| Agni Natchathiram | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Mani Ratnam |
| Written by | Mani Ratnam |
| Produced by | G. Venkateswaran |
| Starring | Prabhu Karthik Amala Nirosha |
| Cinematography | P. C. Sreeram |
| Edited by | B. Lenin V. T. Vijayan |
| Music by | Ilaiyaraaja |
Production company | |
Release date |
|
Running time | 155 minutes[1] |
| Country | India |
| Language | Tamil |
Agni Natchathiram (transl. Scorching Star) is a 1988 IndianTamil-languagemasala film that was written and directed byMani Ratnam. The film starsPrabhu,Karthik,Amala and newcomerNirosha, withVijayakumar,Jayachitra,Sumithra,Tara,S. N. Lakshmi and G. Umapathy in supporting roles. Its story revolves around two half-brothers who come into conflict with each other due to their claims for legitimacy as sons of a common father.
Ratnam intendedAgni Natchathiram to followMouna Ragam (1986); he completed the script but chose to prioritiseNayakan. Although some scenes were filmed during a break fromNayakan, production onAgni Natchathiram stalled for nearly a year and resumed in late 1987 afterNayakan's release.Agni Natchathiram was produced by Ratnam's brotherG. Venkateswaran; it was filmed byP. C. Sreeram, and edited byB. Lenin andV. T. Vijayan.
Agni Natchathiram was released on 15 April 1988, the week of the Tamil New Year festivalPuthandu, and became a box-office success, running in theatres for over 200 days. The film won twoFilmfare Awards South, threeTamil Nadu State Film Awards, and fiveCinema Express Awards. It became a trendsetter inTamil cinema, set a new standard in the use of lighting, and was remade inHindi asVansh (1992).
InMadras, half-brothers Gautham and Ashok are the sons of senior governmentIndian Administrative Service (IAS) official Vishwanath. Gautham's mother is Vishwanath's first wife Susheela, and Ashok's mother is Vishwanath's second wife Kamala. Both Gautham and Ashok inappropriately express their anger towards their father to others, and display open antipathy towards each other.
Gautham, a traineeIndian Police Service (IPS) officer, meets the Commissioner's daughter Anjali and they slowly become lovers. After graduating from the police academy, Gautham is appointedAssistant Commissioner in Madras. Around the same time, Ashok meets a mysterious girl and they also form a romantic relationship. Meanwhile, Vishwanath is appointed head of an inquiry commission to investigate a nefarious factory owner called Chidambaram.
One night, Ashok and his friends run into Gautham and Anjali; one of Ashok's friends teases Gautham, who arrests Ashok's friend on aninvented charge. Enraged, Ashok and his gang throw stones at Gautham's house, accidentally injuring Susheela. The next day, Gautham arrests Ashok after provoking him into attacking him. Because Vishwanath is out of town, Susheela helps Kamala bail Ashok and offers snide, unsolicited advice about raising her children to be law-abiding. Meanwhile, Chidambaram repeatedly tries to bribe Vishwanath but is rebuffed and orders an assault on Vishwanath.
On the day when Ashok's sister Mallika is meeting a prospective groom's family for amatchmaking ceremony, Vishwanath fails to arrive, causing the groom's family to question the seriousness of the marriage between Kamala and Vishwanath. Ashok is enraged; he goes to Vishwanath's house and berates him but realises his paternal grandmother has died; Gautham throws him out. Later, Ashok learns his girlfriend also comes from a broken family. The Commissioner learns of Gautham's romance with Anjali and, based on his father's behaviour, doubts his monogamy.
Mallika runs into Gautham and Anjali on a commuter train; Gautham protects her from ruffians hired by Chidambaram to harass her, and he and Anjali accompany Mallika home safely. Mallika addresses Gautham as her elder brother but before he can respond, Ashok arrives and throws him out. Another altercation occurs at a wedding. The next day, they get into a huge brawl in public. Vishwanath berates them both, lamenting his public humiliation at his sons' behaviour.
While Vishwanath is leaving his office, he is run over by a truck driven by one of Chidambaram's thugs and becomes comatose. Mutual fear brings the families closer as Susheela and Kamala wait by his bedside. Chidambaram arranges for Vishwanath's murder in the hospital. When the thugs attack, Gautham and Ashok foil the murder attempt by switching to the ambulance that Vishwanath was in. The next day, the brothers take the bandaged Vishwanath into the commission's office to submit evidence of Chidambaram's crimes. Chidambaram is arrested and the brothershigh five each other.
AfterMouna Ragam (1986),Mani Ratnam wrote the script forAgni Natchathiram, with which he intended to reach out to audiences he could not reach withMouna Ragam. However, whenMuktha Srinivasan approached Ratnam to make a film forKamal Haasan, which eventually becameNayakan, he agreed.[6]Agni Natchathiram was produced by Ratnam's brotherG. Venkateswaran, filmed byP. C. Sreeram, and edited byB. Lenin andV. T. Vijayan.Thota Tharani was the art director andMugur Sundar was the dance choreographer.[1]
It's the onset ofagni natchatiram [the height of summer]. It stars slowly and reaches a peak with the sun, and then it cools down. The visual seems very simple because it's just the sun coming out, but we actually had to time it and measure the length of the shot. We went one day, P.C. Sreeram and I, with a stopwatch. Unlike now, when we ramp the shot to the length we need, we had to shoot it to the length that we required, and we had to ensure that the start-to-finish had that escalation.
