Read the full article on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/mahanadhi-revisiting-philosophy-kamal-haasan-sukanya-poornam-vishwanathan/
In a revenge drama, you would expect a morally disillusioned Krishna to embark on a killing spree to avenge his fate. But that’s precisely where Krishna’s transformation from an incipient sociopath to a rational humanist begins, writes reader Jeeva Pitchaimani.
When released in 1994, Mahanadhi was considered a Sivaji Ganesan-type tearjerker, and it met with a very mild reception. After close to 25 years of the film’s release, I decided to revisit it, owing to a very intense epiphany I experienced during a morning commute to office.
Continued at the link above.
The portion below was edited out of the story, and it extends the argument above by focusing on the protagonist’s masculinity.
Another beautiful thing about the film is the way Krishna’s masculinity has been handled and how central this quality is, to his ability to arrive at big decisions. Krishna being a widower is shown to be unconsciously drawn to Manju, the attractive assistant to Dhanush who exploits his sexual impoverishment to make him fall into the financial trap.
In a later scene, Dhanush leaves Krishna and Manju together in a closed room and just when they move on towards the edge of consummation, he brings the cheque book and authorisation documents for Krishna to sign. A strongly aroused Krishna is forced to sign them under the influence of alcohol. He soon finds out that his stillborn affair with Manju is nothing but a honey trap. He feels terribly guilty for stepping over the boundaries of morality and apologises to his ever cautious mother-in law. This incident is something that one might be able to identify himself with quite easily. A similar incident can be spotted in the modern day classic Kuttram Kadidhal.
Krishna’s masculinity issues continue into his prison stint as well. The first time he meets Yamuna accidentally, he remains twice shy for having been bitten once by Manju. He barely meets her eyes while they walk slowly along in parallel to each other separated only by the prison wall. In a few days, he confronts Thulukanam, the ruthless jail warden who has a habit of harassing the prison inmates quite often. He gathers courage to challenge him and the next time he meets Yamuna, Krishna appears more confident as they walk in a similar manner as before when they part. After he emerges victorious in his struggle against Thulukanam, in their third encounter you see an even bolder Krishna who stands near the doorway to stare at Yamuna glowing with supreme confidence.
After his release from jail, Krishna gets chances to meet Yamuna quite often in private but is constantly being interrupted by her father. Krishna too accepts the reality and stays within his boundaries each and every time. Only when he discovers later that he is being framed for murder and that there is no other alternative than to kill Dhanush that he feels man enough to kiss Yamuna on her lips, just before he leaves for the mission. It is only here that Krishna for the first time in a while breaks out of the limits of morality set by elders and shows his middle finger to them by kissing Yamuna vehemently.
Copyright ©2020 Film Companion.
Baradwaj Rangan 
shaviswa
January 16, 2020
Phew!!! And here I am unable to even watch the film once. For some reason, I cannot watch this film. I started watching once before but switched it off as I found it extremely tedious. The film lacked a tempo that makes you sit up and anticipate what happens next.
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Prakash
January 16, 2020
What was the incident which made you write this sir??
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Anu Warrier
January 16, 2020
I remember being completely traumatised by this film when I first watched it. The sluggishness of the plot that you mention is not something i remember, but this, as well as Kuruthipunnal joins the list of movies – Sadayam, Thaniyavarthanam, La veuve de Saint-Pierre and Chandni Bar that I will not watch again.
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rmahalik
January 16, 2020
Thanks Jeeva for a beautiful writeup on one of my favorite movie, Mahanadhi. It is tough watch but a rewarding one. I did miss few points you mentioned and can’t recollect few conversations you called out. Added to my rewatch list.
This is not a movie that can be slotted in to tear jerker or revenge drama. It kept its aim high.
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Srini
January 17, 2020
Really liked the write up. I used to be a big Rajini fanboy during my teens and remember always siding with other Rajini fans during my early college day Rajini – Kamal fights. Then one evening there was Kuruthipunal playing in our hostel TV, I remember sitting down and watching the whole movie. It felt so real and so intense. I had previously watched it as a much younger kid and not feeling engaged at all. But this time, I got it. It kept playing in my head for a few more days. Then when I traveled home for one of my vacation days during an idle afternoon I got to watch Gunaa on K TV, there was this profound sadness I felt for a few days. It was rare to see a tamil movie set a mood and stay true to it throughout, the tonal consistency was so neat. My respect for Kamal’s boldness and his effort to stay real when he could have so easily played to the gallery made me cross over to a Kamal fan.
