34 Years For The Classic.. Here's Kamal Hassan's Note About 'Nayakudu'

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34 Years For The Classic.. Here's Kamal Hassan's Note About 'Nayakudu'

Konni sarlu konni Movies gurinchi cheppataniki matalu chalavu. Ala cheppataniki maatalu raani, describe cheyyataiki padhalu dorakani movie "Nayakudu" (Nayakan 1987). Classic ane word tho movie ni kolustharu gaani..adhi kuda ae matram saripodhu ee movie ki... Maniratnam, Kamal Hasan, Ilayaraja lanti vallu legends ela ayyaro cheppataniki ee movie lo valla panithaname oka example. Ika ee Muppai Rendella "Nayakudu" gurinchi Kamal Hasan garu yemannarante....

Nayagan released on this day, 32 years ago..

Kamal Hassan wrote,

“When we were in Bombay, we spoke to Varada Bhai (Varadaraja Mudaliar on whose life the film is based), and Mani had the audacity to ask him, “How do you foresee your death?” He said he would either die peacefully in a hospital (which is what happened) but left to the police, who couldn’t prove anything against him, they would bring him out of court and someone would slap him. This would cause a riot and they would then shoot him. This sparked the climax in Mani’s head.

The way Kelkar’s death was filmed (and later, the death of Velu Nayakan’s son), I knew Mani was making a really good movie. And also the kind of movie that we all dreamt of making. During the Holi sequence, I told Mani that Velu Nayakan should not dance. And Mani agreed. No director at that time would have agreed to this. Earlier in my career, I told Bharathiraja that the psychopathic killer in Sigappu Rojakkal should not be singing and dancing. But he deflected my objections saying that the song (Ninaivo oru paravai) was a dream song, shot from the heroine’s point of view. At least that made sense. But other times, people simply wouldn’t listen to me, and here Mani simply said, “Of course Velu Nayakan doesn’t dance.”

We stumbled a lot while making this film. But Mani just got up and dusted himself off and went on to the next thing. He kept his cool. He was tethered throughout the shoot. He withstood storms. And he was not afraid to surround himself with strong contributors like the writer Balakumaran, whose ease with the local syntax and dialect helped to compensate for Mani’s urbanity. There were no egos on the set. Mani would shoot down ideas. He would also accept ideas. When Velu is taken to a brothel in a song sequence, I expressed my exasperation by rolling my eyes. Mani told me that this was a very Western thing, and asked if I could give a more Indian expression. That was a very happy day for me. Suddenly I had someone who noticed these small things that make up a performance.”