Nayakan

This is, till date, the best Indian movie ever made. A fantastic star cast(Kamal Haasan, Nasser, Janakaraj), splendid direction(Mani Rathnam) and excellent music score by the maestro Illayaraja made the movie do wonders in the box office. Kamal Haasan, who was already a super star when this movie was made, proved that he can get into any ones shoes. Here he played the role of an angry young man who becomes a Mafia don with almost the entire city supporting him. With this movie and a National Award for the Best Actor, he came to be known as the best actor in Indian Cinema.

Mani Rathnam became a nation-wide celebrity with this movie and every movie he made after Nayagan raised expectations among the audience.

The story is that of a Mafia don, who is a kind of Robin hood for his own people, takes justice into his hands and kills the baddies. He earns respect from his people, incurs the wrath of the other underworld thugs, and is feared by the police, till a honest cop decides to challenge him. Though the story is similar to The Godfather, the way in which this movie is shot is different and keeps the viewer engrossed from the first scene till the end, when the 60 year old hero is assassinated in public for a brutal murder he did 30 years back.

Nayakan - Slick, stylish and interesting.

-Krishna