutty (played by Naga Vishal) and Karuppudurai (Mu Ramaswamy) disguised as Neelambari and Padayappa respectively. Scenes and dialogues from the film were parodied in various other films such as Thirupathi Ezhumalai Venkatesa (1999), En Purushan Kuzhandhai Maadhiri (2001), Annai Kaligambal (2003), Sivaji: The Boss (2007). Vel (2007), Siva Manasula Sakthi (2009), Malai Malai (2009), Vanakkam Chennai (2013), and All in All Azhagu Raja (2013). Padayappa was also parodied in the Star Vijay comedy series Lollu Sabha, in an episode appropriately named Vadayappa. To celebrate the 39th anniversary of Rajinikanth in the film industry, Digitally Inspired Media, a Chennai-based digital agency, made 39 posters of some of his films, in which Padayappa was included. The posters feature one "punch" line from the film, a representative image, and the year of the film's release. On Rajinikanth's 64th birthday, an agency named Minimal Kollywood Posters designed posters of Rajinikanth's films, in which the Minion characters from the Despicable Me franchise are dressed as Rajinikanth. On 13 June 2025, the then Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, M. K. Stalin, referring to a comic scene from Padayappa, said, “There is a dialogue—he is the groom, but the shirt he is wearing is mine. Similarly, the Union Government may launch the schemes, but we [Tamil Nadu] are responsible for providing the funds". The next day, there was a follow-up post from his Twitter handle, containing two screenshots from the said scene. Nearly two weeks later, he repeated the reference in a speech. == References ==