Just seeing a thumbnail pic from Mahandhi has so many memories come flooding back. I watched it on an idle evening with my grandma who was done with all her chores and decided to watch the Sunday evening show on sun tv. A line that always stood out for me was when he says ‘atom bomb ellam podalaam thappu illa, irukkara ellarum kettavanga thaana’ or something on those lines. A pessimistic hero is such a rare breed, movies run because of people buying tickets to them. Movies end up always saying good things about the masses to appease their ego, constantly telling them there are just this group of bad guys but everyone else is so good and morally right.
Wish to see more such gritty movies from him, I have been very disappointed with his films for more than a decade now. Maybe it is because of the bar he had already set for himself. With his film career slowly but surely coming to a complete halt I feel really sad that I will never get to see another solid Kamal movie like Mahanadhi.
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brangan
January 17, 2020
This was the phase I was really getting into cinema. I was attending screenings at the Madras Film Club and so on, so the double-whammy of Mani Ratnam and Kamal (in his ‘one film at a time’ phase) came right on time when I was reading about editing and camera angles and cinematography and sound and so on.
This is one of the first films where I noticed the editing pattern and flow of the screenplay — and it just blew my mind. My friend beside me kept rolling his eyes saying “It’s like a documentary” 😀
There is one GREAT anecdote a filmmaker (let’s call him K) told me about this film — about why it flopped.
He saw the film in Madurai, where apparently — in this one theatre — they bolt the gates after the film starts and open it again at interval point, etc.
So this man beside K started getting really uneasy when the film began. He started sweating after a point. By the time the Thulukkanam character cane, this man rose and demanded to be let out of the theatre. There was a ruckus.
So K asked him what was the issue. (I’m kinda paraphrasing here.)
It turns out that the man had been in jail and he’d come to relax and this was just too close for comfort. It was so REAL. (And I’m sure Raja’s chilling score added greatly to this feeling.)
So K told me, “The audience has been seeing jails in so many films, but it’s this cardboard set and everyone’s singing songs banging their utensils and it’s very clear that the hero is soon going to burst out and everything’s going to be happy happy. But this was too close for comfort, with no redemption in sight.”
Every time I watch this film, I discover something new. IMO, it’s a far better, far more organic piece of filmmaking than GUNA, though that film (which I love, too) has better songs and far more “high” moments. In this the peaks and valleys of emotion are more muted — “a straighter line” in the screenplay, so to speak.
Kamal was really at his peak at this point.
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H. Prasanna
January 17, 2020
A haunting movie, for sure! You can associate it with Pongal if it was the Halloween of Tamil festivals perhaps. I remember reading Actor Pasupathi (Virumaandi) also had a anecdote about this movie being too close to comfort: regarding something similar happening to his friend’s family (regarding sex trafficking, I think).
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shaviswa
January 17, 2020
I do not think the film flopped because it was so close to being REAL.
It flopped because it failed to entertain. Even if it is a sad story, a tragedy, a film that makes the hero go through a lot of hardships, the screenplay needs to be engaging enough to hook the viewer. Mahanadhi failed at that big time (to a majority of the audience). I really could not relish the film and it is one of those very few films where I stopped watching midway.
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V
January 17, 2020
Thanks for this piece Mr. Jeeva.
Thinking back, Mahanadhi was the definitive film that made me an unwavering Kamal fan for life. I watched it when I was in Class X (it wasnt rated Adults Only, surprisingly!) and it shook me in a way no other Tamil film had in the past. So brace yourself for some ramblings from me on this film.
The reason Krishna takes to Dhanush instantly is indicated in the previous scenes where Krishna’s friend’s family from London comes on a vacation & an otherwise contented Krishna, takes notice of the sheen of urban life. A few poignant dialogs/scenes are casually thrown here to contrast the two families. And then Dhanush struts into his life with the promise of an elevation in status, if not to London, atleast to Madras.
