Indian

Indian Tamil Movie

Indian (Tamil: இந்தியன்) is a 1996 Tamil political thriller film directed by S. Shankar and produced by A. M. Rathnam. The film starsKamal Haasan in dual roles with Manisha Koirala, Urmila Matondkar, Sukanya and Goundamani appearing in other pivotal roles. The film's score and soundtrack are composed by A. R. Rahman, while cinematography was handled by Jeeva. The film tells the story of corruption in India, with a former soldier becoming a vigilante to stamp the problem out.

Indian was nominated by India as its entry for the Best Foreign Language Film for the Academy Awards in 1996. The film also went on to win three National Film Awards including that of Best Actor for Kamal Haasan's portrayal, while his performance also saw him win at the Filmfare Awards and the Tamil Nadu State Film Awards. The film was dubbed and released in Hindi as Hindustani with a few scenes reshot and also in Telugu as Bharatheeyudu.

Plot

The story runs on two tracks. One is that of Chandra Bose alias Chandru (Kamal Haasan), a small-time broker outside the RTO (Road Transport Office) who gets people to high positions by accepting bribes. He is supported in this work by Subbiah (Goundamani). Paneerselvam (Senthil) plays an officer in the RTO who has conflicts with Subbiah. Aishwarya (Manisha Koirala) and Chandru are in love with each other. Sapna (Urmila Matondkar) is the daughter of Gandhikrishna, an officer in RTO. Her father promises to get Chandru a job of being a brake inspector in the RTO, if he runs errands for them. He agrees to work for them, and soon he becomes a brake inspector.

The other track is of Senapathy, alias Indian (Kamal Haasan), a 70-year-old man who kills top government officials (like Commissioners of Corporation etc.) in an extreme attempt to weed out corruption from Indian soil. Senapathy is also Chandru's father. Krishnaswamy (Nedumudi Venu) is an intelligence officer out to nab the Indian. He manages to somehow trace his way to Senapathy's house and finds Senapathy posing as an ex-freedom fighter. Archived newspaper reports say that Senapathy was a soldier in the Indian National Army who was an extremist. Senapathy's wife Amirthavalli (Sukanya) is asked what Senapathy did to deserve a freedom fighter tag, and at this point, we are taken to the 1940s. Rebellions against the British, atrocities etc. are shown, culminating in Senapathy marrying Sukanya but leaving for Singapore to join Subhash Chandra Bose as part of the INA. He returns after independence. Krishnaswamy tries to arrest Senapathy, but his attempt is foiled, and Senapathy escapes with his expertise in the ancient martial art called Varmam.

Senapathy then goes on to commit a murder in front of television audiences by killing a corrupt doctor (Nizhalgal Ravi) who refused to attend immediately to Senapathy's daughter (Kasthuri), who was suffering from third degree burns because he insisted on a bribe, which Senapathy refused. Chandru parts ways with his father because of his excessive insistence on honesty etc. and considers these values to be dead and worthless. How Senapathy evades the police and escapes arrest forms a major portion of the remaining part of the story. Public support is very high for the Indian because he exposes so many corrupt people. Senapathy does not do his son any favours either. Chandru had earlier taken a bribe and given a safety certificate to a bus with faulty brakes. The bus meets with an accident, killing school children it was carrying and thus Chandru is held responsible. Senapathy is bent on giving Chandru the same punishment as he gives others, i.e.death. After a few chase sequences, in the climax sequence in an airport Senapathy kills Chandru and apparently dies in an explosion. Krishnaswamy discovers through a video that Senapathy escaped moments before the jeep he killed his son in, exploded.

