Nayagan — Nostalgically
It all happened on a fine early morning, when we finished watching my lifetime movie on a street. Yes! I watched the movie in a street video screening session, where we used to screen 3 movies in a night with VCP deck. I still remember telling to my brother that movie was too good and photography was excellent. May be because of the effect of the dawn, dust and the mist :). It’s one of the movie which makes me to watch from the first frame [water body with lettering as Thoothukudi ] till the end title card. There are a lot already talked and analyzed much about this movie except my 2 cents :). It’s not only a milestone for the technicians and the artists involved in the movie, but also to me. I would call this movie as the best “complete” movie and I’ll select this movie if I am cornered to just pick one movie out of the 75+ years of Tamil cinema.
This is one movie, which I have seen numerous times in my life [ the other movie was Naan Sigappu manithan — Thanks to the neighbor who owned a video rental shop in Amijikarai — Video cassette days :) ]. During those days, my mother used to locate me in the street with the help of Nayagan’s famous BGM and she was right everytime [ Periya Kudumba paatu ivarukku :) ]. I’m not going to glorify anything about Manirathnam, Kamal, IR, PCSriram etc., but share some thoughts about the movie.
For PCSriram, I can just watch the visuals with sound in mute and for IR I can hear the film without video. That’s the great contribution of PCSriram and Ilayaraja to this greatest biographical flick. Much told and experienced about the music part of IR’s 400th film. The following thoughts would be very random and effectively I’ll try to summarize the untold part.
PCSriram
The journey of PCSriram started very late from Prathap Bothan [ Meendum oru Kadhal kadhai ], Fazil [ Poove poochudava ]and finally ended in the right hands — Mani rathnam [ Mouna ragam ]. PC has tried out mostly top lights pattern [ light falls from the top — police station sequence where Kamal is beaten ], shafts of light [ light rays falling through from some open window/door in a shot ] and a brown tone throughout the movie. In an interview, he praised Kamal about his ability to observe and perform according to the lighting done. It was one great movie which captured the best looks of Kamalhassan in my opinion.
Balakumaran
I found that the impressive dialogues were penned by Balakumaran when I watched it after innumerous times. Before that I was just wondering that the sequence where Kamal visits Neela was similar to one which I came across in Balakumaran novels — visiting a prostitute. The other novel which I recollect most of the underworld stuffs were from Kannadi gopurangal [ Sriramulu character was one such savior like Nayagan ]. The toughest situation was the death scene of Surya and multiple dialogues were tried out. Of course, they compensated the scene with Kamal’s performance rather than dialogues.
The national award was justified in the hands of Kamal, PCSriram and Thotta dharani. Most of the sequences were shot in sets — Campa cola grounds and Indian express buildings of those days. It was produced by Muktha films and later taken over by Sujatha films — GV.
Meticulous detailing
I’ll just use few examples of how things are minutely handled.
After the torture, the police throw Kamal in his area and the wet muddy land in that place because of the previous day’s water cannon attack.
The SP character Raghavan comes to Kamal for his personal problem in police uniform and to convey about an informer in civil dress. I do not mean that it’s a great thought or I observed it. Rather, I wonder about how scenes are written with so many aspects in mind.
The marriage sequence is one of the simplest marriages ever shown on screen and the reaction of Neela to the marriage was brilliant [ Kaatril vizhum kanneer ! ].
Every single character was given it’s due presence and respect example : National award winning actor — MV Vasudeva rao as Vaappa, Reddy brothers [ in real life too ! ], Vijayan [ Manirathnam likes him since Uthiripookall days ], costumes and cars used during various periods.
The natural make-up of Kamal was done by Kamal himself, where he experimented a lot with his looks. Neither Manirathnam nor PCSriram is fond of heavy make-up.
Godfather
After years, when I saw Godfather I and II, I was shocked to know that it’s the source of Nayakan and disappointed for a while. I liked both Nayagan and Godfather series equally. It was too late to take out Nayagan from memories. Later, I got convinced that the presentation and the treatment to the story matters. It’s a combination of Vardha bhai’s life starting at Thoothukudi, ending at Mumbai, dock thefts, Ganesh festivals, and of course, Godfather.
Hollywood has so many stars ranging from Robert de niro, Al pacino, Brando, Jack Nicholson, Tom Hanks, Russell Crowe, Mel Gibson — but we do have one Kamalhassan to replicate or represent them here.
I remember seeing the release advertisements in the paper during 1987 Deepavali till the film reached 175 days. Along with this movie, a simple, low budgeted and regular AVM movie which almost shot in sets ran for the same 175 days — It was ‘Manithan’.
–Toto.
Auto..biography
The kite runners - I
Joker - Not actually
Chair, Balcony and Box
Bazaar Street browsings.