One may question this arc, but as someone whose well-educated family lost quite a few lakhs in the 90s in chit-funds, one cannot explain why certain weird decisions were taken back in those days, when trust could be earned easily by smooth-talkers like Dhanush.
The film had quite a few constructs that impressed me a lot:
–The son-in-law mother-in-law bonding was very heart-warming, amidst the Panama Pasama, Mappillai type of films that we were used to. Not to mention the dignity SN Lakshmi brought to the role.
–Those were the times in films when even a rape victim had to trace her kodoora rapist & marry him or else die out of shame. This film had a no-nonsense arc of the exploited child grow up to have a normal (as normal as it can get) life. This message was not sledge-hammered into our heads, but was treated as a ‘normal’ thing. (Aararo Aariraro which came earlier than this, made a hue and cry out of this angle)
–Rajesh’s character – though Poornam’s had the most mileage after the film’s release, I loved Rajesh in the film. No theatrics, no verbose stuff – but that character would always always speak up for what he thinks is right. Rajesh pitches his performance so well that whatever he says sounds believable to the viewer (not just Kamal)
–The “dog” that separates the little boy from his family & later barks at Kamal during the street-show to get his attention – has Kamal shown his love for animals in quite a few of his films? Whether it is the kuruvi from Guna or Sangu dog from Anbe Sivam or the blue-cross character from Indian or even the snake scene from PKS, animals have been used imaginatively and lovingly in his films.
–Was this the first film of Kamal that showed his disenchantment with religion? Before this he was open to being portrayed as a believer. The films that came after started having the (in)famous Kamalisms that poke fun of religion?
To end this wayward comment, I would like to recall the words from the tamil magazine Kalki’s review for Mahanadhi (note: Kalki’s reviews were usually acerbic and scathing, especially of the films of KB, Rajni, Kamal, Mani) – ‘Idhu Mahanadhi Yugam’
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TambiDude
January 17, 2020
I did not see this movie until 2004 when I was in India on vacation and the movie was being played in some channel TV. I was so riveted that when my wife reminded me that we had to leave for a social call, I was reluctant. Had it been my family side, I would have taken a rain check and finished the movie. Can’t take that much liberties with in-laws 🙂
Later on I watched it fully in VCD. I felt it was very good, though towards the end it was quite depressing.
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Rahini David
January 17, 2020
V: And Thalaivasal Vijay as manangatti, IIRC.
😁
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Srini
January 18, 2020
@BR – what were the books on ‘editing and camera angles and cinematography and sound’ that you would suggest reading?
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Parupps
January 18, 2020
@shaviswa, we get it, you don’t like any kamal movies after Kalathur Kannamma.
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Mani
January 18, 2020
Hey Mr.Rangan sorry for being off topic.Just wanted to know your favourite/go-to critics who review english/foreign language films?
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dagalti
January 18, 2020
A well articulated essay. Congratulations to the writer. I am unable to comment there as one seems to need an FB account to do so.
The writer is very fair to conclude as follows:
/it is fair to conclude that the story has been written around these philosophical questions/
In the an interview to Tamil India Today around the time of Mahanadhi’s release Kamal spoke about this theme. Specifically about Koovam. And in his trademark style said something on the lines of இந்த ஊர்ல பொண்ணே கட்டி கொடுக்கக்கூடாது. ஒரு நதியை சரியா பாதுகாக்க தெரியாதவங்களா….
Coming from Him, I find his adopted rurality of tone, slightly funny. But point received.
One question about the article though:
//Not just that, (Mannangatti’s) astonishing refusal to accept money for the act of kindness is nothing but a solid strike at the heart of Muthusamy’s argument.//
I am not sure why the writer says so.
Muthusamy’s indictment is not of humankind as a whole, although he does use the word ‘all of us’ (pooraa payalum). He specifically locates it to those who question the powers that be when they have done their bit to enable them. (‘how would you like it is the politician turned around and asked you…’)
This continues to be the central concern of the film. While the film does not embolden the false equivalence between commofolks’ failings and the perversities of the powerful, it certainly does make a high-demand of purity on the common-folk should they choose to question the powerful.
If read so, I think this climactic moment can be read a little more clearly:
//The climactic shot where Krishna severs his chained left arm to trigger the fatal fall of Venkatachalam appears to suggest even more vague yet deep implications.//
What are you willing to pay/suffer/let-go/lose to earn the moral authority to question/punish?
