Natpukkaga
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''Natpukkaga'' () is a 1998 Indian
Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...
-language
drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...
directed by
K. S. Ravikumar K. S. Ravikumar (born 30 May 1958) is an Indian film director, film producer, screenwriter and actor who primarily works in Tamil cinema and few Telugu films. He is one of the most commercially successful directors of Indian cinema. He has won m ...
, starring
R. Sarathkumar Ramanathan Sarathkumar (born 14 July 1954) is an Indian actor, politician and former bodybuilder who works predominantly in Tamil cinema in addition to Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi films. He has acted in more than 150 films and won two ...
in dual roles as a father and son,
Simran Simran (Gurmukhi: ਸਿਮਰਨ, pronunciation: ; ; from Sanskrit: , ''smaraṇa'', 'to remember, reminisce, recollect'), in spirituality, is a Hindi and Punjabi word referring to the continuous remembrance of the finest aspect of the self, ...
, Vijayakumar and Sujatha. It became a blockbuster upon release. The film won two
Filmfare Awards South The Filmfare Awards South are annual awards that honour artistic and technical excellence in the Telugu cinema, Tamil cinema, Malayalam cinema and Kannada cinema. They are presented by ''Filmfare'' magazine of The Times Group. When it was intr ...
and
Tamil Nadu State Film Awards Tamil Nadu State Film Awards were given for excellence in Cinema of Tamil Nadu, Tamil cinema in India. They were given annually to honour the best talents and provide encouragement and incentive to the South Indian film industry by the Governmen ...
, both ceremonies conferring Best Film and Best Actor (Sarathkumar). It was remade in
Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of South India ** Telugu literature, is the body of works written in the Telugu language. * Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Tel ...
by Ravikumar as ''
Sneham Kosam ''Sneham Kosam'' () is a 1999 Indian Telugu-language drama film produced by A. M. Ratnam under the Sri Surya Movies banner. Directed by K. S. Ravikumar, the film stars Chiranjeevi in a dual role of father and son, along with Vijayakumar, ...
'' (1999), in
Kannada Kannada () is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly in the state of Karnataka in southwestern India, and spoken by a minority of the population in all neighbouring states. It has 44 million native speakers, and is additionally a ...
as '' Diggajaru'' (2001) and in Bengali as '' Dada Thakur'' (2001).


