Nayakan (1987)

plot:A small boy (Ratnavelu) from Tamilnadu sees his father, a labor leader, killed in cold blood by a policeman. He kills the policeman and runs away to the city of Bombay. From there, the story traces his ascent to become a mafia chief (Velu Naicker), the breakup and deaths in his family

This film is inspired by the true story of Mumbai based Tamil gangster of the 80s, Varadarajan Mudaliar.
this film is an out an out kamal hassan and Mani ratnam film, without Mani ratnam kamal would not have been able to display his magic, and without kamal, Mani would not have been able to show his magic. velu is a boy living in Tamil nadu. his father a labor leader is murdered by a ruthless police officer. velu decides to take revenge, and is supported by his friend, Sela(janagaraj). they both kill the police officer, and escape to Bombay, where they get shelter in a Muslim house hold.
The thing that comes to my mind is its background score.Composer Illayaraja enhances the beauty and power of each scene by his excellent background score.P.C.Sreeram and Maniratnam has done great team work in executing the scenes with visual treat for eyes.Balakumaran's dailogues is very apt and good.
It is impossible not to notice how much this movie is inspired from Godfather. The theme is similar, the movie follows the life of Velunayakan as he rises on to become an influential smuggler and fighter of people's cause in the slums of Dharavi (Bombay.) Nayakan is Indian version of Godfather both in its setting and its message.
Kamal had given one of his best performances in this movie, for which he rightfully won the National Award for Best Actor.
What I saw of Nayakan in the first half was an average movie, if only you sit through till the end do you realize how strong the movie is. The direction the acting and the story all begin to mature in the second half of the movie.It wass one of the movies selected by Time Magazine as "All-Time 100 Best Films.
A must watch movie, for anyone who hasn't seen it.4.25/5