Nayakan

this film is an out an out kamal hassan and Mani ratnam film, without Mani ratnam kamal would not have been able to display his magic, and without kamal, Mani would not have been able to show his magic. velu is a boy living in Tamil nadu. his father a labor leader is murdered by a ruthless police officer. velu decides to take revenge, and is supported by his friend, Sela(janagaraj). they both kill the police officer, and escape to Bombay, where they get shelter in a Muslim house hold. kamal naturally treats "Abba" the Muslim man, who is into smuggling. when he gets old he hands the small business to velu, who extracts more money for goods than his precede ever did. the rival parties get angry and pay bribe to a police man to get Abba killed. when velu gets to know this, he tracks down the police officer tactically. i must stop here to mention the marvellous sequence . great background score, Mani ratnam at his best, and kamal looking totally angry. he kills the police officer in front of everybody. the police officer though married used to molest women. the police came inquiring, but no one opened their mouth. from that day onwards velu became 'velu nayagan'. he became the ultimate don in Bombay, supporting the poor's cause, and going to any extent to fulfill it. he even got a poor child treatment in one of the best hospitals in Bombay for free. you must watch the movie, i can't spell its magic here, you have to watch it!

Mani Ratnam rose to fame with this superb, Godfather-inspired, crime story. Kamal Hassan, in a National Award-winning role, is the highlight of this film. WAtch out for the scene where he says "Naa adichcha nee sethuruve (You will die if I hit you)" to a police officer. Based on a real-life don, Varadarajan Mudaliar, Nayagan was praised by critics and audience alike, a rarity in India. Illayaraja's music is haunting. "Tenpaandi Cheemayile", sung by Kamal Hassan, is a classic. Photography is brilliant. Mani Ratnam is top-of-the-pops. Sign of things to come? Janakaraj as the gangster's friend is an inspired selection. This is as good as it gets for bridge cinema.

"Nayagan" is akin to a rare astronomical event wherein the constellations form a perfect alignment to create a spectacular extravaganza. Mani Ratnam, Kamal Hassan & Ilayaraja weaved magic that captured the heart of audience by storm.

There cannot be a second opinion if I were to state that this role was destined for one and only Kamal Hassan. You cannot fail to notice the subtle changes in the body language, mannerism, gait and dialogue delivery that go about with the ageing process of the Sakthivelu. Starting with the rebel youth and all the way to the ageing Godfather, the natural transformation was effortlessly essayed by Kamal. Saranya, Ravi, Kartika, Nasser and Tinnu Anand leave a mark otherwise there isn't much scope for supporting star-cast.

Ilayaraja compositions were a raging hit back then. P C Sriram (cinematography) & Thota Tharani (art direction) ensured to give a distinct Mani Ratnam feel to the visuals (a spillover of "Agni Natchathiram").

Though the plot rests on the basic premise of Mario Puzo's "The Godfather", top notch writing narrating the biography of Mumbai based Tamil gangster of the 80s, Varadarajan Mudaliar stands to its own.

If "Mouna Ragam" and "Agni Natchathiram" got him noticed then "Nayagan" stamped the title of maverick to Mani Ratnam. It goes without saying that while "Nayagan" set a precedent for fellow film-makers, Mani Ratnam started the revolution in the Tamil cinema.

PS: The Hindi remake, "Dayavan" attempted by Feroz Khan and Vinod Khanna was sadly a classic case of "lost in translation".

Inspired by the true life story of Mumbai's Tamil don, Varadaraja Mudaliar, the movie 'Nayakan' portrays it so vividly and realistically of how the real-time character known popularly as 'Varadha Bhai' fled Tuticorin(Tamil Nadu) to seek his future in Mumbai. He came to be known as one of the godfathers of modern gangsterdom. Some other prominent names during his period were Karim Lala, etc. The days he spent fighting Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray who tried to run the Tamils out of Mumbai are golden days in history. Probably, the respect and influence Varadaraj Mudaliar had among the public inspired people like Dawood Ibrahim and others to take to such businesses. Mani Ratnam deserves full credit for the subject and screenplay. Kamal Hassan at the best of his career at an age of 32 playing the character of a 60-year-old man so perfectly with utmost ease.

The film draws heavily upon Mario Puzo's Godfather, however, the Indian adaptation of the well known story is simply superb. Manirathnam has done a wonderful job in re-creating the life and times of a local mafioso in the slums of Bombay. The art direction is flawless, and captures the time period perfectly. The music by Illayaraja is haunting, and reflects the nostalgic music of the early 70s. However, the high point of the movie is the excellent performance of Kamal Hassan. His potrayal of Velu-Nayakan is by far the best I have seen in Indian movies. The Hindi remake of this movie is sub-standard and poor. I highly recommend this movie to someone who has never seen it before.