Tamil Movie Review: Funny, Spoof Rich Thamizh Padam 2010

(The movie hero in the first hero song – I loved when the dance master joins in to dance and get chased away – spoof from many of Vijay’s movies. Image source: IMDB)

If you thought Venkat Prabhu’s Goa was funny, well, let me tell you – you have not seen anything yet!

Goa was good and funny (I hated the movie makers for trying to pass Langkawi as Goa) but it did not match Venkat Prabhu’s Chennai 600028 which I thought funnier and more original (Goa could have been better if Venkat had kept ‘gay scenes’ down and more funny scenes up). That is when I got the chance to watch the excellent “Thamizh Padam”.

Finally, a movie that keeps us entertained from start to end!

We have heard full-length spoof movies from Hollywood and we may have seen snippets in Tamil movies but the movie “Thamizh Padam” is one the first Tamil movie that portrays full-length spoof from start to end.

The Plot

Read the full plot here

The Storyline

The storyline is nothing new here, a very typical Tamil movie storyline – hero fighting for the poor, hero meets a beautiful girl, sorry – rich beautiful girl, not surprisingly girl falls for the hero after the hero pulls a stupid stunt (in this case, dancing), rich father objects to the relationship, rich father throws a challenge to the hero, the hero takes up the challenge and wins and…oh ya, there are some bad guys somewhere in between for the hero to fight.

But making the movie storyline more interesting is the number of Tamil movies spoofed in this movie (watch out the spoof from Mouna Ragam).

From the very start where the credits roll on, the background was spoofed from some of the movies in the 1980s. We have a colourful background, the scenes in negative print background and a simple old wallpaper background.

Then the introduction of the hero is made – ala Rajinikanth’s Chandramukhi style with the hero staying on one foot and another rose up in a kicking style. As the camera moves around, we then see that the hero’s pants are torn due to this difficult posture (we wondered the same when we saw Chandramukhi).

Getting 3 old actors to represent the hero’s young friends is brilliant! They look young, they talk young and yet we know that they are old.

