Poda Podi 2012
Arjun (Silambarasan), an animation artist living in London with his uncle (VTV Ganesh), meets Nisha (Varalaxmi Sarathkumar) in a London pub. She is an aspiring dancer who is living with her aunt Veena (Shobana). After going around together for a day, Nisha proposes a relationship, and Arjun agrees. Arjun hates Nisha attending salsa classes with her friend Mojo as her partner. However, he agrees to marry her.
After their marriage, Nisha makes it clear that she still wants to dance and enter the UK competition “Let’s Dance”, and make a career for herself. Arjun suddenly discovers that he is, at bottom, a “Pachai Thamizhan” who believes that a woman’s place is in the home (preferably the kitchen, but she has the freedom to walk from one room to another if she wants). On the advice of his uncle, he impregnates her, so that she stays away from dancing.
Thalapathi 1991
A 14-year-old forlorn Kalyani delivers a boy in seclusion, fearing societal backlash and incapacity. She abandons him, heavy-hearted, placing him inside a moving goods train, which a slum dweller finds. The slum procures him as their common child, naming him Surya and they collectively raise him honest. He grows up, intolerant of injustice especially to the poor, though he wonders why his biological mother had impetuously abandoned him. A yellow shawl was the only identity he had of his mother, which she had placed him in when casting him away.
Devaraj, a powerful don who is kind yet feared by most in the society, also fights injustice, but by violent means. Ramana, an auxiliary of Devaraj’s, whose abusive demeanour led Surya to attack him, succumbs to his death. Surya gets apprehended for this. An exasperated Devaraj soon perceives Ramana’s felony, realises Surya’s cause was genuine and bails him out. Thus, Surya and Devaraj get to understand each other as both share similar social ideologies despite getting off on the wrong foot. Devaraj declares Surya his “Thalapathi”, a best friend.
