The upcoming Hindi film 'Padman' directed by R.Balki starring Akshay Kumar and Radhika Apte is one of the most expected in the new year and those who have seen the trailer are raving about the hero a man who is manufacturing low cost sanitary napkins for impoverished women.

The great man on whom the film is based on Arunachalam Muruganantham, a Tamilian from Coimbatore who is helping millions of women the world over with his innovative napkin technology.  It is sad that Tamil cinema did not wake upto making a film on this living legend and Bollywood has beaten it at it.  The argument would be that recently Traffic Ramaswamy's life has inspired 'Joker' and 'Theeran Adhigaram Ondru' is also based on the real life police cases of the 80s and 90s.  Both the above mentioned subjects have explicit heroism in them but 'Padman' is a sensitive subject and Tamil cinema is still hesitant in tackling those.

One cannot forget that the past year has been a great one for Tamil cinema as quality fare such as 'Oru Kidayin Karunai Manu', 'Kurangu Bommai', 'Aramm', 'Lens', 'Nishabdham', 'Theeran Adhigaram Ondru' and 'Aruvi' among others have graced the screen.  It surely is every movie buff's dream that Kollywood should try more real life fares and never miss another real hero as Arunachalam Muruganantham in the future.