I am certainly not saying that is the only way to read the moment. But it such a deliberately staged sequence that one ought not to read it as a mere visual spectacle but quite integral to the thematic concerns of the film itself.
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shaviswa
January 18, 2020
ha ha ha @parupps I like some of his films and those that entertain. Apart from his comedy capers, I like most of his films from the 70s and 80s. It is only after he started taking himself too seriously that I stopped liking his movies.
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AdhithyaKR
January 18, 2020
As a kid, I’ve seen glimpses of Mahanadi and I was ushered out of the room every time with the explanation that the movie was too disturbing for a kid. What I retain are fragments like Kamal rescuing his daughter or son, or him chopping off his hand. I revisited this movie after the Myssking masterclass and this review – Surprisingly, the movie is still very very disturbing, even if I know the entire sequence of events about to unfold. Kamal’s acting and Ilayaraja’s music and the foreboding in every scene that something is going to go wrong all combine to make Mahanadi much more than the story it is fleshed out of. Good article.
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AdhithyaKR
January 18, 2020
The prison sequence had a big impact on me. I was of the opinion that prisons are where they keep all the “bad guys” and Mahanadi’s depiction of prison, as a place where people at someone else’s mercy, where their voice is suppressed and their past doesn’t matter, shook me.
Could you elaborate on why the editing pattern blew your mind? Also, how far can the editing deviate from what is written in the screenplay?
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brangan
January 19, 2020
So this is one of the editing things here. There are hard cuts till the scene where Kamal enters the room to have a drink. After Cochin Haneefa leaves, the transitions become ‘softer’ — with dissolves, foreshadowing Kamal’s state of mind (booze + woman nearby). And it mostly stays this way until Kamal discovers Thulasi with the other man and snaps back to sobriety — the dissolves stop and we are back to hard cuts.
Yeah, seen today, this is a very “obvious” kind of editing — compared to, say, what Aarti Bajaj does in TAMASHA. But at that time, this “obviousness” is what made me notice it, and it was like seeing the stuff I was reading about come to life (i,.e. from theory to practicals).
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sai16vicky
January 19, 2020
For all the tragedy in the movie, the ending is a pleasant surprise and in some sense ‘happy’. I wonder why Kamal resorted to it given that his serious movies usually have tragic and borderline depressing endings (‘Thevar Magan’, ‘Guna’, ‘Kurudhipunal’).
My theory is that Mysskin picked up the showy naming from this movie (each primary character is named after a river) for Yuddham Sei (J. Krishnamurti, Judas Iscariot). Someone should ask him 😉
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sai16vicky
January 19, 2020
One less discussed aspect of ‘Mahanadhi’ is the songs — each one is a gem placed beautifully in the script. ‘Pongalo pongal’ immerses us into the rural lifestyle and introduces Kamal’s character. ‘Sri Ranga Ranganathin’ makes us spend time with the family and brings in the faith angle (this would go on be crucial later). ‘Peiygala Nambaadhe’ prepares us for the worst fears that would come later in the movie. And so on. Though they are shot as montages, they “flow” organically with the movie.
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Voldemort
January 20, 2020
Thank you for this beautiful piece Mr. Jeeva!
And V, that was a beautiful comment on this great movie.
My father loves this movie so much, he made a 6 year old me and my 9 year old sister watch it fully when they played it on Kalignar TV. Of course, we didn’t understand it much. Later when we again caught it on TV, I was sobbing uncontrollably that my mother scolded my father for making the children cry so much for a movie!
As twisted as it may sound, when I feel upset and want to cry my heart out I see certain films – this is one of them. Once I cry over something, I feel lighter.
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sridharvisu76
January 21, 2020
Beautiful essay as usual. I watched this movie many times (one of those movies that are hard to watch more than once as @AnuWarrier had hinted.
What I do not get is why you think “Krishna trusting Dhanush” isnt explained well. When your “Editing” awe video is clearly showing how.
Also earlier portions of OPM sequences and “I am cauvery like river kaveri” etc shows how greed / just longing for a greener pasture makes us take decisions which we wouldnt have.