The epilogue shows Senapathy calling Krishnaswamy from a foreign land (Hong Kong), indicating that he will be back should the need for him arise. Finally , he told that there is no death for " INDIAN "

[edit]Cast

• Kamal Haasan as Senapathy and Chandra Bose
• Manisha Koirala as Aishwarya
• Urmila Matondkar as Sapna
• Suganya as Amrithavalli
• Manorama
• Aruna Irani – Hindi Version for Manorama
• Goundamani as Subbaiya
• Senthil as Panneerselvam
• Nedumudi Venu as Krishnaswamy
• Kasturi as Kasthuri
• Nizhalgal Ravi

[edit]Production

In June 1995, producer A. M. Rathnam signed on Shankar, who had directed two blockbusters in Gentleman (1993) and Kaadhalan (1994), to make a new venture featuring leading actor Kamal Haasan in the lead role. The film was reported to be loosely based on the life of prominent Indian freedom fighter, Subhash Chandra Bose.^[1] Shankar tried to rope inAishwarya Rai to make her debut and portray the leading female role but her commitment to her advertisement agency until October 1995 meant that she was ineligible to sign the film.^[1] Subsequently Manisha Koirala, who appeared in the critically acclaimed 1995 Mani Ratnam film Bombay was selected to make her debut in Tamil films. The producers signed on Raadhika to play the pair of the older Kamal Haasan in the film, but her television commitments meant that she was unable to fulfil her contract. Urvashi subsequently replaced her, only for Shankar to throw her out for missing a day's schedule to attend her sister's wedding. The role was finally handed to Sukanya, who had previously appeared alongside Kamal Haasan in Mahanadhi.^[1] Hindi actress Urmila Matondkar was signed on to play a role in the film after the producers were impressed with her performance and the success of her 1995 Hindi film, Rangeela. The producers roped in Hollywood make-up artistes Michael Westmore and Michael Jones to work on the designs for the senior Kamal Haasan's and Sukanya's look in the film.^[2]

For production work, Shankar visited Las Vegas to learn about new technology and purchased cameras for the production. Furthermore the director visited Australia alongside cinematographer Jeeva and music director A. R. Rahman to location hunt and to compose tunes.^[1] The film's unit were given strict order to maintain privacy, with Hindi actor Jackie Shroff being notably turned away from visiting the shooting spot. A song for the film was shot at Prasad Studios featuring Kamal Haasan and Urmila Matondkar alongside 70 Bombay models.^[3] This led to a protest from the Cine Dancers Union who argued that Tamil dancers should have been utilised instead, with Shankar opting to pay them off to avoid further hassle. Another duet between Kamal Haasan and Manisha Koirala was shot near the Sydney Opera House in Sydney and Canberra for fifteen days. A flashback song was canned with four hundred dancers and a thousand extras at Gingee with Kamal Haasan and Sukanya, while another song featured shooting in Jodhpur, Rajasthan.^[2] The film engaged in competition with K. T. Kunjumon's production Kadhal Desam to be the most expensive Tamil film til date until 1996.^[1]

[edit]Release

[edit]Awards

1997 National Film Awards (India)

• Won – Silver Lotus Award for Best Actor – Kamal Haasan
• Won – Silver Lotus Award for Best Art Direction – Thotta Tharani
• Won – Silver Lotus Award for Best Special Effects – Venky

1997 Filmfare Awards South (India)

• Won – Best Actor Award (Tamil) – Kamal Haasan

1997 Academy Awards (United States)

• Indian submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film

[edit]Sequel

In 2011, producer A. M. Rathnam discussed the idea of a sequel to this project as anti-corruption leaders like Anna Hazare were becoming active.^[4]

[edit]Soundtrack

Main article: Indian (soundtrack)

Indian
Soundtrack album by A. R. Rahman
Released	1996
Recorded	Panchathan Record Inn
Genre	Feature film soundtrack
Length	30:05
Label	Pyramid
Producer	A. R. Rahman
A. R. Rahman chronology
Love Birds (1996) Indian (1996) Kadhal Desam (1996)

The soundtrack album includes five tracks composed by A. R. Rahman^[5] and was released on 1996 by Pyramid.^[6] The soundtrack proved popular upon release and was also released in Hindi as Hindustani by TIPS^[6] and in Telugu as Bharateeyudu by T-Series.^[6] The lyrics were written by Vaali and Vairamuthu for the original version, P. K. Mishra for Hindustani and Bhuvanachandra for Bharateeyudu.

