''Karnaa'' is a 1995 Indian

Tamil language Tamil (; ' , ) is a Dravidian language natively spoken by the Tamil people of South Asia. Tamil is an official language of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, the sovereign nations of Sri Lanka and Singapore, and the Indian territory of P ...

action film Action film is a film genre in which the protagonist is thrust into a series of events that typically involve violence and physical feats. The genre tends to feature a mostly resourceful hero struggling against incredible odds, which include l ...

directed by

Selva Selva () is a coastal comarque (county) in Catalonia, Spain, located between the mountain range known as the Serralada Transversal or Puigsacalm and the Costa Brava (part of the Mediterranean coast). Unusually, it is divided between the provinc ...

. The film stars Arjun,

Ranjitha Ranjitha (born Sri Valli) is an Indian actress. She has acted in a number of Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu and Kannada films. Career In 1991, Ranjita, did her first Telugu film, under the screen name Madhu Bala ''Kadapa Reddemma''. It was written ...

and Vineetha. It was released on 14 April 1995 and was declared a super hit at the box office.

Plot

Vijay ( Arjun), a carefree and frolicsome youth, is sent by his father Deenadayalan (

Ravichandran Ravichandran is an Indian name. Notable people with the name include: * Ravichandran (Tamil actor) (1942–2011) * Ravichandran (Tamil film director) (born 1971) * N. Ravichandran (professor) (1955), professor at IIM Ahmedabad * N. Ravichandran, ...

) in

Ooty Ooty (), officially known as Udhagamandalam (also known as Ootacamund (); abbreviated as Udhagai), is a city and a municipality in the Nilgiris district of the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located north west of Coimbatore and so ...

to work and becoming a responsible businessman. There, he falls in love with the college student Anjali ( Vineetha). Her brothers Devaraj (

Mohan Raj Mohan Raj, better known by his stage name Keerikkadan Jose, is an Indian actor who works in Malayalam, Tamil, and Telugu-language films. Personal life Mohan Raj is married to Usha. They have two daughters, Jaishma and Kaaviya. He is settled a ...

) and Vimal Raj are dangerous criminals and they are against their love from the fact that Vijay's father is a police officer. Thereafter, Devaraj is sent to jail so his brother appoints the lawyer Karnaa (Arjun), who is disabled and very sensitive. Later, Karnaa falls in love with the schoolteacher Amudha (

), after few quarrels among them. One day, Deenadayalan sees Karnaa at the court who is identical to his son Vijay. In the past, Deenadayalan had twin boys but abandoned one of the twin babies because he was disabled. Karnaa is upset when he learns the truth and is now determined to win the case in front of his father. He ultimately wins the case and Devaraj is eventually released. Thereafter, Deenadayalan discloses the truth to his wife Lakshmi, who wants to bring back her son Karnaa at any cost. Meanwhile, Vijay is arrested by the police because of Devaraj's conspiracy. Karnaa rejects his parents' pleas and finds it outrageous to abandon a baby due to his handicap. Then, Karnaa promises to help Vijay, but he advises Vijay to escape from the jail. In the meantime, Devaraj shows his secret illegal business to Karnaa and Vijay takes some photos of his factory. Afterwards, Devaraj's goons kidnap their parents, Karnaa's adopted mother and Amudha. Vijay and Karnaa finally save them and send Devaraj to jail.

Cast

Arjun Sarja Srinivasa "Arjun" Sarja is an Indian actor, producer, and director who works predominantly in the Tamil film industry, in addition to Kannada and Telugu languages as well. Referred to by the media and his fans as " Action King" for his roles i ...

as Vijay and Karnaa *

as Amudha * Vineetha as Anjali *

Goundamani Subramaniyan Karuppaiya (born 25 May 1939), known by his stage name Goundamani, is an Indian actor and comedian who works in Tamil cinema. He is known for his comic duo partnership in Tamil films with fellow actor Senthil. The pair dominated t ...

as Khalnayak * Senthil as Driver *

as ACP Deenadhayalan, Vijay and Karnaa's father * Major Sundararajan as Advocate * Sujatha as Lakshmi, Vijay and Karnaa's mother * Sathyapriya as Karnaa's adopted mother *

as Devaraj *Vimalraj as Devaraj's brother * Kitty as Karnaa's foster father *Chakravarthy *C. R. Saraswathi as Manikkam's wife *Vasuki as Vatsala teacher *

Lalitha Kumari Lalitha Kumari (born 18 May 1967) is an Indian actress who worked in Tamil films. She is the daughter of Tamil actor C. L. Anandan and the younger sister of actress Disco Shanti. Personal life Lalitha Kumari married actor Prakash Raj in 1994 ...

as Chellamma *Lakshmipriya *Radhabhai *

Kumarimuthu Kumarimuthu (20 December 1940 – 28 February 2016) was a Tamil film character actor, comedian and politician of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). He was known for his unique comical laugh. Career Kumarimuthu starred in 728 films in his car ...

*Kallapart Natarajan *

Idichapuli Selvaraj Idichapuli Selvaraj ( – 30 January 2012) was a veteran Tamil comedy actor. He acted in more than five hundred films. He acted along with lot of actors. He also worked as an assistant director for the M. G. Ramachandran films like ''Idhayakkani ...

as Chellamma's father *Krishnamoorthy as Manikkam * T. K. S. Natarajan as Pimp *Prasanna Kumar as Advocate *Sakthivel as Henchman *Vijay Ganesh as Henchman *

Yuvarani Yuvarani (born 30 November 1974) is an Indian actress. She has appeared in several Tamil films in the female lead role while she has also featured in television serials. She played Rajinikanth Shivaji Rao Gaikwad (born 12 December 1950) ...

in a special appearance * Rani in a special appearance * Madhusudhan Rao as CBI officer (uncredited) *Radha in the song ("Aai Shabba")

Production

While filming the climactic action sequence, stuntman Sahul wanted to try out a bike stunt in a manner inspired by

Jackie Chan Fang Shilong (born 7 April 1954), known professionally in English as Jackie Chan and in Chinese as Cheng Long ( zh, c=成龍, j=Sing4 Lung4; "becoming the dragon"), is a Hong Kong actor, filmmaker, martial artist, and stuntman known for ...

. Though the producer was hesitant, Arjun was convinced. Sahul ultimately "pulled off the sequence in a single take".

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was composed by Vidyasagar, with lyrics written by

Vairamuthu Vairamuthu Ramasamy (born 13 July 1953) is an Indian lyricist, poet, and novelist working in the Tamil film industry. He is a prominent figure in the Tamil literary world. A master's graduate from the Pachaiyappa's College in Chennai, he first ...

. The song "Malare Mounama" is set in Darbari Kanada raga. "Aai Shabba" is based on the song "Chebba" by Algerian singer Khaled.

Reception

'' New Straits Times'' wrote, "Karna turns out to be a neat package of sentiment, love, action and songs".

References

External links

* {{Arjun Sarja 1990s Tamil-language films 1995 action films 1995 films Films directed by Selva (director) Films scored by Vidyasagar Indian action films Twins in Indian films