Angadi Theru

The film starts with Jyothi Lingam (Mahesh) and Kani (Anjali) playing and making fun of each other. They find a place to sleep in the street. While they are dreaming, a fire engine completely loses its control and hits the people sleeping in the street. The next scene shows Jothi on a stretcher in a hospital. The flashback now starts and the scene takes us to a village in Tirunelveli.

Jyothi is a bright student and son of a mason who leads a happy life in his village. One day tragedy strikes as his father dies in an accident. Jyoti is forced to abandon his studies. Through a canvassing agent, he and his friend Marimuthu (Pandi) get jobs as salespeople in a textile showroom in Ranganathan Street in Chennai. On each floor at the textile showroom, there are salesboys and salesgirls who work in pitiable conditions from early morning to late night without any rest.

Jyothi meets Kani, a fiery, independent girl. The difficult and harrowing times in the store bring them together as they face up to a cruel and lewd store supervisor Karungali (A. Venkatesh), who beats up boys and molests girls if they are caught playing around during duty hours. Jyothi and Kani slowly fall in love with each other.

In the meantime, actress Sneha visits the showroom for the shooting of an advertisement. Jyothi and Kani sneak out of the crowd to go somewhere private. Karungali unexpectedly arrives. On seeing this, they quickly find places to hide between the counters. Unfortunately, a security guard then locks them in the showroom without knowing. Though originally worried, they start trying out clothes and have fun.

Their dance was recorded in the CCTV of the store. Karungali catches both Jyothi and Kani and beats them up. He also lodges a police report about Jyothi stealing a costly sari from the shop. At police station, inspector beats Jyothi up to make him admit to the made-up crime. Jyothi refuses to do so but tells the inspector that he knows all the fraud activities done by Annachi. The next morning, Jyothi is released from custody.

Jyothi goes back to the showroom and threatens Karungali that if they do not release Kani, he will tell the ugly truth about the store to everyone. On hearing this, Annachi orders Karungali to send Kani with Jyothi. They both leave the place and search for jobs in every shop on that street. Finally, a blind old man who is selling clothes on the platform tells Jyothi that he will give commission to them if they help him sell clothes. The old man tells them a place where they can safely sleep. They go to the place to sleep and the flashback ends. At the hospital, Jyoti sees Kani and is shocked to see both her legs amputated.

Jyothi finally decides to marry Kani. Kani, who has just woken up, cries hysterically as she has lost her legs. So when Jyothi asks to marry her, she cries happily and agrees. The film ends with the scene showing Kani sitting on the platform selling things and Jyothi selling things by walking in the street

• Mahesh as Jyothi Lingam
• Anjali as Kani
• A. Venkatesh as Pavunu alias Karungali
• Pandi as Marimuthu, Jyothi Lingam's friend
• John Vijay as Director
• Pala. Karuppiah as Annachi
• Imman Annachi
• Sneha as herself (Cameo appearance)

The soundtrack album was composed by G. V. Prakash Kumar, while Vijay Antony composed two songs and also scored the background music . Lyrics were penned by Na. Muthukumar. Shreya Ghoshal won Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer – Tamil for the song 'Un Perai Sollum Podhe'.[1]

All lyrics are written by Na. Muthukumar.

The film met with widespread critical acclaim. Behindwoods mentioned, "Angadi Theru is an eye opener to all those who are on the rosier side of life,it’s an overdose of emotions, but you don’t mind it: simply because the characters have handled the scenes so skilfully."[2] Parvathi Srinivasan from Rediff described the film as a, "kind of cinema you keep hoping for and only rarely get," labeling it, "A must watch."[3] Many reviewers appreciated Anjali's performance with Behindwoods commenting that, "The girl looks every bit her role with an impressive gamut of emotions running through her face."[4] Chennaionline.com gave credit to the theme of the film by stating that, "Vasanthabalan must be applauded for courageously presenting us a film that looks into the darker side of the glittery world of massive show rooms.[5]

Angaadi Theru won the 2010 Best Film Award at the Chennai International Film Festival on 24 December 2010.[6] It also won accolades in the following award ceremonies.

• Christopher, Michael & Helen Staufer (2011). “Urban. Village. Urban-Village. Angaditheru and its mofussil department store society in Chennai”, in: manycinemas 1, 24-37

• Angadi Theru on IMDb