Mudhalvan (1999)

Original title

முதல்வன்

Directed by

S. Shankar

Genre

political thriller film

Country

India

Runtime

2h 49m

Rating

6.9 of 10 from 42 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A TV journalist interviews the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu and is challenged to run the state for a day. He accepts and enacts sweeping reforms, which leads to him being elected as the new Chief Minister.

fast-pacedintenseupliftingdramatictensethought-provokingenergetic

What happens

Mudhalvan (transl. 'Chief Minister') is a 1999 Indian Tamil-language political action drama film co-produced, co-written and directed by Shankar. The film stars Arjun, Manisha Koirala, and Raghuvaran in lead roles, while Vadivelu and Manivannan appear in supporting roles. The film featured an award-winning soundtrack composed by A. R. Rahman, cinematography by K. V. Anand, and dialogue by Sujatha. Many members of the DMK government of Tamil Nadu (which was the ruling party at that time) believed that the antagonist was modelled on M. Karunanidhi, the CM & Supreme Leader of the DMK. Subsequently, the film received release issues and oppressive pressure from the DMK. The film revolves around an ambitious TV journalist, Pugazhendi, who gets his first interview with the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. Pugazh asks controversial questions regarding the Chief Minister's inactions, to which the CM challenges him to face his unresolved issues by becoming his replacement CM for a day. After initially rejecting the offer, Pugazh agrees and manages to implement immense and effective changes to the government, to the point where state voters eventually elect him as their new Chief Minister. The subsequent unpopularity and jealousy that the old Chief Minister goes through results in him taking revenge on Pugazh, and how he is stopped forms the crux of the story. The film was released on 7 November 1999, as a Diwali release. Within days of the release of the film, Madurai had a high number of pirated videos and cable operators requested with airing the film multiple times on their channels. Despite opposition from the DMK government & its associated party, the film received critical acclaim and was a major commercial success, becoming the second highest-grossing Tamil film of 1999. The film ran for over 100 days in theatres and won awards on a regional scale. The film was later remade in Hindi as Nayak: The Real Hero (2001) by the same director. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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