The soundtrack proved extremely successful upon release and was sold about 6 lakhs records within a few days of release.^[7]

Indian
No.	Title	Singers	Length	Lyricist
1	"Telephone Manipol"	Hariharan, Harini	6:15	Vairamuthu
2	"Maya Machindra"	S. P. Balasubramaniam, Swarnalatha	5:37	Vaali
3	"Pachai Kiligal"	K. J. Yesudas	5:50	Vairamuthu
4	"Akadanu Naanga"	S. P. Balasubramaniam,Swarnalatha	5:52	Vaali
5	"Kappaleri Poyaachu"	S. P. Balasubramaniam, P. Susheela	6:28	Vaali

[edit]

Michael madana kaama raajan

Michael madana kaama raajan

Michael Madhana Kama Rajan (Tamil: மைக்கேல் மதன காம ராஜன்) is a 1990 Tamil comedy film directed by Singeetam Srinivasa Rao and written by Kamal Haasan, with Crazy Mohan penning the dialogues.

The film tells a story of quadruplets, Michael, Madhanagopal, Kameshwaran, and Raju, all played by Kamal Haasan. Kamal had distinguished each of those characters with his body language and language lingo. Michael has a husky voice, Madan has an English accent, Kameshwaran speaks Palakkad Tamil and Raju speaks Madras Tamil in keeping with their diverse upbringing as per the plot.

[edit]

Plot

Years roll by and the lives of all the four kids grow up and even though all of them physically look alike, they have completely different mannerism and personalities. The father of the quadruplet, raises Madhan and treats him as his own son, unknown to the fact that Madhan is, in fact, his son. On the eve of Madhan’s Arrival after graduating London Business School, the father’s brother and nephew (Nassar) collude and kill him before Madhan is named as the owner of the father’s company publicly. But unknown to them, the will has already named Madhan as the owner. Madhan comes back to Bangalore from abroad to take care of his father's company, much to the annoyance of his uncle and his cousin, Nasser. There he meets Avinashi (Nagesh), his father’s assistant, who misappropriated a huge sum of money. Avinashi pleads that he knows nothing about the funds and has the burden of marrying off his eight daughters. Madhan refuses to agree and asks Avinashi to own up to his mistakes owing to which he will be forgiven but failing which he'll be forced to call the police. Once, while printing counterfeit currency, Michael and his father, Santhana bharathi escapes from the police in a car which crashes into the electricity unit in a convention centre where Shalini's (Kushboo) paintings are being displayed for exhibition. The building catches fire and along comes Raju, a firefighter, and saves Shalini and her paintings. The two become friends and Raju falls in love with her. Raju had taken a loan from a Pathan (Afghani money-lender) to stage a play when he was young and the Pathan comes to Raju's house to demand the loan plus interest. Raju tries to pacify the Pathan by giving him some biscuits and dried fish but the Pathan throws it out in the street and it falls on Kameshwaran.The movie opens with a ballad sung by travelling singer singing a tale. The tale of a rich industrialist is secretly married to a woman, who is expecting their child. His brother, wishing to eliminate any potential rivals to the family property, sets her up to be killed by hired goons, who are also ordered to kill the babies. The leader of the goons, (Santhana Bharathi), having no desire to kill the identical quadruplets, takes one with him (Michael), drops one in an orphanage (Raju), one in a temple (Kameshwaran) who is picked by Palakkad Mani Iyer (Delhi Ganesh), and one in a car (Madhan) that belongs to the babies' father.

