Tamil cinema is so ripe for spoofing that it is a surprise that so few movies have taken advantage of it. And the few that have, have been disappointments both in their ideas for and their execution of the spoofs. But finally, here is a movie that gets most of it right. With quite a unique story that lends itself very well to comedy, a hero who acts his age and measured shots at everything from politics to cinema, Adithadi is fun and entertaining.

Tirupati(Satyaraj), a bald, 50 year old local don, is a man who can make or break even Chief Ministers. Surya(Napolean) is his sworn enemy. A man for hire, Tirupati has no time for wife or family. But romance flowers in his hard heart when he sees Priya(Rathi), the winner of the Miss Chennai contest and hears her speak about the importance of a woman in a man's life. He begins pursuing her relentlessly, changing himself for her but she already has a man(Abbas) in her life.

Heroes acting with heroines half their age is nothing new to Tamil cinema but Adithadi is different in that it has such a pair onscreen! The mismatch in this pairing is so funny that the director's job in making us laugh is half done each time we see them together. Satyaraj's henchmen's lack of tact when dealing with Rathi, his efforts to smooth over their propensity for violence and Rathi's helplessness in the face of his incessant wooing lead to some very funny sequences each time they meet. At the same time, the director avoids the movie slipping into silly slapstick by making Satyaraj's character truly don-like when Rathi is not around. The contrast in his character is what makes the movie really work.

The movie takes several lighthearted shots at other movies. While similar spoofs in movies like Anbu Thollai seemed contrived and thrown together without regard to how well they fit into the rest of the movie, the take-offs here blend well into the movie, making them really funny. The Jayam song sequence and the scene where Satyaraj dictates a love letter Gunaa-style, are a couple of the highpoints. In fact, cinema is present throughout as Satyaraj even watches Thalapathy to get hints on how to talk to Rathi! Politics is the other target through some sharp one-liners. Naturally, there are also a couple of lines aimed at the marriage of politics and cinema - actors taking to politics.

For the most part, the movie manages to juggle both comedy and action competently. While Satyaraj is menacing when dealing with people in his main line of work, he is sweet and romantic with Rathi. Neither of these feels out of place. But the movie's violence towards the end is a little too much for a movie that also has comedy on its agenda. The violence also coincides with a screenplay that feels a little dragged. Violence and sentiments take the stage and a short and crisp climax would have helped in maintaining the pace of the rest of the movie.

One can't imagine anyone other than Satyaraj in this role. With his bald, real-life appearance, he makes a convincing don while at the same time, romancing Rathi with believable amateurishness and taking shots at politics with his trademark nakkal dialog delivery. Napolean has a dignified role and does it well while Rathi expresses her distress at Satyaraj's advances well. Suganya has a small role as Napolean's wife. Director Rajkapoor and 'Mahanadhi' Shankar play typical henchmen but their exasperated comments at their boss' changes raise some laughs.