It was by sheer luck today that I chanced upon last Sunday's (21-Oct) supplement (Magazine) of The Hindu. The cover page had an article written by Kamal Haasan on the interesting incidents around the making of the iconic Tamil movie "Nayakan". Apparently it was exactly on 21st October 25 years ago that Nayagan was released.
Wow, already 25 years. Seems like yesterday. In 1987, I was doing my 2nd year Pre-degree at Kerala and over the past one year since we moved to Kerala (after spending time in Western and Eastern India), was getting exposed to Malayalam cinema, which was at its best during that period. Since Dad was working at Chennai then, we used to visit Madras often and knew rudimentary Tamil, but were not really fluent.
While Tamil cinema had its masters like K.Balachander, Bharatiraja, Balu Mahendra etc who offered brilliant movies, the average Tamil movie of the time was run of the mill stuff, loud and crude. So Nayagan came in as a breath of really fresh air, in the way it was directed, the music and the performance by all the actors involved.
One of the scenes that still stays in memory is of a waif-like and cute Saranya in the brothel, asking Kamal to not leave till morning, lest the madam send in another customer, which will not let her study for her exams. That was the 1st time I knew of an actor called Saranya and I still remain a fan of the lady's facial beauty. And I am sure the very act of a man marrying a prostitute, which till then would have been unimaginable for most men, would have become acceptable for many, after this movie.
A must-read article if you like cinema or Kamal or Nayagan or all three. You should be able to find the article online in The Hindu's archives. And if you have not seen Nayagan yet, there could be no better time than in it's Silver Jubilee year to rent a DVD and watch the classic. If you did not know, Nayagan figures in the Time magazine's All-Time 100 greatest movies. The only other Indian movies to figure in the list being Guru Dutt's Pyaasa and Satyajit Ray's "The Apu Trilogy".
P.S.: Until today when I was "researching" Mani Ratnam for this article, I did not know that his 2nd movie was in Malayalam - a film called Unaru (Wake up). Neither did I know that he started his film career in Kannada with the movie "Pallavi Anu Pallavi".
Wow, already 25 years. Seems like yesterday. In 1987, I was doing my 2nd year Pre-degree at Kerala and over the past one year since we moved to Kerala (after spending time in Western and Eastern India), was getting exposed to Malayalam cinema, which was at its best during that period. Since Dad was working at Chennai then, we used to visit Madras often and knew rudimentary Tamil, but were not really fluent.
While Tamil cinema had its masters like K.Balachander, Bharatiraja, Balu Mahendra etc who offered brilliant movies, the average Tamil movie of the time was run of the mill stuff, loud and crude. So Nayagan came in as a breath of really fresh air, in the way it was directed, the music and the performance by all the actors involved.
One of the scenes that still stays in memory is of a waif-like and cute Saranya in the brothel, asking Kamal to not leave till morning, lest the madam send in another customer, which will not let her study for her exams. That was the 1st time I knew of an actor called Saranya and I still remain a fan of the lady's facial beauty. And I am sure the very act of a man marrying a prostitute, which till then would have been unimaginable for most men, would have become acceptable for many, after this movie.
A must-read article if you like cinema or Kamal or Nayagan or all three. You should be able to find the article online in The Hindu's archives. And if you have not seen Nayagan yet, there could be no better time than in it's Silver Jubilee year to rent a DVD and watch the classic. If you did not know, Nayagan figures in the Time magazine's All-Time 100 greatest movies. The only other Indian movies to figure in the list being Guru Dutt's Pyaasa and Satyajit Ray's "The Apu Trilogy".
P.S.: Until today when I was "researching" Mani Ratnam for this article, I did not know that his 2nd movie was in Malayalam - a film called Unaru (Wake up). Neither did I know that he started his film career in Kannada with the movie "Pallavi Anu Pallavi".
