''Nam Naadu'' () is a 1969 Indian

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

-language action drama film directed by C. P. Jambulingam, starring

M. G. Ramachandran Maruthur Gopalan Ramachandran (17 January 1917 24 December 1987), also popularly known as M.G.R., was an Indian politician, actor, philanthropist, and filmmaker who served as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu from 1977 until his death in 1987 ...

and

Jayalalithaa Jayaram Jayalalithaa (24 February 1948 – 5 December 2016) was an Indian politician and actress who served as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for more than fourteen years over six terms between 1991 and 2016. From 9 February 1989 to 5 December 2 ...

. It is a remake of the 1969 Telugu film '' Kathanayakudu''. The film was released on 7 November 1969.

Plot

Dharmalingham, Aalavandar and Punniyakodi are three VIPs in a township who have established themselves as noble citizens of the country but in reality are traitors who dare to do any type of crimes for money. Durai is an honest government office clerk who wants to be sincere for the nation and to help the poor and needy. In order to save the rights of the poor he fights with higher society people which is disliked by brother Muthaiya who works for Dharmalingham and is an equally honest person as Durai. Though Muthaiya scolds Durai for his acts he is very affectionate to him and Durai is equally respectful and affectionate towards him and his family. Durai once picks a fight with Aalavandar in a shop — he insists on his standing in a queue like everyone else as there should be no special right for him over poor people. This creates tension between Aalavandar and Durai. Muthaiya worries that he will get into trouble because Aalavandar and Dharmalingham are good friends. Durai meets a tender-coconut selling girl Ammu (alias Alamelu) and gets attracted towards her nobility and honesty. Aalavandar takes revenge on Durai by making fake bribery complaint on him and because of which Durai loses his job. The enmity between Dharmalingham and Durai increases gradually because of which his brother shouts at him and ask him to get out of the house as Muthaiya believes Dharmalingham is honest and treat him like God. Ammu supports Durai and takes him to slum. Durai works for them and earn the love of slum people and people support him to contest and win in the municipal election. Durai takes action against the trio with his rights and enmity further increases. The trio plan and succeed to throw Durai away from the municipal office. Meanwhile, Muthaiya finds that Dharmalingham has looted a sum of Ten lakh Rupees which actually belong to the welfare of poor people. So he runs away with the money to save from them and he buries it in a place. But the trio catch him and shut him at a secret place when he refuse to open his mouth on the whereabouts of the money. Now Durai plans to take revenge on them and to reveal themself and their crimes by their own mouth. Did Durai succeed in his mission and found the money and his brother forms the rest of the story.

Cast

as Durai *

as Ammu (alias Alamelu) * S. V. Ranga Rao as Dharmalingham, the chairman * S. A. Ashokan as Aalavandar * K. A. Thangavelu as Punniyakodi * S. V. Ramdas as The doctor * T. K. Bhagavathi as Muthaiya *

R. S. Manohar Rasipuram Subramaniyan Iyer Manohar was an Indian actor who performed roles ranging from hero to villain to comedic characters. He was born at Namakkal in 1925. He acted in over 200 films. He is known for his versatility and dominating personal ...

as Vijay, Ammu's elder brother *

Ennatha Kannaiya Ennathe Kannaiah (1925 - 7 August 2012) was a comedian who appeared in Tamil-language films. In the Ravichandran-Jayalalita starrer Naan, as he spoke his dialogues, he frequently used the word Ennathe and this became his nickname. Decades later, ...

as Kannaiya the lame * Thengai Srinivasan as Kuppuswamy *

Nagesh Nagesh (born Cheyur Krishnarao Nageshwaran; (27 September 1933 – 31 January 2009) was an Indian actor, mostly remembered for his roles as a comedian in Tamil films during the 1960s. Nagesh was born in Dharapuram. He acted in over 1,000 fil ...

as Govindha * K. R. Ramswamy as Velayudham *

V. Nagayya V. Nagayya (born Vuppaladadiyam Nagayya Sarma; 28 March 1904 – 30 December 1978) also known as Chittoor Nagayya was an Indian actor, singer, music composer, and director known for his works in Telugu cinema, Tamil cinema, and Telugu theatre. ...

as Kandhaya * Mukkamala *

Pandari Bai Pandari Bai (1930 – 29 January 2003) was an Indian actress who worked in South Indian cinema, mostly in Kannada cinema during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. She is considered Kannada cinema's first successful heroine. She has acted as both heroi ...

as Bakiyum *

Kutty Padmini Kutty Padmini is an Indian actress who mainly works in Tamil cinema. She was a child star in her debut movie ''Ambala Anjulam'' (1959). She has also acted in Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi movies. She made her debut in Tamil cinema at ...

as Selvi * Baby Sridevi as Raja

Production

After the success of ''

Enga Veettu Pillai ''Enga Veettu Pillai'' () is a 1965 Indian Tamil-language masala film written by Sakthi T. K. Krishnasamy and directed by Chanakya. A remake of his own 1964 Telugu film ''Ramudu Bheemudu'', it stars M. G. Ramachandran and B. Saroja Devi, wi ...

'' (1965) produced by

B. Nagi Reddy Bommireddy Nagi Reddi (2 December 1912 – 25 February 2004) was an Indian film producer and director mainly in Telugu cinema. He set up Vijaya Vauhini Studios in Chennai, which was then Asia's biggest film studio. As his elder brother (who w ...

was considering an entry into politics, so he told Reddy that he wanted to make a film to gauge audience response to seeing him as a politician. Nagi Reddy suggested remaking the Telugu film '' Kathanayakudu''; Ramachandran agreed and remade the film as ''Nam Naadu''. The dialogues were written by K. Swornam. Unlike the Telugu original, ''Nam Naadu'' was made with many politically charged dialogues because, according to film historian Prakash Raman, "that was the time when MGR was about to launch his party".

Soundtrack

Music is composed by M. S. Viswanathan.

Release and reception

''Nam Naadu'' was released on 7 November 1969. ''

The Indian Express ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932. It is published in Mumbai by the Indian Express Group. In 1999, eight years after the group's founder Ramnath Goenka's death in 1991, the group was split be ...

'' wrote, "That contemporary politics can be made into a successful film is proved by Vijaya International's ''Nam Nadu''". The reviewer went on to say, "Colour is pleasing. The editing is component. Music by M. S. Viswanathan fails. The film is too long." Nagi Reddy recalled watching the film with Ramachandran: "When it was released, we both went to Mekala Theatre to watch the reaction of the viewers. Except for the manager, no one was aware of our presence. It was a pleasant evening and the doors had been kept wide open. MGR stood leaning on one side of the door and I was leaning on the other. There was a scene in which Jayalalitha, the heroine of the movie, appeared singing the song Vaangaiya Vaathiyaraiah while welcoming MGR after his victory in the elections." Reddy went on to say "The audience rose as one man, cheering, clapping, whistling. There were cries: 'We want to see the scene again! Repeat the scene!' We advised the manager to oblige the audience. The reel was rewound and the sequence was shown again. I turned to MGR. His eyes were filled with tears of joy. He hugged me. 'O Reddiar! I have received the people's acceptance.'

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, id=0187333 1960s action drama films 1960s Tamil-language films 1969 films Films scored by M. S. Viswanathan Indian action drama films Tamil remakes of Telugu films