‘Nayakan’ (1987) is a gangster movie which doesn’t lose its humanity

At 2 hours 35 mins, Nayakan doesn’t look like an epic from the outset.

Instead it feels like a conventional commercial Tamil movie of the late 80s. However, as the movie slowly picks up steam as the runtime lengthens, what we get is an impressively written screenplay with almost a seamless mixing of commercial and artistic sensibilities.

There are song and dance sequences scattered throughout the movie, but even as the songs’ inclusion feel like a product of its time, the score of this film gives the movie a soul; Illyaraja’s score gives the movie a separate identity, helping the viewer follow Velu Naicker’s story to its bitter end.

As a man who has seen The Godfather to such an extent that I can literally quote lines from the movie, its influence on Nayakan is hard to ignore.

From Kamal Haasan’s acting influenced by Marlon Brando and Al Pacino, to some of the much more violent elements almost taken wholesale from The Godfather, it is pretty evident that director Mani Ratnam is paying homage to Francis Ford Copoola’s seminal masterpiece, as well as Sergio Leone’s 1984 masterpiece Once Upon a Time in America.

However, this is where Ratnam’s screenplay shines. The plot is filled with gangster tropes and cliches, but its the treatment of the film that differentiates it from other new gangster movie knock-offs.

Ratnam remixes events from the Hollywood classic. The screenplay uses its 2 hour 35 mins time to show a snapshot of Velu Naicker’s life from his youth to his final old age, then fast forward of the age and life of the character shown via the differing assortment of cars like Plymouth, Ambassador and finally a Maruti as Velu Naicker’s vehicle.

This is a classy directorial trick utilized instead of name cards showing how many years have passed. It is almost karmic that Naicker is finally killed by the son of the first police officer he ever killed. And you know what, the fact that one Nayakan stands as tall as 3 Godfather movies, kind of proves the longevity of Ratnam’s feature.

It also won’t be a stretch to say that as an early feature, Ratnam hits it out of the park.

One of the biggest reasons why Nayakan is different from most commercial movies of the 80’s is its cinematography.

PC Sreeram gives it his all in the limited amount of time he is able to showcase outdoor locales, but its the lighting and shot selections that gives Nayakan a leg up.

What also works are the dialogues by Balakumaran, who brings in a mixture of iconic dialogues as well as subtle and revealing ones.

But of course the biggest boon of them all is the partnership between Mani Ratnam and Kamal Haasan.

Haasan towers over this movie, giving a performance so restrained yet so gigantic as time progresses.

What Ratnam as well as Haasan strive and succeed in doing is showing the core humanity of Velu Naicker’s character being maintained, even as circumstances force him to go down darker and darker paths and make darker choices.

The fragility and sensitivity of Velu Naicker is one of these character traits that Kamal Haasan portrays with gravitas and weight – a mixture of the intensity of Al Pacino, to the weight and staid determination of De Niro and Brando. But at its heart this is Kamal Haasan at his best, an acting masterclass of masterclasses throughout his career.

The Godfather had inspired the template of Gangster films in the Indian film marketplace, which consists of Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs of Wasseypur, to Ram Gopal Varma’s Satya, and now this classic.

Nayakan a gangster movie which doesn’t lose its humanity and easily sets apart as a product of intermixing arthouse sensibilities with commercial potboiler elements, even if I am not a huge fan of those commercial musical numbers.

One such musical number in the smuggling boat feels particularly unnecessary, but in the grander scheme of things, in a world where OTTs are a thing, you can fast forward those elements and still enjoy the movie.

And while that is not the methodology of watching a movie, Nayakan being a product of its time doesn’t detract from the fact that it is still one of the finest of Ratnam and Haasan’s career, and one of the most humane gangster movies ever made.

Nayakan (1987) – the full movie can be found on Youtube.

NOTE: THE VIEWS AND OPINION EXPRESSED IN THIS ARTICLE ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHOR.
Edited by Nidhi Sahani