The Worst Film Ever

Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

This sets the relationship between Karan and Duryodhana in modern times, in criminal setting and tries to answer the age old question, "Why was a supposedly good person like Karan adamant on his friendship with Duryodhana? What bonded the two for life?"Maniratnam's story, screenplay, dialogues and direction are meant to make you invest in and care for the protagonists, to pray for them, to be fascinated by them and also to be repelled by their actions and intrigued by their motivations. And he succeeds spectacularly. The drama is of the highest notch, with many a scene guaranteed to make you reach out for your nearest handkerchief or shoulder.The action sequences are particularly intense, with no background score, the only sounds being of fists crashing against different body parts. I haven't experienced such visceral thrills in a long time.Illyaraaja's music and the background score are beautiful. I had to look at the subtitles to understand the words and hence, I was a bit behind the curve on occasion. But, the music has been masterfully created to make you feel pathos and pathos you feel, upon hearing it. However, one of the few grouses with the movie that I had was the frequent song and dance sequences. I understand that this was a commercial potboiler, but, these broke the tension created by the proceedings. And the songs were longer than 5 minutes on most occasions. The acting is, almost surreally, exceptional.Like Kamal Haasan after him, the Hindi movie writers have tried to "Bollywoodize" Mr. Kanth rather than letting him be. Those who get surprised by the frenzy and emotions that surround his every release should watch him in this. They would come away enlightened.I have seen only bits and pieces of Rajnikanth's acting prowess, in roles that were under cooked, such as those in "Hum" and "Andha Kanoon". The intensity of his performance, here, is like a physical thing, which crashed into me and left a mark on my psyche. It is breathtaking and barely believable. It must be easily one of his finest acts. This is all the more appreciable as there was ample opportunity for hamming it up. But, you only have to stare into the depth of his eyes to believe in the credibility of his threat.Mamooty is excellent as the benevolent don. However, Rajnikanth is in such exquisite form, that he outshines Mamooty in almost all the scenes that they have together. Srividya shines in the role of Kunti. Arvind Swamy doesn't have much to do, in terms of acting. Amrish Puri is wasted. The film would not have been poorer, if his role had been completely edited out. The origin or the reason for his animosity with Mamooty is never revealed and that takes away some of the sheen of believability from his actions.The editing could have tighter. Also, there were perhaps too many coincidences that served to drive the story forward. I didn't find a fault in them, as they helped to ratchet up the tension and the drama. But, perhaps, this could have been minimized.Also, the production house / Amazon Prime Videos would do well to upload a better copy of the movie. The video often became pixellated, which wasn't expected. There are many scenes wherein the background score is missing. Thankfully, none of the dialogues have been affected.

Contains Spoilers! This is one movie that makes me miss Rajini as an actor every time i watch it. Being a die hard fan of Manirathnam its no surprise that this is one of the best all time movies for me, and not to mention Illayaraja's music its just awesome. All said there is one-thing that i couldn't get over with in this movie. The base of the movie is in itself on the friendship between these characters Surya and Devaraj and i felt the formation of this friendship is not solid enough to make it stick i felt. Afterall the only reason Surya says that he would even given his life for Deva is because, Deva has mistakenly made Surya arrested and put in jail for killing one of his men and later realizes that and brings him out of jail (only that Surya did kill Deva's man and Deva only realizes that Surya has killed him for the right reason). Now this is supposed to be the only reason why Surya does anything and everything for Deva is a bit unfair at least to me considering the rest of the movie falls with this friendship as backdrop. Does anyone else felt that way ? Now barring that one-thing i still think this is one of manirathnam's finest.

Overall, its no secret that the plot is influenced by Mahabharat, especially the relationship between Karna and Duryodhan, and Karna and Arjun. Mani Rathnam once again proved his brilliance by incorporating a great epic to a real life situation. My favorite scene from this movie are two scenes that is the climax of the movie. The first scene is when Kalyani's husband after realizing Surya was the lost son, was the third person witnessing them at a temple, praying. The most moving moment, was when they both hear the train behind them, and they look back and gets emotional by the significance of the train. The acting done by Rajnikanth and Srividya was excellent in this scene. My second favorite scene, was when Arjun confronts Surya and Deva and asks them to stop. To which Surya replies "Have you ever been poor? Have you ever been hungry? Without food in the stomach, have you ever tried to make money?...They don't have the money and time to file petitions to get justice, that is why they come to us". Another good scene is also the confrontation is when Kalyani finally meets with Surya, and apologizes for her mistakes as a child, and asks him to stop being with Deva, to which Surya refuses. This is very reminiscent of Kunti, coming to Karna in the Mahabharat, and asking him to come to the side of Pandavas to which he refuses, since Duryodhan is a friend.The similarities between this movie and Karna's life, is strikingly similar. -Karna being thrown away since Kunti was a teenager, when she had him, which is similar to what happened to Deva. -Deva's stepbrother is Arjun, who is on the side of righteousness and is against Deva for using violence and fear to bring justice, is similar to Karna's stepbrother, Arjun, who was a Pandava, that was against Duryodhan for not giving them what they deserve for being the sons of Pandu. -Surya pledges his life to Deva, for treating him above his status as an orphan which is similar to Karna and Duryodhan, when Duryodhan offers one of his kingdoms to Karna. -Kalyani's husband confronts Surya, and tells him that Kalyani is her mother and Arjun is his stepbrother, and tells him to give up the life of violence and join them, is similar to Krishna approaching Karna and tells him that he is a Pandava, since he is the son of Kunti, and asks him to join the Pandavas, to which he says that he vowed to Duryodhan that he will be with him till death, to which Krishna respects Karna for. -Surya is known for not refusing anyone's demand, which is reminiscent of Karna, not refusing anyone's requests, when he is worshiping the Sun.The greatness of this movie also dwells on certain subtle elements added by Mani Rathnam, like the Sun, that can be seen behind Surya at all times, emphasizing the similarity between him and Karna, son of the Son god. The music by Ilaiyaraaja, was the best music produced by him for any movie. The acting done by Mamooty and Rajnikanth is unparalleled. I think Rajnikanth's acting in this film was superior to Kamal Hassan in Nayagan. This is probably the best acting by Rajnikanth in any of the movies acted by him. Overall this is a great movie and I would recommend this movie highly.

Another great movie from the superstar, with this movie he established himself as the greatest crowd puller in southern India. No actor can command respect like what he has done on his homeland. The closest could be Amithab in Hindi & Siranjeevi in Telugu.Regarrding the movie, its another master piece from mani rathnam, he made a similar movie with Kamal Hassan in Nayakan which was a big hit and now with super star even bigger hit.Both the movies are awesome.Blending the friendship between Mamooty & Rajini Kanth touches the heart.Everybody in the world should see the movie as the movie is a tribute to friendship.Its sad that his acting days are counted and tamil audience gonna miss their biggest entertainer.