Nayagan

Nayagan
Official DVD cover
Directed by	Mani Ratnam
Produced by	Mani Ratnam G. Venkateswaran
Written by	Mani Ratnam Balakumaran
Starring	Kamal Haasan Saranya Janagaraj Tinnu Anand Delhi Ganesh Nizhalgal Ravi Karthika Nassar Neena
Music by	Ilaiyaraaja
Cinematography	P. C. Sriram
Editing by	B. Lenin V. T. Vijayan
Distributed by	Sujatha Productions
Release date(s)	October 21, 1987 (1987-10-21)
Running time	145 minutes
Country	‹See Tfd› India
Language	Tamil

Nayagan, also known as Nayakan, is a 1987 Tamil biopic, written and directed by Mani Ratnam and starring Kamal Haasan. It is based on the real-life Bombay underworld don Varada aka Varadarajan Mudaliar, and sympathetically depicts the struggle of South Indians living in Bombay. The film also stars Saranya Ponvannan, Karthika, Nassar, Delhi Ganesh and Janagaraj. The soundtrack of the film was composed by Ilaiyaraaja and met with a successful response after release.

The film released on 21 October 1987 coinciding with Diwali and received critical acclaim worldwide. Kamal Hassan's performance as Velu Naiker earned him a National Film Award for Best Actor. The film also earned the National Award for Best Cinematography (P. C. Sriram) and Best Art Direction (Thotta Tharani). The film was nominated by India as its entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards in 1987. In 2005, the Time Magazine included Nayagan in its list of "All-Time 100 Best Films".^[1]

The film was dubbed in Telugu under the title Nayakudu. It was also remade in Hindi as Dayavan in 1988. A Hindi dub of the film was released in 1999 as Velu Nayakan.

Plot

Sakthivelu Nayakar (Kamal Haasan) is born to an anti-government union leader. The child, Velu, is tricked by the police into locating his father, and then witnesses his father's death in a police shootout. After doing the final death rites of his father, he kills the person who was the cause for his father's death and escapes to Bombay.

Stranded and homeless in the big city, he is rescued by a kind-hearted Muslim fisherman who takes him into his home in the suburban slums of Dharavi. His foster-father is also a small-time smuggler known for his generosity in the slum. Upon his running afoul of a senior crime lord, the corrupt local police officer named Kelkar, arrests the fisherman on smuggling charges and subsequently murders him. Velu Naiker, now a young man who has come into his own, goes in search of the officer and bludgeons him to death for seeking revenge.

With this act, he is seen as a saviour and a man to be feared amongst the slum residents. As their godfather and protector, he flourishes by resuming his dead foster-father's local smuggling activities. He marries a destitute school-girl-turned-prostitute (Saranya) and has two children. Conflicts and power struggles occur in the smuggling world, in which Velu's wife becomes a casualty. Velu's kids are sent away to Chennai as a result and return years later to their father's home, as young adults.

Surya (Nizhalgal Ravi), one of the sons, is eager to join his father in his activities, despite his father's reluctance. For his first real test, he is required to eliminate a potential witness against his father; he does this by hiring outside thugs. They succeed in eliminating the witness, but their failure to cover their tracks leads police to him at a petrol bunk and an accident costs him his life. Velu is heartbroken. Velu's daughter (Karthika) is at odds with her father over his form of justice and killings. To this he replies "எல்லாரயும் நிறுத்த சொல்லு, அப்பரும் நான் நிறுத்தறேன்" (Ask everybody to stop, after that I will do so). As a last straw, she leaves her father and detaches her relationship.

A newly appointed assistant police commissioner (Nassar) starts afresh the hunt to bring Velu Nayakar to justice over his alleged activities and manages to secure an arrest warrant. This commissioner is unknowingly Velu's son-in-law, as his daughter had secretly married him. After continued pursuit resulting in the beatings by police and self-immolation of slum dwellers, Velu surrenders to the police to spare the lives of the residents of his slum. He is tried in court but is released due to the lack of adequate evidence for his alleged nefarious activities. A supportive and emotional crowd gathers at the courthouse, awaiting his release. Velu is greeted by an excited crowd but their joy turns to sorrow when he gets shot by his own mentally disabled adopted son; he was the son of Inspector Kelkar who was killed by Velu.

Cast

• Kamal Haasan as Velu Naiker
• Saranya Ponvannan as Neela
• Janagaraj as Selvam
• Tinnu Anand as Ajith Kelkar
• Delhi Ganesh as Aiyyer
• Nizhalgal Ravi as Surya
• Karthika as Charumati
• Nasser as the assistant commissioner / Charu's husband
• Kitty as Shaktivelu's father
• M. V. Vasudeva Rao as Hussain Bai
• Tara as Shyla
• Vijayan

Awards

The film was nominated as India's official entry for the 1988 Academy Awards. However, it was not among the five films shortlisted for the award.

It won the following awards:

1988 National Film Awards

• Best Actor - Kamal Haasan
• Best Cinematography - P. C. Sriram
• Best Art Direction - Thotta Tharani

In 2005, Time Magazine included Nayagan in its "All-Time 100 Best Films" list.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack features five songs composed by Ilaiyaraaja, with lyrics by Ilaiyaraja and Pulavar Pulamaipithan. This is Ilayaraja's 400th film. The songs and the background score are still popular today.

Tamil Track listing

Hindi Dub

For the Hindi dub, composers Deepak-Santosh were approached to rescore 2 numbers.

• • indicates tracks composed by Deepak-Santosh.

Legacy

The film has been inspired from the influential and iconic American film The Godfather.^[2] Post-release, it was considered as a "landmark" in Indian cinema and attained an iconic status.^[3] As a part of its legacy, the film has been acclaimed for being a box-office success whilst containing the critic elements of art.^[4] After the film was selected by the TIME magazine as one of the best, insiders of the magazine spoke about Ratnam's work in the film, saying "Ratnam has no such difficulty blending melodrama and music, violence and comedy, realism and delirium, into a two-and-a-half-hour demonstration that, when a gangster's miseries are mounting, the most natural solution is to sing in the rain."^[5] The tagline given to the film was "A terrific gangster epic in the Godfather style."^[6]

However, the film was criticized by reviewer Dennis Schwartz of Ozus' World Movie Reviews, who gave it a "C+" rating and called it a "less than compelling Bollywood crime drama, that comes with a sharp moral twist, colorful location shots and plenty of bouncy modern pop songs of India." He further describes it as an "outrageous award-winning pic."^[7]

References

External links

• Nayakan at the Internet Movie Database