Mahanadhi

An innocent and naive father with two motherless children living a happy content life in a village gets lured by a shady townsman who claims to be a businessman and promises to make him rich. The naive father then goes through a series of kafkaesque events. One thing leads to another driving the man's life into a downward spiral. The height of which would be his thirteen year old daughter being trafficked into prostitution. There are ways in which the film appears to be an echo, Patterns of similar action takes place at different point throughout the film which makes us more familiar with the characters and the overall theme of the film hits us stronger, really putting us in the shoes of the protagonist and what insanity of a world he's experiencing. The continuous background of railways. The growth of the family dog. The repetitive shady men. And most importantly the daughters habit of speaking during sleep. We see her innocent dreams to her most traumatic. All rivers start from somewhere, then gets separated and in the end reunites. So do the characters in the film. Mahanadi is a cautionary tale for those who didn't already know and a social commentary for those who see the obvious. For me Mahanadi was all about the side effects of being naive and irrational in a cruel cruel world.

This movie is a typical Kamal, Santhana Barathi, Ilayaraaja classic and one of the movies Kamal has done his best without overdoing (which IMO he frequently does).

It's the story of an innocent village widower businessman who leads a simple life along with his children and Mother-in-law. He yields to temptation of moving to the city to make big money. Then starts all the trouble and pain that he has to face. The movie is really intense,dark and tragic.I will say no more for it will spoil the suspense.

Illayaraja has done his part by providing the movie with a great musical score.

Mahanadi is probably one of the few thamizh movie worth the time. 10/10 for the acting, direction and the music.

this is one of the Tamil movies which will appeal to international audience! Krishna(Kamalahassan) a widower,living happily with his two kids and his mother in a village near Srirangam! in a thrush of greed,brainwashed by an urban con man (v.M.C.Haneefa)he starts a financial company with his partnership, in the city Chennai. then the story shockingly reveals,how the city and its materialism ruins him and his family before his innocence comprehend its deceptive ways! Kamalahassan could challenge any actor in the world on any role! the scene when he finds his long lost daughter in a brothel in Calcutta, his emotional outburst, and the subsequent scene he trying to runaway carrying her in his arms through the mob of pimps,would substantiate that the statement made by me above is not an exaggeration! it may be a bit cinematic when he sets out for a revenge... and Yamuna(Suganya) may irritate you with a faulty Brahmin's dialect... apart from that its an excellent film utilizing fully the acting potentials of one of the world's best actor KAMALAHASSAN!

MAHANADHI..., its one of the best movie ever came in Tamil and also in future no movie can defeat this.. the role Krishna, could never played by any other actor. None can control their tears, when they watch this movie at any number of times. Movie clearly shown how a normal man get attracted by money and how he lose his happiness. also how some rich people were greedy about money, gals,etc. the scenes took place inside prison were awesome. no other movie shown the actual scenes like that.

A great try by Kamalhasan (god of Tamil cinema). actually Oscar missed this movie... not this movie missed Oscar.

the villain role played by Hanifa is fantastic. whenever i used to see him in any other movies, i felt angry with him. we cannot see any blunder in this whole movie. Music by Maestro, is a strong backbone for this movie. we can feel the romance and sadness of krishna from the background score. feel proud to write review for mahanadhi..

As the summary suggests, not all movies can be like Mahandi. This is a movie of different caliber. I personally never had a chance to watch this movie to appreciate its content until the movie was played on TV. This movie is worth watching for its songs, Kamal Hassan's acting, entire crew who made a very serious movie happen. The movie begins with a respected small town man Krishna played by Kamal Hassan with his perfect family minus his wife. His two kids Cauvery(played by Mahanadi Shobana), Bharani(Notice all the character names are rivers in India). Having met his Childhood friend , he is allured into living in a bigger city. Decides to start a business in big city with wrong people. The wrong people really screw his life, he ends up in prison for the false charges of fraud. He has hard time in Prison with his honesty, having completed his term he if out of the prison to find out his kids are missing, act of Wrong people. Watch this movie to find out what really happens next , does he find his kids ? Music is worth listening, has got a touch of folk and classic. Worth watching. Alls well ends well... is it? Alls not well doesn't end well? Find out more than debating the correctness of previous statement.