Padikathavan (2009)

Radhakrishnan (Dhanush) alias Rocky is a 10th grade dropout youngster who is looked down upon by his father (Pratap Pothen), because of his sharp contrast to the rest of the family, who are well qualified in education. Rocky spends most of his time in a mechanic shop with his colleagues (Mayilsami, Nellai Siva and others). Rocky's friends advise him to love and marry a well educated girl so that his name will be added with her name after marriage ie, indirectly he gets a degree after his name.

So, earnestly he looks around by hovering around women's colleges to find a perfect girl for his mission. He finally succeeds in his attempt and makes Gayathri (Tamannaah Bhatia), a well-educated rich girl fall for him. He starts to honestly love her and takes her for shopping to a mall where she is confronted by a group of rogues who work for Rami Reddy (Sayaji Shinde) who is a rival of Samarasimma Reddy (Suman).

Her father is Samarasimma Reddy a notorious don in Andhra who protects her daughter (Gayathri) by destroying the gang and takes back Gayathri to Andhra Pradesh. The protagonist goes to Assault Arumugam (Vivek), a thug-for-hire, to help him marry his love interest. Dhanush saves Gayathri from Rami Reddy (Sayaji Shinde) and follows her to her home, where he realizes that another Thirunelveli rowdy Kasi Anandan (Atul Kulkarni), whose brother he accidentally kills in a flashback, has put a price on his head. Kasi declares that if Rocky wins him in a hand to hand combat he will never be disturbed by him. Rocky accepts his deal and smashes Kasi down.