Kameshwaran, assuming the fish to be vegetables, shouts at the Pathan and reaches the wedding hall where his father is doing the catering service for the wedding. He accidentally drops the fish (which had fallen in his shirt pocket) in the sambar and a hilarious sequence follows. In the wedding hall he meets Thiripurasundari (Urvashi), whom he thinks is a thief. But apparently her grandmother (S. N. Lakshmi) is a kleptomaniac who happens to steal everything from tumblers to an old man's artificial teeth to Delhi Ganesh's chella petti, and Urvashi goes behind her replacing everything her grandmother stole. Kameshwaran holds Urvashi's hand, brings her to the main hall and tries to bring it to everyone's attention that her grandmother is a thief, but intelligently Lakshmi changes the scene and claims that Kameshwaran had tried to misbehave with Urvashi. As the days go on, Lakshmi buys all the groceries in Kameshwaran's account and when he goes to their house, a series of rib-tickling dialogues follow. Finally Urvashi reveals her bitter fate about tackling her grandmother's kleptomania. Kameshwaran pities her and falls for her. Eventually they get engaged. Madhan gets a phone call from a lady in Chennai saying that his dad's death wasn't an accident, but that it was planned. The caller also gives him an address in Santhome, Chennai asking him to meet her at a specific time. Avinashi, who hears this conversation from another line, conveys the conversation to Nasser and his father in hopes of getting some money. But they act nonchalant in front of Avinashi, not to arouse suspicion but send their thugs to take care of the situation.

Madhan comes to Chennai and when in hotel, he gets another call asking him to meet her at a different address. Madhan goes there to meet Chakkubai (Roopini) and Gangabai (Manorama). Chakkubai is a mentally retarded blind girl pinned to a wheelchair that imagines untrue things about the deaths reported in newspapers, tracks the deceased's relatives and creates confusion by saying the death is not natural. Madhan pities her and comes back to the hotel. While watching TV, he sees Chakkubai dance in a TV programme and she looks perfectly sane with good eyesight. Madhan finds them in a stage drama programme and they confess that they were asked to act that way and were given money for it. Madhan then realises that the first call he received in Bangalore was true and goes to Santhome. There he meets Sushila Jayabharathi who is about to tell him about his father. But a car comes to kill them and they escape with the help of Madhan's assistant Bheem. Sushila runs off in the chaos. Bheem is overpowered and the goons set off after Madhan. Madhan, along with Chakkubhai and Gangabhai, are on the run and hide in a restroom. The goons mistake Raju, who happens to be in the same restroom, for Madhan and try to kill him. But Raju easily overpowers them. Madhan sees this and picks up Raju’s wallet which had fallen earlier during the fight. Madhan gives a guesthouse address to Chakkubhai and Gangabhai and asks them to stay there. Madhan gets Raju's address from the wallet and goes to his house. Madhan meet’s Raju and he agree to repay Raju's debt, but in turn ask Raju to impersonate him and go to Bangalore while he stays in Chennai. Having failed earlier, Nasser and his father hire a thug to kill Madhan before Madhan reaches Bangalore. The thug turns out to be the middleman to hire Michael.

Raju, while leaving his hotel, meets Shalini and her dad (Venniradai Moorthy) whose flight to Bangalore has been delayed. Raju offers to take them along with him in his car. In the meantime, Michael pulls off the brake wire. Sushila, who had come to the hotel in search of Madhan, sees this but before she could warn Raju, they drive off. She follows them in a taxi. Michael is astonished to find that Madhan/Raju looks just like him sans his beard and is upset that he has killed the goose that lays the golden eggs. But the real Madhan, after seeing off Raju to Bangalore, walks past Michael. Thinking that Madhan was not in the car that drove away, follow him after paying up the middleman and forcing him to leave. Madhan goes and stays in the same guesthouse that Chakkubhai and Gangabhai are holed up in. In the car, the brake fails to work but Raju climbs out of the speeding car and makes the break work. This causes the car to get into a minor accident but none of them are injured. Sushila catches up to them and wants to talk to Madhan. Raju gives her the address of the guesthouse Madhan is staying at and tells her that “he, Madhan” will be there. Although confused, she still goes to the guesthouse. Raju, Bheem boy, shalini and her father arrive at Madhan’s house in Bangalore and Raju insist that Shalini and her father stay at the house for a few days. Avinashi, heeding to the earlier warning about his misappropriation of funds, admits that he had taken the money and all he has left is the 600,000 Rupees cash that he shows to Raju and asks to be forgiven. Raju, takes the cash and asks Bheem boy to put it in the safe and tells Avinashi that he has changed his mind.

