Thai Meethu Sathiyam

Babu is a shepherd with a dog named Ramu. When criminals Balu and Johnny murder his parents, he swears upon his mother that he will take revenge. Babu trains under the local , and is revealed to be naturally skilled at marksmanship. After dressing himself like a cowboy, equipping himself with the zamindar’s guns and a horse, and with Ramu as his aide, he fulfils his promise by killing the criminals. In the late 1960s, had planned to produce a film starring , titled ; however, as Ramachandran was unwell at that time, as well as involved in a legal case, resulting in the film being shelved. Thevar later revived the film in the late 1970s with a new title, , but as Ramachandran had retired from acting after becoming the , was instead cast. The film, directed by , was Rajinikanth’s first film in the genre, and the plot took inspiration from several starring . It was the last film produced by Thevar to be released; he died on 8 September when the film was still in production. Cinematography was handled by V. Ramamurthy and editing by M. G. Balu Rao. deals with one of the most recurrent themes in Tamil cinema: revenge. Like most Thyagarajan films, this has an animal playing a prominent character. likened the relationship between Babu and his dog Ramu to that of . The soundtrack was composed by the duo . was released on 30 October 1978, day. rated the film 44 out of 100. praised the performances of cast, cinematography, music, direction, stunts and called it a usual formula narrated in an interesting manner. Despite facing competition from many other Diwali releases, the film became a commercial success, running for over 100 days in theatres, and Rajinikanth “carved out for himself a niche in vendetta roles”.