Neither Gold nor diamond..
Short n Sweet
Random Access Memory - 1
Tailors road
Siththan Sound Services
Happy New Year - 2011
Tour De Tirupati
Villaiyaadu.. Vettaiyaadu !
Random access memory
Uplifting Gift ideas
Daily 4 shows
Trivia Trunk
The kite-runners - II
List of thrillers.
Vasundharavum, Mathanum pinne Nyaanum
IMDb's page for this movie
Also Kamal appearing without a moustache for a major part of the film is another first for the movie. If I remember right he had earlier taken his moustache off for the appu character in apoorva sahodaargal.
I saw “Godfather’ much later in life and it is a master piece by itself. Recently I saw Godfather Blueray version which had the voice over narration of “Francis Ford Coppola” on each and every scene and sometimes logic behind each scene.
One interesting narration was…Don and Michael did not have even a single scene together in the movie(except a short scene where don pats michael’s shoulder when tessio and clemenza were demanding separate territories)…so they decided to add the scene where don will be drinking wine in the backyard and giving advice about anybody coming up with barzini being a traitor etc.…..they are such great actors and it would have been a missed opportunity if they had not planned that scene.…
Sonny roughing up Carlo was also a scene added when the producer felt that storyline is sagging without action sequence.….producer it seems threatened coppolla that he would bring another director if he did not add an action scene.…those days coppolla was a newbie.…so producer could afford to threaten.…
I get non stop when I have to talk about Godfather.….sorry for such long comment.…..(Unna kettenada.…)
Thanks Kathir for a lively comment. You are an authority for Godfather films. As you said, Godfather needs series of posts to admire the fine points. Btw, Nayagan came in 1987 and Aboorva sagodharargall in 1989.
Nayakan brings in lots of old memories, VCR days, where we just look for 3 hours of entertainment, never looked into the nuances of film making. Thanks for bringing that out. I am a big fan of your reviews, for the flow and the simplicity of the language. Keep it going.
Thanks for the review of Nayagan.…
Around this time, we also saw Pushpak (Pesum Padam) where Kamal appeared w/o mush. Around this time is the starting period for Kamal realizing that he has to make such good movies for the audience and not the likes of Thoongathe Thambi Thoongathe and Sakalakalaa vallavan types as you have so many actors capable of making such roles.
Aboorva Sahodarargal started off with such — every movie being different for Kamal and he did not let us stereo type him into any one character…unlike V Kanth (remember, Kanth chasing some anti-national/social in North India as a police in every f***** movie) or Rajini (crappiest story and/or comedy) movies.
Kamal going and seeing his daughter and grand daughter in that police officer flat is a class scene for his life time… you cannot believe someone can act like that.…
Thanks for rekindling those memories.
When this movie was released and even now — I am not in tune with the message of the movie — belittling law and/or law and order machinery is not good in the long term interests of the country… and worse still this movie received National award — is again not good…
என் பங்குக்கு நானும் சங்கு ஊதிட்டேன். :-)
Thanks
Venkat
Thanks Irshaad — It’s a boosting comment for me.
Thanks Venkat — I value your view but don’t agree. Kamal is clever enough to use his tonsured head as a new get-up in the next movie.. Nayagan — Sathya, Aalavandhan — PKS.
Just like u, this is the movie I watched the most, the other must be Guna..I was so immersed in the movie that I actually dreamt to meet a prostitute and marry her, just like Kamal did..Thank God, I married a good girl and not a prostitute..haha, but that’s another story…
Coming back to Nayagan, I remember reading somewhere that Devar Magan is a more actual adaptation of Godfather (Father being the DON-like figure in the village, useless elder brother, younger brother taking after the father, sacrificing his lady love to marry another girl due to situation etc.). However, one thing clearly etched in my mind is how Kamal imitates Marlon Brando’s mannerism i.e. his mouth. But as they say, imitation is the highest form of flattery..
In any way, my opinion is that a lot directors at that time particularly, Balu Mahendra and Manirathnam especially copies (or rather inspired by) English movies without giving any due credit to the originator..it was good initially, but after u know that the Tamil version is a copy, u will lose respect to the director..of course not all of their movies are copies, they do have their original creations (example Mouna Ragam, Alai Payuthe, Veedu, Moondram Pirai etc.). In my opinion, they take the viewers for granted, “yaaru inthe padathellam paatu irukke porrethe”…their earlier films were good as the my personal exposure to foreign films at that time was limited, if I have watched Godfather or She-Devil before Nayagan and Sathi Leelavathi, I might not have liked Nayagan..Maybe we will still like the movie, but not as much as what u and me experienced, watching the copy after the original…