Mahanadhi

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.

Kamal Hassan has delivered a knockout performance in this under-rated classic. Its the story of the father of two, played by Kamal Hassan who falls for deceit and ends up in Jail. Kamal Hassan is a wealthy villager who makes acquaintance with a crooked guy from the city. Kamal Hassan trusts this man implicitly and invests all his money. By the time, he realises his folly, its too late and he ends up in a jail. In the meanwhile, his daughter is forced into prostitution and his son lands up in a touring circus troupe. On returning from jail, he goes searching for his daughter who is found in a brothel in Calcutta. This scene will make anyone cry. Kamal Hassan also finds his son and he is so mad that his whole life was shattered by the guy whom he trusted. This movie has Kamal Hassan at its best with excellent music from Ilayaraja and is exceedingly well directed. This movie shows that, no khan from bollywood can match the talent of kamal hassan, the greatest actor, india has ever produced.

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.

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.

I would not recommend this movie if you are emotionally fragile and get disturbed easily. This movie will shatter you to pieces in some scenes. I am not a KamalHassan fan but this is a performance which even Gods would come down to watch. Playing a middle class father having his life ripped apart by greedy men this is his best performance ever and maybe his best movie. I will never watch this movie again because I cant handle the intensity of some scenes where you will just breakdown in tears. A fantastic movie which should have easily won the Oscars or any international award.