Changes between Initial Version and Version 1 of Nayakan

Timestamp:

Jul 17, 2012, 8:27:48 PM (12 years ago)

Author:

Trupti

Comment:

--

Nayakan

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+'''Nayakan'''
+
+
+aka Hero
+1987 155’ col Tamil
+d/s Mani Rathnam pc Sujatha Films, Mukta
+Films dial Balakumaran co-lyr Pulamai Pithan
+c P.C. Sriram co-lyr/m Ilaiyaraja
+lp Kamalahasan, Saranya, M.V. Vasudeva Rao,
+Janakaraj, Delhi Ganesh, Karthika, Nizhalgal
+Ravi, Tinnu Anand, Nasser, Vijayan
+
+
+Rathnam’s controversial breakthrough film is a
+version of The Godfather (1972), based on the
+life of the Bombay gangster Varadarajan
+Mudaliar, played by Kamalahasan (at times
+explicitly imitating Brando). Seeing his father, a
+trade union activist, brutally murdered by the
+police in Tuticorin, the son runs away to
+Bombay and becomes Velu Naicker, the
+ruthless Godfather with a Robin Hood streak in
+the Dharavi slums, assisted by Ganesh in the
+Robert Duval role. Velu becomes Bombay’s
+minority Tamil population’s ‘Nayakan’ (hero/
+star/leader) and saviour. His daughter Charu
+(Karthika) walks out and marries the assistant
+chief of police. Velu is eventually shot by a
+mentally retarded youth (Anand) he had taken
+into his care. Although Kamalahasan’s
+performance was widely lauded, critics like
+K. Hariharan noted that the degree to which
+the star monopolises the film made ‘other
+characters seem either underdeveloped or
+perfunctory’. The cinematography takes its cue
+from Gordon Willis while Thotha Tharani’s art
+direction follows the conventions of
+Hollywood gangster films and concentrates on
+cars and decors. However, the film is more
+than a Hollywood pastiche: it draws on 30
+years of Tamil Nadu’s star/politician images
+(including the spotless, all-white uniform of the
+Tamil politician, chewing betel-leaf) and
+directly plays to Tamil people’s anti-Hindi
+feelings when Velu, beaten up, gives the
+hugely popular reply in Tamil to a Hindispeaking
+Bombay cop: ‘If I ever hit you, you
+will die.’ The latter half of the film virtually
+abandons Bombay as a location in favour of
+studio interiors and goes to Madras for the
+climax. The success of the film was crucial to
+Mani Rathnam’s career, establishing him as the
+leading Tamil director of his time.
+
+[[Film]]