Plot

Chinnayya works for an aged landlord named Karunakaran aka Ayya in a village in
Coimbatore Coimbatore (Tamil: kōyamputtūr, ), also known as Kovai (), is one of the major Metropolitan cities of India, metropolitan cities in the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located on the banks of the Noyy ...
district. Chinnayya has great respect and affection towards Karunakaran and he takes care of Chinnayya and looks after him as his own son. Karunakaran is extremely wealthy and his family is hereditarily respected in their village & surroundings. Karunakaran hates his eldest daughter Gowri and her husband Perusu for unknown reasons. 15 years earlier, he had ostracised them and gave a large share of his then wealth to Gowri. Prabhavathy, Karunakaran's younger daughter, arrives at the village after completing her education in the United States. After a series of incidents, Prabhavathy begins to love Chinnayya but he does not reciprocate, thinking that this would be a betrayal to Karunakaran's trust in him. But eventually, Chinnayya too understands Prabhavathy's love and reciprocates. One day, suddenly, Prabhavathy accuses Chinnayya of trying to rape her. This angers Karunakaran, and he slaps Chinnayya and sends him away from his home. At this time, Chinnayya's father Muthaiya is released from jail after 14 years and comes to meet Karunakaran. Muthaiya also worked under Karunakaran earlier and was a trusted aide, but Prabhavathy gets angry at seeing Muthaiya and asks him to leave the house because he had been jailed for murdering Karunakaran's wife Lakshmi. Prabhavathy also reveals that she staged a drama to send Chinnayya away from her father. Karunakaran is shocked knowing the truth and feels bad that he misunderstood Chinnayya, believing his daughter's deception. Chinnayya deeply hates his father Muthaiya since childhood as he believes Muthaiaya killed Lakshmi for money. He refuses to accept his father into his house and Karunakaran is forced to come to his rescue, and tells Chinnayya the truth, after apologising to Chinnayya for the earlier incident. Muthaiya was a childhood friend and loyal servant in Karunakaran's home. Karunakaran and his family treat Muthaiya as one of their own, despite others disregarding Muthaiya due to his lower caste. Perusu is Lakshmi's younger brother who was then a simple farmer, and he has a younger brother, Chinnaraasu . Since Karunakaran does not want to send his daughter to a place far off, her wedding is arranged with Perusu, with an agreement that Perusu will stay in Gowri's home. On the day of the wedding, Lakshmi learns about Perusu's affair with another woman and decides to cancel the wedding; Perusu grievously injures Lakshmi, hides her in a room, and proceeds to the wedding stage. However, Muthaiya finds Lakshmi and learns the truth about Perusu. The wedding is over before he can prevent it, so he does not want Perusu to go to jail as that would impact Gowri's life. Lakshmi dies from her injuries and Muthaiya admits that he had murdered her for money and is arrested by the police. This leads Gowri and Prabhavathy to hate him and his family. Karunakaran does not believe this, so he meets Muthaiya in jail and asks him for the truth. Muthaiya tells the truth to Karunakaran and is promised that Karunakaran will not reveal this truth to anyone else as Gowri would be alone then. Karunakaran agrees but sends Perusu away from his house. Karunakaran brings the then-12 year old boy Chinnayya to his house to care for him and the entire family protests. Perusu alleges that Chinnayya may be an illegitimate son of Karunakaran, resulting in such deep affection. Deeply angered by these words, Karunakaran banishes his son-in-law. Gowri also leaves his home without knowing the truth and understanding her father. The story returns to the present, and the wedding of Prabhavathy's and Perusu's brother Chinnarasu is planned. On the wedding day, Perusu's mistress comes back with her brother saying that he wishes to marry Perusu's daughter. During this event, the truth about Lakshmi's death is revealed which is witnessed by Gowri. Perusu tries to kill Gowri so that the wedding would not stop and they can take all of Karunakaran's properties. But, Muthaiya comes to Gowri's aid and saves her. Gowri apologises to him for misunderstanding him as Lakshmi's murderer. Gowri reveals the truth to everybody during the wedding. Perusu then tries to kill Gowri with a sword but Muthaiya saves her but instead he gets stabbed. Perusu is killed by Chinnaraasu with the sword, who felt remorseful after discovering the truth that Perusu killed their own sister, Lakshmi. After learning the truth, Prabavathy apologises to Muthaiya and hands over her to Karunakaran and succumbs to his fatal wound. Before dying, Muthaiya tells Chinnaya to take care of Karunakaran. Karunakaran then cries in front of Muthaiya's dead body and also dies. The movie ends with the marriage of Chinnayya and Prabhavathy.