Agni Natchathiram is the second time afterMouna RagamKarthik collaborated with Ratnam.[8] It is the feature-film debut ofRadhika's sisterNirosha, who was not initially interested in pursuing an acting career, having previously declined an offer to act inNayakan, but at Radhika's suggestion she joined this film.[9]Vijayakumar, who had quit films and had settled in the United States, had returned to India for a different purpose when assistant directorK. Subash met and offered him a role inAgni Natchathiram. Vijayakumar initially refused but Subash remained adamant; when Ratnam narrated the script, Vijayakumar was impressed with the character and accepted the role.[10] G. Umapathy made his acting debut, playing the antagonist Chidambaram.[11]
In January 1987, after two weeks of filming forNayakan, Ratnam resumed work onAgni Natchathiram, filming scenes withPrabhu andAmala such as the song "Ninnukkori Varnam". Ratnam, however, could not manage filming for two films at the same time so work onAgni Natchathiram was halted for nearly a year,[6] resuming only afterNayakan's release in late 1987.[12] To make the film more commercially viable, a comedysubplot involving a middle-aged man (V. K. Ramasamy) and his chauffeur (Janagaraj) trying to cavort with an escort (Disco Shanti) without their wives' knowledge was created.[3][13] Twobackup dancers did not arrive for the filming of the dance song "Raaja Raajathi", so Sundar persuaded his sonPrabhu Deva to perform thebreakdance in the song.[14] The entire climax was filmed withstrobe light effects.[2]
Ilaiyaraaja composed the music for the soundtrack ofAgni Natchathiram andVaali wrote the lyrics.[15][16] Many of the songs are set inCarnatic ragas; "Vaa Vaa Anbe Anbe" is inShivaranjani,[17][18] "Thoongatha Vizhigal" is inAmritavarshini,[19][20] "Oru Poonga Vanam" is inSudhadhanyasi,[21] and "Ninnukkori Varnam" is inMohanam.[22][23] For "Raaja Raajathi", Ilaiyaraaja used no string instruments and composed the opening stanza with only two notes.[24][25]Anand–Milind adapted the song as "Tap Tap Tapori" forBaaghi (1990),[26] and "Ninnukori Varnam" was sampled by musicianKarthik for "Thooriga" from "Guitar Kambi Mele Nindru", an episode ofNavarasa (2021).[27] For theTelugu dubbed version titledGharsana, all the lyrics are written byRajasri.[28]
Agni Natchathiram was released on 15 April 1988, the week ofPuthandu, the Tamil New Year festival.[29] It ran in theatres for over 200 days, becoming asilver jubilee film and Ratnam's most-profitable film to that point.[30][31] The film was also dubbed in Telugu asGharshana.[32]
S. Shivakumar, writing forMid-Day, calledAgni Natchathiram "Mani's loosely scripted work to date" and said; "What emerges on the screen is frothy and cracks like fresh pop corn".[33] N. Krishnaswamy ofThe Indian Express wrote the film has "more light than heat", referring to the impact Sriram's technique had on the film, and criticised the comedy subplot.[34]Ananda Vikatan wrote Ratnam proved he could make an interesting and engaging film with just a small thread of script, and that he had imagined each scene differently and presented them interestingly, giving the film a rating of 45 out of 100.[35]Jayamanmadhan ofKalki criticised the film for Ratnam's direction and writing.[36]
| Event | Award | Recipient | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 36th Filmfare Awards South | Best Film – Tamil | G. Venkateswaran | [37] |
| Best Actor – Tamil | Karthik | [38] | |
| Tamil Nadu State Film Awards | Best Film | G. Venkateswaran | [38] |
| Special Prize for Best Actor | Karthik | ||
| Best Female Playback Singer | K. S. Chithra | ||
| 9th Cinema Express Awards | Best Film – Tamil | G. Venkateswaran | [39] |
| Best Director (Special Award) | Mani Ratnam | ||
| Best Actress (Special Award) | Amala[a] | ||
| Best New Face | Nirosha[b] | ||
| Best Music Director | Ilaiyaraaja[c] |
Indian film criticBaradwaj Rangan considersAgni Natchathiram a defining Tamil film for the youth of the 1980s.[12] It became a trendsetter in Tamil cinema for setting "a new standard in the use of lighting".[40] Lakshmipathy's dialogue "En pondatti oorrukku poyiruchu" ("My wife has gone to her town"),[41] often misquoted as "En pondatti oorukku poittaa", which is spoken in excitement when his wife leaves for her hometown, entered Tamil vernacular.[40] The misquotation also inspired a song of the same name inNenjam Marappathillai (2021).[42] In 2004,Rediff.com appreciatedAgni Natchathiram for its "[s]ubtlety, diffused lighting, realistic fights, plain logic, a controlled Prabhu and a livewire Kartik", calling it a "landmark movie which never got the recognition it deserved up north".[43] In 2018, Rangan calledAgni Natchathiram one of the best films in themasala genre, though he noted elements such as theloosu ponnu character played by Amala and the "flashy,MTV-era cinematography" did not age well.[44] The film was remade inHindi asVansh (1992).[45]
