Padikkadavan (English: Illiterate) is a 2009 Indian Tamil-language action comedy film written and directed by Suraj. It stars Dhanush, Tamannaah, Vivek, Atul Kulkarni, Suman, Sayaji Shinde, and Pratap Pothan in the lead roles amongst a huge supporting cast in small pivotal and cameo roles. The music was composed by Mani Sharma with cinematography by A. Venkatesh and editing by Manoj. The film released on 14 January 2009 during Pongal and received a huge positive response. The film was successful grossing ₹15 crore in Tamil Nadu and established Dhanush Raja as one of top 5 saleable heroes of Tamil cinema after then. Filming began in March 2008 and was released in Pongal 2009.