The List of Spoofs

Films

• Karuththamma – The opening scene shows Periyar Dasan as the father of a baby who is about to be killed. Dasan played the same role in Karuththamma as well. This version shows male infanticide instead of female infanticide.
• Boys – Siva’s friends are named after the actors in the film. Their introduction scene, as well as Siddarth’s failed attempt to impress his girlfriend, are based on this film.
• Thalapathi – The scene where Devaraj visits his brother and asks for forgiveness.
• Priya – The scene where Devaraj’s gang asks Siva to meet Devaraj, Siva’s eyes are closed, and he tried to locate the place while sensing sounds while he is in the car.
• Ghajini – Siva remembers that he has to kill Swarna when he looks at a Polaroid photo of her.
• Minsara Kanavu – A small part of the dance in the song ‘Oh Maha Zeeya’ is the same as what Prabhu Deva does in Minsara Kanavu in the song ‘Vennilavae Vennilavae’.
• Enga Ooru Pattukaran – A similar character is shown as a resident of Cinemapatti.
• Kizhakke Pogum Rail – At Cinemapatti railway station, a woman is shown sending messages at the back of the train compartment. The song “Koovura Sandham” from the film can be heard as background music for the scene.
• Pokkiri – The hero is revealed to be an undercover police officer.
• Baasha – Siva’s meeting with Devaraj is heavily based on the encounter between Rajinikanth and Raghuvaran in Baasha. Siva’s fight in market – circle of rowdies around him and walking is based on Rajini’s walk in Baasha when he hits Anandaraj. Villain D shoots the henchman when the henchman says “India lost the cricket match”. In Baasha, Raghuvaran shoots his henchman when he conveys a bad news.
• Run – Siva is chased by thugs, and when he is not visible to them, he sticks a small fake birthmark on his face. When the thugs find him, they are unable to recognize him, though he is in the same dress. Even his girlfriend finds it difficult to recognize him.
• Ramana – Devraj is shown to accidentally meet other guy also called Ramana before his brother (and asks forgiveness to Ramana). The protagonist of the film is famous for his dialogue “Tamilla enakku pidikkatha vaarthai…Mannippu” (meaning “Sorry is the only word I hate in Tamil”).
• Annamalai – Siva challenges his lover’s father and claims that he will become a millionaire (and subsequently does).
• Sivaji – Siva meets a minister to report about the lack of water and ends up selling his cycle to him similar to the act of Rajini selling his car from the film. His unique way of signing documents is also based on Sivaji. Also, Siva’s stepmom has a laptop that is unlocked by her voice, similar to what Rajni has in the movie.
• Billa – A transvestite has a Billa tattoo that says “Swarna”.
• Apoorva Sagodharargal – Siva appears as a dwarf and attempts to kill a criminal using a Rube Goldberg machine. Delhi Ganesh reprises his role as the villain.
• Anniyan – Siva tries to force buffalo to stampede and kill a criminal. In the same sequence, he tries to imitate Anniyan’s voice with no success.
• Nayagan – The people look to Siva as their savior and ask for his help in repairing the water pipe.
• Citizen – In the climax court scene, the judge mention the name of Athippatti Citizen, who is a character in this film.
• Captain Prabhakaran – In the climax court scene, the judge mention the name of Captain Prabhakaran, who is the titular character in this film, comparing Siva’s act to his.
• Dhool – The character of Swarna is directly lifted from this film.
• Vaidehi Kathirunthal – The character of Vellaichamy is a spoof of Vijayakanth’s character from this movie.
• Surya Vamsam – The people in Cinemapatti waiting for the character of Vellaichamy to start singing a song is a spoof of Sarath Kumar’s character in this movie.
• Mouna Ragam – Siva proposes to Priya using the college intercom.
• Nattamai – The character of the same name appears in the film. Ponnambalam, who appeared as villain in that film, played as Naattamai.
• Chinna Thambi – A scene depicting three brothers protecting their sister by making her walk on their palms.
• Kaakha Kaakha – The hero and heroine travel in an open jeep to a retreat in Pondicherry, where the hero is beaten up and the heroine gets kidnapped. Pandiya, the villain character of that film, is also imitated. An instrumental version of the song Ennai Konjam is part of the background score. (Siva even mentions that a certain Mr. Anbuselvam is travelling ahead of them on the same route)
  Muthirai – Siva’s cheri home turns out to be very posh within.
• Dasavathaaram – The appearance of the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the President of the United States.
• Thirupachi – The villains tie up the heroine in an abandoned warehouse, and the hero arrives in the nick of time to save her.
• Virumaandi – The title character appears in the film. Bharath remarks that Virumaandi means well, but is always misunderstood.
  Vettaiyadu Vilayadu – A cop who imitates Kamal Hassan asks for permission to go to America.
• Kanthaswamy – A man wearing Kanthaswamy’s costume is an associate of Siva. The parodied version is named Kuppuswamy.
• Mozhi – Siva first encounters Priya as she is beating up another woman. Bharath’s “signals” of love, and the heroine’s friend named Sheela, are all based on Mozhi.
• Kadhalan – Siva goes to Priya’s house and performs “classical dance” to win her love.
• Kadhalukku Mariyadhai – Siva and a girl simultaneously take the same book “Love and Love Only”.
• Rasigan, Deva, Vishnu, Maanbumigu Maanavan, Once More – The “Pacha Manja” song features a caption which says that the hero sang the song.
• Palayathu Amman – When the hero enters Cinemapatti, they encounter film set of a moving Amman statue similar to all Rama Narayanan films, especially Palayathu Amman.
• En Rasavin Manasile – In Cinemapatti village, a person on the roadside is shown eating mutton.
• Sethupathi IPS – A policeman resembling Vijayakanth blames the murders on Pakistani terrorists.
• Chidambara Rahasiyam – The “mystery villain” D is portrayed similar to Delhi Ganesh’s portrayal of the Black Cat in this film.
• Veerasamy – Priya, a fan of T. Rajendar, holds a DVD of this film and declares it an “epic”. (same scene was parodied in Sonna Puriyathu)
• Chandramukhi – Siva’s introduction scene shows him stretching his leg (the scene from Chandramukhi is parodied when it is revealed that Siva has a split seam in his pants).
• Mappillai – When Siva punches and kicks the giant, the giant shows no sign of pain.
• Chennai 600028- A goon working for Kodeeswaran tells that he has seen Shiva in Chennai 600028.
• 7G Rainbow Colony – Bharath’s father scolding him, like Vijayan does in Rainbow Colony.
• Naalai Namadhe – Siva’s family having a family song like in this movie, though it is an English song.
• Thirumalai – Similar to Vijay from the film, Siva is seen playing carrom with his friends.
• Dhill – The doctor tells the commissioner that Siva will not be able to walk for 10 years, but he gets up and walks, which the doctor calls a ‘medical miracle’, similar to the scene in this movie.