In the guesthouse, Gangabhai encourages Chakkubhai to flirt with Madhan. As she does, both she and Madhan get intimate. But Sushila arrives and asks Madhan to leave with her. They are followed by Michael and his dad, who are followed by the middleman who used to work for them, who is followed by two of Nasser’s goons. Sushila takes Madhan to her home and Madhan is surprised to see his father alive. Although the father appears to “talk funny” he still tells Madhan about attempt on his life by his brother and Nasser but coincidentally he meets Sushila, who was his long lost wife from years prior and escapes with her help. Michael and Santhana bharathi arrive at the scene. Sushila recognizes Santhana bharathi as the goon who had taken her quadruplets and realizes that Michael and Madhan are her sons as they look alike and Michael calling Santhana bharathi as his dad. But before she could say anything, Michael and his father beat all of them unconscious and kidnap Madhan. The middleman arrive moments later, promises to help Sushila and Madhan’s father in return for a large sum of cash and follows Michael in a car. Nasser’s goons, who had followed the middleman, now learn that Madhan’s father is still alive and they again follow the middleman. Avinashi, who was to give the 600,000 Rupees as a dowry for one of his daughter’s wedding, chances upon Madhan’s look alike Kameshwaran. He pay’s Thirupu’s grandmother and asks Kameshwaran to impersonate Madhan for a few minutes. The grandmother, in her greed, tricks Kameshwaran that his father too thinks it’s ok to act as Madhan. Avinashi brings Kameshwaran, Thirpu and her grandmother to Bangalore. Michael takes Madhan to a cabin at an edge of a cliff in Bangalore and shaves of his beard to look like Madhan. He soon finds Sushila, her husband and the middleman spying on the cabin having followed him, knocks them cold and ties them up in the cabin. He and his father then go to Madhan’s big house to loot it. Nasser’s goons, who have seen this, inform Nasser.

Raju and Shalini plan to meet each other without the knowledge of her father. Avinashi, drugs Raju’s soup but in his haste to meet Shalini, he asks Bheem boy to eat the soup. Raju and Shalini meet and profess their love for one another. Michael and his father reach the house and find a safe but Bheem boy who has eaten the drugged soup, startles them but fall unconscious near the safe. Michael see’s Raju, mistakes him for Madhan and thinks that Madhan has escaped from the Cabin. He goes to kidnap Madhan again before he could call the police. Michael hits Raju in the head and leaves him unconscious. Avinashi sees the unconscious Raju and brings Kameshwaran into the house to get his money from the safe. A drunken Santhana bharathi accidentally hits Michael in the head and knocks him unconscious and takes the unconscious Raju back to the cabin. Kameshwaran is mistaken for Raju/Madhan by Shalini who tries to get intimate with him. Thirupu and her grandmother want’s none of that and drag Kameshwaran away. But Shalini witnesses Kameshwaran hugging Thiupu. This enrages her as she thinks that Raju lied to her. Chakkubhai and Gangabhai also arrive at the house in search of Madhan and Chakkubhai introduces herself to everyone as Madhan’s fiancé. This causes Shalini to take a decorative hunting rifle and hold everyone to gunpoint. Avinashi and the rest try to tell her that kameshwaran is not Madhan/Raju but she doesn’t believe them. Michael wakes up, goes to the safe. Bheem boy too wakes up and helps Michael to get the cash from the Safe. As he is leaving, everyone sees Michael and shouts for him. Meanwhile, the real Madhan has escaped the cabin with his mother and dad and comes to the house. In the confusion, Michael escapes in the same car in which Sushila and her husband are in and goes to the cabin. The rest of the crew all follows them back to the cabin.

