Tamil movies are based in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. One of the most popular movies to come out of this industry is Nayakan. Nayagan is the only Tamil movie ever listed in the “Best 100 Movies Ever Made” by Time magazine, and was nominated for an Academy Award for best foreign language movie.
This film is based on Varadharaja Mudaliar’s life, a dada in Mumbai. This film is about a boy that flees from a village located in Tamil Nadu clear to Bombay after murdering a police officer that had killed the boy’s father. This boy becomes a local dada, assisting the suppressed, and over time, becomes a don. The second part of the film highlights his arrest, killings, and his family.
Many people claim that this movie is very much like Francis Coppolo’s Godfather, but it is based on the life of Varadaraja Mudaliar. Arguments continue as to what the basis for this film was, but one thing remains is that it was a trendsetter for Tamil’s future movies.
Kamal Haasan stars as the don, and he is a well known Tamil actor. The cast also includes Saranya in her debut role, Janagaraj, Nizhalgal Ravi, Karthika, and Nassar, also making a debut in this film. Saranya plays the lead female role opposite to Kamal. This being her first film was a great start to her acting career. Since this film’s release, she has done 75 movies in different languages.
Karthika was another popular actress in this Tamil movie. She was at her peak in the movies during the 1980s. She was beautiful with very little makeup, and her styles varied greatly between movies. Karthika was known to play very bold roles in her movies. In Nayakan, she is the daughter of Velu Naykar (Kamal Haasan). In the peak of her career, she left the film industry to raise a family and has stayed out of the limelight since.
Nayakan is a movie that everyone should see because it is a Tamil movie classic. It is to the Tamil movie industry what The Godfather is to the U.S. film industry. It has all the components of a classic movie, with suspense, revenge, murder, and love. There are many reviews of this movie on the internet, as well as background the factual story this movie is based upon. Having an understand of the time period and the struggle of Southern India will also give a greater appreciation of the film.
Comments on this entry are closed.