Why Rajinikanth's Kabali was no Nayagan

Spoiler ahead...

With the Rajini hysteria slowly disappearing, it’s safe to begin with a disclaimer that the article is completely subjective about the common traits that were apparent between Rajinikanth’s Kabali and Kamal Haasan’s Nayagan.

If Marlon Brando’s Godfather sets the benchmark for gangster films in Hollywood, so does Kamal Haasan’s Nayagan for the Indian audience, although the film was loosely based on the real life Mumbai don, Varadaraja Mudaliar.

After the stupendous success of the film which made it to feature in one of Time magazine’s 100 greatest films of all time, Indian cinema was bitten by the gangster bug and Tamil cinema was no exception.

Though people have raved about Kamal Haasan’s stellar performance portraying the real life don, it was the triumph of Mani Ratnam’s storyline.

Also read: Kabali is proof Rajinikanth is beyond human

When Kabali materialised, I happened to watch an interview where director Pa Ranjith said that he had tried to bring back the Mullum Malarum Rajinikanth in Kabali. But the film reminded me of Mani Ratnam's Nayagan that starred Kamal Haasan in the lead role. Indeed Kabali and Nayagan have many striking similarities.

In Kabali, I could sense the possible connection with Nayagan, when a rehab student asks, “Neenga enn sir gangster aaninga?” (Why did you become a gangster?) And the film goes into a flashback of a young, rebellious Rajini.

This particular portion is testimony to the iconic climax in Nayagan, where a kid asks Velu Naicker (Kamal Haasan) if he’s good or evil (Neenga nallavara Kettavara?).

The common streak is that both the protagonists are left with a lump of guilt.

Also read: Superstar Rajinikanth's Kabali left me disappointed

In Nayagan, apart from the story, the screenplay speaks for itself. For instance, take the scene where Velu Naicker, a Mumbai-based Tamil don attends the meeting organised by his counterparts.

This is the first scene, where the audience is exposed to Velu Bhai’s quest for power, as he confronts his rival gang for a drug consignment.

Set against the picturesque Malaysia, Kabali has a similar scene where Kabali, the Malaysian-based Tamil don, confronts the Malaysian antagonist Tony Lee.

What if Nayagan's Velu Naicker had a daughter who is not against her father? What if Velu Naicker's wife Neela (Saranya) lived? These are some of the questions from Nayagan that seem to have been answered in Kabali.

Remember Charumathi (Karthika), the boastful daughter, who’s against the ideologies of her father Velu Naicker in Nayagan?

Kabali’s daughter Yogi (Dhanshika) is sketched an inch close to Charumathi’s character but the only difference is that she’s a gangster, who comes as a contract killer only to reveal that she’s the daughter of Kabali in a rather expected twist.

Even if Nayagan doesn’t stand out for its story and performances, supporting actors like Janagaraj, Delhi Ganesh and Karthika did leave a permanent imprint in the heart of the audience. Especially Janagaraj, who plays Velu Naicker’s sidekick in the film.

For an audacious attempt like Kabali, the biggest blunder of the film is the naive casting and apart from its leads, Kabali falls short of performance as far as the supporting cast is concerned. Actor John Vijay (Ameer) tries too hard to impersonate actor Janagaraj from Nayagan but fails miserably in the film and it doesn’t quite surprise us because the role was initially offered to actor Prakash Raj.

Of course, the lunatic Tiger ("Johnny" Hari) with an eccentric mannerism is the new Ajit Kelkar (Tinnu Anand) in Kabali. The sheer success of Nayagan was the disturbing climax, which took time for the audience to soak in.

However, maybe every gangster film has a fixed plot, maybe we are so impressed by Nayagan that every gangster film reminds us of one.

Also, Rajinikanth was so impressed with Nayagan that he wanted Mani Ratnam to make a similar film.

According to a Telugu daily, Rajinikanth gave a nod to Kabali after hearing Pa Ranjith’s script which had its similarities with Nayagan.

In a nutshell, Kabali, a film that is solely based on Rajinikanth’s performance, could have easily been his Nayagan. But it ends up being a bland gangster film.