Cast


Production

The story of ''Natpukkaga'' was written by the then 17-year old Jyothi Krishna, son of producer
A. M. Rathnam A. M. Rathnam is an Indian film producer, lyricist, screenwriter, and director known for his works in Telugu and Tamil cinema. Under Sri Surya Movies Entertainment, a movie production house he owns in Hyderabad, he has produced blockbusters i ...
. The initial choice for Vijayakumar's role was
Sivaji Ganesan Villupuram. Chinnaiya Manrayar Ganesamoorthy (1 October 1928 – 21 July 2001), better known by his stage name Sivaji Ganesan, was an Indian actor and film producer. He was mainly active in Tamil cinema during the latter half of the 20th centur ...
who left the film for unknown reasons. Director
K. S. Ravikumar K. S. Ravikumar (born 30 May 1958) is an Indian film director, film producer, screenwriter and actor who primarily works in Tamil cinema and few Telugu films. He is one of the most commercially successful directors of Indian cinema. He has won m ...
initially approached
Mammootty Muhammad Kutty Panaparambil Ismail (born 7 September 1951), known mononymously by the hypocorism Mammootty (), is an Indian actor and film producer who works predominantly in Malayalam-language films. He has also appeared in Tamil, Telugu, ...
to play the lead role. For reasons unknown, he declined the offer.
Sarathkumar Ramanathan Sarathkumar (born 14 July 1954) is an Indian actor, politician and former bodybuilder who works predominantly in Tamil cinema in addition to Telugu cinema, Telugu, Malayalam cinema, Malayalam, Kannada cinema, Kannada and Hindi cinema ...
was then chosen to play the lead. The team had initially considered
Soundarya Sowmya Sathyanarayana (18 July 1972 – 17 April 2004), better known by her stage name Soundarya, was an Indian actress known for her works primarily in Telugu cinema. She was regarded as one of the greatest actresses in the history of Telugu ...
,
Meena Meena () is a tribe from northern and western India which is sometimes considered a sub-group of the Bhil community. It used to be claimed they speak Mina language, a Spurious languages, spurious language. Its name is also transliterated as ' ...
and then
Keerthi Reddy Keerthi Reddy is an Indian former actress who appeared primarily in Telugu, Tamil films also appeared in Hindi and Kannada films. Her notable work includes '' Tholi Prema'' (1998), ''Pyaar Ishq Aur Mohabbat'' (2001) and '' Arjun'' (2004). She h ...
to play the leading female role; their unavailability led to
Simran Simran (Gurmukhi: ਸਿਮਰਨ, pronunciation: ; ; from Sanskrit: , ''smaraṇa'', 'to remember, reminisce, recollect'), in spirituality, is a Hindi and Punjabi word referring to the continuous remembrance of the finest aspect of the self, ...
being cast. The song "Garuda Garuda" was shot at Bangkok.


Soundtrack

The soundtrack was composed by
Deva Deva may refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Deva, List of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition monsters, an ''Advanced Dungeons & Dragons'' 2nd edition monster * Deva, in the 2023 Indian film ''Salaar: Part 1 – Ceasefir ...
. Lyrics were by Kavignar Kalidasan. Sarathkumar and Vijayakumar made their singing debut with this film, performing "Namma Ayya Nallvarungo".


Release and reception

Film critic D. S. Ramanujam wrote the film has been "delectably structured" and that "Sarath Kumar portrays both the roles with maturity". Ji of ''
Kalki Kalki (), also called Kalkin, is the prophesied tenth and final incarnation of the Hinduism, Hindu god Vishnu. According to Vaishnavism, Vaishnava cosmology, Kalki is destined to appear at the end of the Kali Yuga, the last of the four ages i ...
'' said the film could be watched for its vivacity. K. Vijiyan of ''
New Straits Times The ''New Straits Times'' is an English-language newspaper published in Malaysia. It is Malaysia's oldest newspaper still in print (though not the first), having been founded as a local offshoot of Singapore-based ''The Straits Ti ...
'' wrote that though the story was familiar, "Ravikumar keeps it interesting by letting us guess until the end what caused the split in the family".


Accolades


Remakes

''Natpukkaga'' was remade by Ravikumar in
Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of South India ** Telugu literature, is the body of works written in the Telugu language. * Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Tel ...
as ''
Sneham Kosam ''Sneham Kosam'' () is a 1999 Indian Telugu-language drama film produced by A. M. Ratnam under the Sri Surya Movies banner. Directed by K. S. Ravikumar, the film stars Chiranjeevi in a dual role of father and son, along with Vijayakumar, ...
'' (1999) and in
Kannada Kannada () is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly in the state of Karnataka in southwestern India, and spoken by a minority of the population in all neighbouring states. It has 44 million native speakers, and is additionally a ...
as '' Diggajaru'' (2000).


References


External links

* {{TamilNaduStateFilmAwardBestFilm 1990s Indian films 1990s Tamil-language films 1997 drama films 1997 films Films directed by K. S. Ravikumar Films scored by Deva (composer) Films with screenplays by K. S. Ravikumar Indian drama films Tamil films remade in other languages Tamil-language Indian films