Nasser has arrived earlier to the cabin and holds everyone at gunpoint as they arrive one by one. All the brothers finally are in the same room and Sushila tells them that they are her quadruplets. The arrival of Bheem boy and the presence of all the people in the small cabin causes the cabin to lose it’s base and start to tilt over the cliff edge. The bad guys are knocked out and the four brothers work together to safely get everyone out of the cabin. Everyone is happy as they are finally together. As the credits roll, the travelling singer is shown as moving on to his next spot.

[edit]

Cast

• Kamal Hassan as Michael (small time crook), Madhan (a wealthy and brooding heir), Kameshwaran (naive cook) and Raju (a happy-go-lucky, street smart firefighter).
• Kushboo as Shalini. Shalini is a painter who falls in love with Raju.
• Urvashi as Thiripurasundari . Thiripurasundari marries Kameshwaran.
• Rupini as ChakkuBai, dancer, and stage artist. She plays Madhan's romantic interest.
• Manorama as GangaBai, ChakkuBai's mother
• Delhi Ganesh as Palakkad Mani Iyer, a cook, Kameshwaran's father
• Nassar as RamGopal, Madhan's cousin
• Venniradai Moorthy as Shalini's father
• SN Lakshmi as Thiripurasundari's grandmother
• Jayabharathi as Suseela (mother of the 4 boys)
• R. N. Jayagopal as Madhan's uncle
• Nagesh as Avinashi, Madhan's manager
• Praveen Kumar as Bheem, Madhan's bodyguard
• Santhana Bharathi as Michael's foster father

[edit]

Soundtrack

The soundtrack consist of five memorable songs composed by Ilayaraja. The Sundari neeyum song was sung by Kamal Hassan. This song is particularly striking for the PalakkadMalayalam lyrics thrown in for good measure. This was the first song in Indian Cinema to run in slow-motion full length. Rum bum bum is yet another fast melody and is a huge hit in college setting till date.^[1]

Michael Madhana Kamarajan
Studio album by Ilayaraja
Released	June 30, 1990
Genre	Feature film soundtrack
Label	Ayngaran International
Producer	Ilaiyaraaja

No.	Song	Singers	Lyrics	Notes	Characters Featured
1	Kadha Kelu Kadha Kelu	Ilaiyaraaja			Narrator (Singeetam Srinivasa Rao)
2	Rum Bum Bum Arambum	S.P.Balasubrahmanyam, K.S. Chithra			Raju and Shalini
3	Suba Rathiri	K.S. Chithra, Mano			Madhan and ChakkuBai
4	Sundhari Neeyum Sundhara	S. Janaki, Kamal Hassan	MalayalamLyrics	This was shot by playing the song at twice the original speed.	Kameshwaran and Thiripurasundari
5	Vechalum vekkama ponnalum	Malaysia Vasudevan, S. Janaki			Raju and Shalini

[edit]

Legacy

Along with Thillu Mullu, it is widely considered to be the best comedy movie in the Tamil film industry. Kamal Haasan's performance as all four quadruplets is top class and he showcases his versatility in a single movie. He has four different types of body language and four different slang terms for the roles. The film was a massive hit and ran for over 175 days in many theaters. Made with less than Rs 1 crore, this comedy flick made nearly Rs.13 crores It also won Kamal Haasan many accolades and recognition for his versatile acting and comic timing. Comedy has always been Kamal Hassan's most appreciated aspect of film making. The thinking genius that he is, Kamal time and again comes up with movies that are far beyond their times and revolutionary in their theme. Consequently, some of those have failed at the box office. But a Kamal comedy almost never fails to appeal among the Tamil masses. While Kamal never criticizes the audience's shortcomings in real life, the character of Raju says once in the movie that since the story was revolutionary, the drama flopped!

