Senathipathi

Senathipathi (/seɪnɑːðɪpəθi/transl.Chief) is a 1996 Indian Tamil languagedrama film written and directed by M. Rathnakumar. The film stars Sathyaraj in dual roles, along with Soundarya and Sukanya. It was released on 10 November 1996.^[1]

Senathipathi is a rich and respected villager. He is married to Meenakshi, while his younger brother Sethupathi is good-for-nothing. Senathipathi and Lingappan, another rich, respected village man and their area chief, are best friends. Senathipathi has been charged for the past 10 years with the duty of protecting the village against robbers, which he has fulfilled with 100% efficiency. Lingappan's daughter Aishwarya, a clever, beautiful, and arrogant girl, returns after studying in the city. Sethupathi and Aishwarya eventually fall in love, but Lingappan is against inter-caste marriage and sees them together. Nagappan is a long-distant relative of Lingappan and the head of their rival village. Though he is rich, Nagappan has bad habits, and so does his only son. Lingappan's and Nagappan's villages clash every year to receive water from the canal during farming season, though justice is on Lingappan's village. After failing to get water for the past 10 years, Nagappa receives photos of Sethu and Aishwarya clubbing each other. He sends the photos to all of his caste's leaders so that no one would wed Aishwarya. Then, Nagappan can make his son marry her and have all of Lingappam's properties, including the canal's check-dams, owned by him.

Meanwhile, to protect Aishwarya, Lingappan cleverly assigns her to live in Senathipathi's house until her marriage, so that she would be a guarded object of Senathipathi, and his brother would be away from her. Sethu and Aishwarya try to break up, but cannot. Aishwarya blackmails Sethu to marry her the next day, or she will commit suicide. The next day, at the moment of marriage, Senathipathi intercepts Sethu, asking him to either surrender Aishwarya or come to a one-on-one till death. Sethu surrenders Aishwarya and is expelled from the house. Lingappan sees all of this from afar. He tries to get an alliance with Aishwarya but fails. Then, Nagappan proposes an alliance, and Lingappan takes it. Sethupathi hands over Aishwarya and keeps his honour. Then, Aishwarya and her mother plead that Lingappan change his mind. When he is about to, Nagappan and his son come and drag Aishwarya out to be wed. Lingappan shoots both of them dead and starts to find Sethupathi.

一方、セナティパティとその妻は帰宅途中に襲撃される。セトゥパティも駆けつけるが、裏切り者がセナティパティと妻の両方を刺してしまう。死の間際、セナティパティは結婚を承諾し、亡くなった妻の首からターリ（結婚の証となる首飾り）を外し、セトゥパティに渡す。そしてセトゥパティはそこでアイシュワリヤと結婚する。数日後、セトゥパティは村の警備隊長に就任する。

音楽はDevaによって作曲された。^{[ 2 ]}

カルキのRPRはサティヤラージの演技を称賛したが、ラトナクマールの演出は師匠のバラティラージャに似ていると感じ、映画界が壮大さやその他多くの方向に向かっているにもかかわらず、制作者たちは未だにカーストとその結果のようなテーマに囚われていると付け加えた。^{[ 3 ]}

ラトナクマールはその後、2001年にデビュー作のナンダ、サイキラン、ガヤスリ・ラグラムをフィーチャーした『エンナ・ソッラ・ポギライ』というタイトルのプロジェクトに取り組んだが、この映画は後に頓挫した。^{[ 4 ]}

• Senathipathi at IMDb