Coming to crux I actually think the whole “poor are good. rich are evil” is too manipulative and untrue and less nuanced. wrt God I have a different take. In fact watching this movie is what funnily made me move from rational humanist to get back to basics.
In fact the film’s reception esp the Director K’s comment is a hint and in fact used in “devotional” or rather philosophical circles to avoid getting a “easy answer of atheism” or “anarchy” or randomness of life.
If Kamal is the god (Creator of the movie) why is he making the citizens (audience living in his world) go through so much suffering. He does so not just to inform us (a documentary would have done that) but to help us mature and know about evil-rich-minority and give us confidence to live as good-poor-majority. I mean, after living through 3 hours of Mahanadi I do not think anyone would change their worldview and become that minority that you refer. Because of the simple reason that we tend to travel with protagonist.
Life in philosophical circles is to be taken like a movie. A virtual experience where we are the protagonist. Whatever we face “shame / ruthlessness / glory” etc we can still be protagonist, the genres just change 🙂
This movie and its explanation funnily (ironically) and discussing with fellowmates during and later in life is what gave confidence in living a Gandhian Satyameve Jayate lifestyle.
P.S.
Gandhi himself took vow of ‘satya’ after watching his generation’s Mahanadi aka Raja Hariscandra. After watching such a play where Raja Harischandra is repeatedly punished and suffering for his attachment to truth he holds on to the truth.
I used to find it funny reading Gandhi’s life during college (skipped all lessons in pilani and stuck to reading Gandhi and watching Kamal-rajini movies) how he saw Harischandra but still went to stuck with Satya. Now I see how after transformation post Mahanadi.
Mahanadi is a very special movie in that sense.
Kamal at his Mid-life (crisis) looks so charming and handsome but took on to suffer. What more inspiration is required ? 🙂
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Ravi
January 21, 2020
Just for the trivia
The Thulukkanam ‘taming’ scene is a direct lift from Tom Selleck’s An Innocent Man (1989)
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Zero
January 25, 2020
Ravi, how exactly, sir? Care to elaborate point to something?
Wikipedia synopsis for starters point to nothing unless one thinks fights between prison inmates is something this Hollywood film invented. (Or one just happened to see just these 2 movies in this kind of a setting at an impressionable age to randomly connect the two.) And I also took the effort to catch a glimpse of various bits from the prison scenes purely for academic reasons.
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Ravi
January 28, 2020
Zero, I watched them in the space of a few months. First Mahanadhi in ’94 and then the other. Remember this was 25 years ago – well before beaten-up villains accepting their humiliation (halfway through the movie) somewhat became the norm. Bad guys in both films give out the same reason for their injuries – one is something like ‘Vazhukki vizhundutaen’ and the other is ‘I slipped’ tells it was just more than an inspiration. Of course, the Hollywood version did not have the drawn out stunt scene like Mahanadhi but the end result was just too identical to call them as just 2 similar prison fight scenes.
Both movies are available in YT.
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Zero
January 29, 2020
Ravi,
I guess I was able to locate and jump directly to the moment thanks to a subtitle search (picked up the top one from here: https://www.subtitledb.org/subtitle/an-innocent-man) in a pirated copy, wherein the hero refuses to name the assailants to a jailor or someone of that type and instead claims to have fallen (he says, “I fell” lying on a hospital bed and all). Is that all? Or does the guy/gang who beat up the hero say the same later? Which is precisely what you’re saying here…
“Bad guys in both films give out the same reason for their injuries – one is something like ‘Vazhukki vizhundutaen’ and the other is ‘I slipped’ tells it was just more than an inspiration.”
I’m asking this (and instead of having to watch the whole movie!) simply because the synopsis said one of the guys (the main guy?) Jingles is actually murdered by the hero. I landed on that scene directly the last time around when I said I was able to “catch a glimpse of various bits from the prison scenes.”
If such a turnaround doesn’t even happen in the movie, you assumed this simply by the first incident where the hero says, “I fell” to avoid conflict? Like such a thing doesn’t happen anywhere else?
“I watched them in the space of a few months.”
I can’t be blamed for guessing it.
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Zero
January 29, 2020
Meant more like, can’t be blamed for presuming it…
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Zero
February 6, 2020
Ravi,
Any response?
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