The hit pair of Kamal and Oorvasi hits of tremendously in this movie, delivering some of the most memorable comic punches in the history of Tamil cinema. Oorvasi is regarded by many as one of best female actors in Indian cinema. The only person who could lay claim to the throne, Manorama, has also performed wonderfully in this movie, constrained only by the length of her role. The ever-so-beautiful Kushboo Sundar comes in for some nice titillating jokes from Kamal.

Similarly the comic timing between Delhi Ganesh and Kamal Hassan in the movie is appreciable. Delhi Ganesh once in an interview remarked that Kamal has such love for Ganesh, that before signing any movie, Kamal makes sure Ganesh is also signed for the movie. So is the case with S.N. Lakshmi. The 'tiruttu patti' in the movie does a brilliant yet effortless essay of her role, which explains why she has been a crucial part of numerous memorable Kamal movies including Mahanadi and Thevar Magan.

The interactions of both Kamals Madan and Kameshwaran with Avinasi(Nagesh) tickles the funny bone to the limit. The nupital night scene when Avinasi enters the bedroom of the couple is just yet another example of what two of the best actors in Indian cinema can do when the share the screen. The late Nagesh is still revered by Kamal as one of his gurus!

Kamal Haasan's Kalaignan

Kalaignan கலைஞன் is a 1993 Tamil-language thriller film directed by G. B. Vijay and produced by Ramkumar Ganesan. The film features Kamal Haasan and Bindiya in the lead roles while Gur Dutt, Sivaranjani, Sindhuja and Nirmalamma play supporting roles. The film opened in April 1993 to an average response.

Plot

The movie revolves around a Tamil pop Singer Indrajeet (Kamal Hassan) based in Bangalore who has a large female following. The movie opens with the death of a back up dancer (Sivaranjani) in Indrajeets group and soon a police detective (Nasser) is put in charge of the investigation. Although, the police suspect Indrajeet, as he is very short tempered, they have no evidence linking him to the crime. Meanwhile Divya (Bindiya), the sister of the dancer, arrives to her grandmother’s house to find out the truth about her sister’s death. She goes to meet Indrajeet but is put off by his arrogance. She also talks to his manager and other musicians who all have differing opinions about her sister.

While investigating about her sister, she is attacked in a bar but coincidentally Indrajeet saves her and takes her to his concert. During the concert, Indrajeet gets flashes of his parent’s death in an accident in his childhood and breaks down into tears. At the end of the concert, a girl gets on stage and kisses him to the bemusement of all. That night, the girl who got on stage earlier, is killed by someone wearing Indrajeet’s coat. Still with no concrete evidence the police began to keep a closer eye on Indrajeet and find that Divya seems to have an interest in him. To warn her, police reveal to Divya that Indrajeet is her sister’s death’s main and only suspect.

Divya plans to out Indrajeet with the help of Sivaranjani’s friends, who attacked her earlier in the bar mistakenly. She feigns to have fallen for Indrajeet and she stages a kidnapping to test Indrajeet’s skill with the knife (all the girls murdered where skillfully cut by the murderer). He turns out to be quite good with the knife. But the next day, he sees her talking to the kidnapper and manages to determine that she was faking her love.

So he comes clean to her about her sister. Divya’s sister was an unstable substance abuser who had a thing for him, but he didn’t reciprocate. She even had threatened to commit suicide if he didn’t reciprocate but he manages to save her and that was the last he had seen her. The killer, who has pictures of this, which looks like incriminating him has been blackmailing him into coming to the murder scenes just minutes after the murder takes place. Divya believes him and falls for him.