People

• Kamal Haasan – When a conversation mentions that Virumaandi is a good man and all that he does gets misconstrued.
• Vijay – At the beginning of the film, there are references to his punch dialogues and also imitates the slogan saying that particular hero has sung the song. Later, Siva tenses his muscles like Vijay did in Vettaikaran.
• A. R. Rahman – The judge declares that the Government has to award a Golden Globe award to Paravai Muniyamma, to which she says “Ella Pugazhum Iraivanukke” (a popular dialogue uttered by Rahman at the 2009 Academy Awards).
• Nayantara – During the song Kuthu Vilakku, a man dances in a bikini with a tattoo on his back, similar to Nayantara’s tattoo in Billa.
• Fathima Babu/Shobana Ravi – The TV reporter says her name is Fathima Ravi – a combination of the two famous newsreaders from Doordarshan TV.
• Silambarasan – The Nattamai character declares that anyone who disobeys his law will be forced to watch Silambarasan’s films 100 times.
• Jothika – The heroine introduction scene in which the girl who abuses her husband mentioning that she want to go to pub with her friend Trisha to have drinks.
• Rajinikanth – Siva becoming a rich man within one song is similar to the scenes in Rajinikanth movies of Annamalai and Padayappa.
• Suriya – Siva remembers that he has to kill Swarna when he looks at a Polaroid photo of her, which is similar to the movie Ghajini.

Soundtrack

• “Pacha Manja” – This song parodies introductory songs of film stars which has lyrics written to suit star’s image.
• “Kuthu Vilakku” – This song parodies item numbers which appeared in commercial films and these songs mostly happens at antagonists’ place.
• “Oru Sooravali” – This song parodies the song “Vetri Nichayam” and from the films directed by Vikraman where male protagonist’s transformation from poor guy to rich guy happens within one song.
• “O Mahazeeya” – This song parodies romantic duets in Tamil cinema and lyrics of the song contains gibberish terms which coincidentally named after the chartbuster song names in Tamil cinema.

Others

• Hutch – When Priya calls Siva’s mobile phone, his ring tone is set to Hutch’s signature tune and a dog follows him as depicted in the Hutch advertisement. He eventually gives brandy to the dog to stop it from following him.
• ZooZoos from Vodafone – After Siva beats up the rowdies to save Priya, the ZooZoos attempt to defeat Siva in the name of BooBoos.
• Santoor Soap – When Siva finds a girl being a young mother of a small girl, he utters “Mummy” similar to the advertisement.

The source: Wikipedia

The Music

Adding to the funny storyline is brilliant music and funny lyrics. Despite the movie being a full-length spoof movie, the quality of the songs, however, has not been compromised. Music director – Kannan have done a good job here.

There 4 main songs or theme in this movie – a song to introduce the hero (Pacha Manja), the must-have romance song (O Maha Zeeya), song for the hero’s comeback / working to be rich (Oru Sooravali) and one “kuthu” song for the bad guys (Kuthu Vilakku).

The timing of the songs itself is just perfect – don’t all Tamil movies have the same theme/timing? Out of the 4 main songs, O Maha Zeeya is probably the first Tamil movie song that has lyrics that does not have any meaning to it. I still remember the great poet Valli saying that in those days (the 1950s – 1970s), lyrics of the song need to be meaningful but the current songs can have lyrics that mean nothing and yet can be a chartbuster.

O Maha Zeeya makes fun of this aspect.

Indiaglitz commented:-

It is a song that aroused great curiosity even before the album was released. It was said that this number can neither be remixed in future nor can be sung again by Hariharan himself. Yes of course. Listen to the song and you will endorse it.

A hilarious number with funny lyrics from several earlier numbers that topped the charts make up this song. Hariharan and Swetha sing it with utmost sincerity. You would laugh as you listen the song

Great music with interesting twists

The Acting

No big names in the movie but there are no small names either. Shiva who plays the main character is perfect in his role and goes by the scenes rather fluidly. Acting in funny movies is not a new thing for this actor who is also a radio jockey – he acted in Venkat Prabhu’s earlier 2 movies (but missing out in Goa).

Other characters including the heroin were nothing to shout about except for the hero’s 3 friends (played by M.S.Bhaskar, Manobala and Venniraadai Moorthy) and of course, the grandmother acted by the excellent Paravai Muniyamma.

Final say

The plus points: Brilliant spoofing, music and punch “dialogues”

The negative points: Not enough to satisfy us (we need Part 2)

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