Mahanadhi (film)

Krishnaswamy (Kamal Haasan) is a widower living happily along with his mother-in-law Saraswathi (S. N. Lakshmi), daughter Kaveri (Shobana Vignesh) and son Bharani (Dinesh) in a village near Trichy.

Dhanush (Cochin Haneefa), a con from the city, has an eye on Krishna's prosperity and asks him to join his chit fund business. At first, Krishna is reluctant; however, when a rich friend from a foreign country visits his house, he too wants to be rich like them. Hence he agrees to Dhanush's proposal and arrives at the city. However, he is unaware of Dhanush's tricks, and when Dhanush swindles away the chit fund money, the blame is put on Krishna, and he lands up in jail.

Krishna finds that even his future father-in-law Panjapakesan (Poornam Viswanathan) is also in jail for the same reason, whose daughter is Yamuna (Sukanya), working as a nurse. He advises Krishna not to be angry if the jailor is cruel, as he might be released sooner if he is submissive in the jail. During Krishna's tenure in jail, Yamuna takes care of his family. Due to unavoidable situations, his mother-in-law dies, and his children go missing. Krishna learns this after coming out from jail suffering unnecessary hardships.

Krishna finds his son with street artists and gets him back. He later finds from Dhanush that his daughter is in Kolkata, at a red light area called Sonagachi. When Krishna was arrested, Kaveri had attained puberty, and three months later, Saraswathi became sick. Kaveri and Bharani go to Dhanush asking for financial help. Dhanush takes them to his higher boss, so that the virgin Kaveri could sleep with him to get money. Though the boss provides money to Dhanush for treatment of the old lady, he chases out Bharani with his dog and keeps the money for himself. Kaveri is brutally raped by the boss and is then raped by many till she ends up as a prostitute in Sonagachi.

Krishna goes to Kolkata with his father-in-law and tracks down his daughter. Unable to bear the grief, he grabs her and tries to escape, while the pimps there beat him black and blue. The elder sex-workers/madam make a truce and insist that Krishna take Kaveri, while they would work extra hours to pay the pimps for the loss of Kaveri.

After coming back from Kolkata, Krishna wants to start a new life with Yamuna, but his friend in the police, Muthusamy (Rajesh) tells him that Dhanush has planned to jail Krishna further by plotting a murder case against him, he would be arrested the next day. Also, Krishna overhears his daughter blabbering in her sleep not to rape her. He is heartbroken due to the state of his kids, so he decides to curb the root of all sin and grief against Dhanush, and goes to seek revenge. He comes to know that Dhanush is just a pawn in the big game of cheating. He not only kills Dhanush, but also the main person who was behind this game; but at the cost of losing his arm.

Krishna is sentenced to 14 years of life imprisonment and comes out a contented man, to see his daughter married to Muthusamy's son and having a child, and his son being a grown-up man. The whole family moves back to their native village, and the movie ends with Bharani swimming in the river, reminding his father of his own antics.

Mahanadi
Soundtrack album by Ilaiyaraaja
Released	1994
Genre	Feature film soundtrack
Language	Tamil
External audio Audio Jukebox (Tamil) on YouTube Audio Jukebox (Telugu) on YouTube

The music was composed by Ilaiyaraaja, and lyrics were written by Vaali. Telugu lyrics were written by Vennelakanti. Shobana, who acted as Kamal Haasan's daughter in the film, also sang the song "Sri Ranga Ranganathanin".[6] After recording the song, Ilaiyaraaja and Uma Ramanan appreciated her for singing the song.[7] The song was composed in Hamsadhwani Raga.[8]

Kamal Haasan wrote the story, screenplay and co-wrote the dialogues with Ra. Ki. Rangarajan.[9][10] Kamal Haasan's then-wife Sarika designed the costumes and was also an uncredited audiographer for the film.[11] Director Cheran worked as an associate director on the film.[12] The film marked the debut of singer Shobana,[13] who did not act in any other film since then, Dinesh and Shankar,[14] who all got the film's title, "Mahanadhi", added to their names as a prefix. Mahanadhi was the first film in India to make use of Avid technology,[15] becoming one of the first digitally edited films outside of US.[7][16] Kamal Haasan later said that Mahanadhi was a very important film for him.[3] He also said that the film was influenced by Les Misérables.[17] Principal photography was to have begun in May 1993, but began only in September.[9]

Baradwaj Rangan said: "Mahanadhi is one of the saddest films ever made, grim north to Singin' in the Rain's blithe south, but it has an extraordinary musical moment in "Peygala Nambaadhey", which Kamal Haasan's character sings, during a power cut, to his children who are scared of the dark. This multifunctional song is (a) a father's moral instruction to his children ("face your fears"), (b) a bit of levity, (c) a sweet stretch showcasing this family's dynamics, and (d) a hint that bad things can come at you from everywhere, whether from the television set (featuring terrifyingly distorted musical performers) or even a doting grandmother (who, jokingly, fashions herself into a demon goddess). That's where the film is headed, into a zone where nothing and no one can be trusted, and this song shapes these themes in a casually understated manner".[18]

Poet Puviarasu stated: "Don't go after the mystic deer, was Kamal's message in the movie Mahanadhi". In the film, Krishna relocates to the city to earn more money, own a Benz and educate his daughter at Church Park Convent. And he faces the consequences of his actions. The important characters in the film are named after the various rivers in India. The Cauvery water problem is dealt with in a symbolic way. The daughter of Krishna is named Cauvery. Later a prostitute in Kolkata, where the Ganga flows as the Hooghly, rescues her. Here, Kamal brings about the importance of the "linking of rivers".[19]

Mahanadhi is a major river in India and translates to "Great River", and the names of the characters played by Kamal Haasan, Suganya, Shobana/Sangita and Dinesh are Krishna, Yamuna, Kaveri, Bharani, all names of major Indian rivers, too.

Mahanadi was released in theatres on 14 January 1994, Pongal day.[20] Despite facing competition from other Pongal releases such as Sethupathi IPS, Amaidhi Padai, Rajakumaran, Veetla Visheshanga, Siragadikka Aasai and Sindhu Nathi Poo[21] the film became commercially successful and ran for 25 weeks, thereby becoming a silver jubilee film.[22] The film was dubbed in Telugu with the same title and released on 27 May 1994.

Malini Mannath of The Indian Express wrote, "Mahanadhi is a melancholic film with scenes that linger long...".[23] Tamil magazine Ananda Vikatan wrote that it is surprising to see such a soft, intense and different film in Tamil, and also praised Kamal's acting, stating that one will forget Kamal and see only the character Krishnasamy and empathise with him.[24]

The film was screened at the International Film Festival Rotterdam six years after its release.[3]

Mahanadhi has often been cited as one of the saddest and most depressing films from Tamil cinema.[25][26] On the centenary of Indian cinema in April 2013, Forbes India included Kamal Hassan's performance in the film on its list, "25 Greatest Acting Performances of Indian Cinema".[27]

The film won two awards at the 41st National Film Awards. It received the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Tamil and H. Sridhar and K. M. Surya Narayan received the National Film Award for Best Audiography.[28] It also won Tamil Nadu State Film Award Special Prize for Best Film and Vikram Dharma received the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Stunt Coordinator.

• Dhananjayan, G. (2014). Pride of Tamil Cinema: 1931 to 2013. Blue Ocean Publishers.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

• Mahanadhi on IMDb