One afternoon, while with Divya, the killer calls and demands Indrajeet to come to a place out of town or he will kill another person. He refuses as he has had enough and tells the killer that he can tell the truth to the police even if the pictures are handed to them. But Divya, in order to find her sisters killer slips away and goes to that location in their car. Indrajeet, worrying about her, goes to the location.

The killer’s next victim happens to be Divya’s grandmother who had car troubles but had accepted the help of the killer, having recognized him. The killer strangles her in her car and takes a picture of the dead body and leaves. Divya arrives and calls the police. Indrajeet arrives at the scene and notices that the police have found one of his glove in the murder scene and he is their suspect. He escapes the police and runs away to his manager’s house. The police arrive at the manager’s house and he asks Indrajeet to hide in the closet. Indrajeet find a jacket similar to his in the closet and also the other glove found at the murder scene. He realizes that his manager is the killer and flees. The manager sneakily lead the police to his closet but finds Indrajeet gone.

Indrajeet calls his manager (Gur Dutt) and impersonates a forest official who has photographed his murder earlier and asks for money. He specifies a location and asks the manager to get there soon. He enters the house when the manager leaves and looks around. He is able to find a secret room filled with photographs of his victims. He calls the manager again and makes him run to another location. After that he reveals his true identity and says that he now has proof of his innocence since the killers reflection is on the car window when he took the photograph earlier. Shocked, he stumbles out but runs into Divya. He kidnaps her and tells Indrajeet to come to an abandoned house outside the city with the photographs.

The police spot Indrajeet and chase him. Meanwhile the manager reveals to Divya that he has started killing because her sister turned down him and laughed at him for being a lesser man than Indrajeet. He, in his jealous rage killed her and other girls who liked Indrajeet. Indrajeet manages to escape the police and rescue Divya. The manager is killed and the police find the truth when the grandmother (Nirmalamma), who had only been unconscious, ousts the killer.

Cast

Kamal Haasan as Indrajeet

Bindiya as Divya

Sivaranjani as Sandhya

Sindhuja

Gur Dutt

Nirmalamma

Nassar

Chinni Jayanth

Production

G. B. Vijay was previously associate director for Prathap Pothan and worked with Kamal Haasan in 1989 film Vetri Vizha which was directed by Pothan and produced by Sivaji Productions. Hence Ramkumar of the production house gave Vijay a chance to make his second film, after the Prabhu-starrer Naalaiya Seithi, in a venture starring Kamal Haasan.[1] Malayalam cinematographer Jayanan Vincent was in charge of the film's photography, while Sabu Cyril designed disco themed sets for songs in the film.[2]

Release

A critic gave the film 2 out of 4, stating "Kamal plays his role with the right amount of seriousness needed to cast suspicion on himself" and that "Bindiya, who bears a close resemblance to Madhuri Dixit, romances nicely and looks scared." The reviewer adds that "the portions of the movie dealing with the killer have been handled well but the soundtrack is a big letdown."[3]

Shortly after the release of Kalaignan, Kamal Haasan's 1982 Hindi film Sanam Teri Kasam was dubbed and released in Tamil as Paadagan. Still images from his look in Kalaignan as a pop singer were used for the publicity of the dubbed film.[4] The director, G. B. Vijay, later moved away from directing feature films and apprenticed under Rajiv Menon as an ad film maker. He also played a pivotal role in mentoring Gautham Menon, while he went on to write the dialogues for Minsara Kanavu (1997).[5]

Soundtrack

Kalaignan

Soundtrack album by Ilaiyaraaja

Released 1993

Genre Feature film soundtrack

The Music was composed by Ilaiyaraaja and lyrics were written by Vaali.

Edekku Muddakanna - S.P Balasubramanyam

Kalaignan Kattu - S.P Balasubramanyam

Kokkarakko - Kamal Haasan

Dillu Baru Jaane - Mano, Chithra

Endhan Nenjil - K.J Yesudas, S.Janaki