NAYAK (2001)- SHANKAR AT HIS BEST
NAYAK (2001)- SHANKAR AT HIS BEST
I like larger than life movies. I love movie with all commercial masala in it. But condition is that it should be well balanced. It should have fast pace, powerful dialogues, performances and excellent technique. Nayak-The Real Hero fulfills all those expectations. It is intense, emotional as well as humorous and fast paced.
Shankar has got grip in handling true commercial movies. I have seen his Hum se hai Muqabla, Gentleman, Hindustani and Aparichit. (All dubbed in hindi). Though all of his films have almost same story (a common man fighting against corrupt system by having special power); he treats the subject differently and make audience engaged in the film as well as enjoy the film.
As per my POV Nayak-The Real Hero is Shankar’s best work till date. The major difference and innovative point in story of Nayak is that here hero becomes chief minister for a day. How he works and how public elects him as wholetime chief minister that is rest part of it. It shows working of government and corrupt system around us in humerous as well as serious manner. Two most important scenes (the Mumbai riot/chakka jam scene and Paresh Rawal’s lecture to Anil kapoor to join the politics) of the film which involves huge crowd; are picturised in a manner that I must say Shankar is excellent in handling these type of scenes. The whole sequence of traffic jam and riots in Mumbai is very well picturised.
Besides story; dialogues (perhaps Anurag Kashayp????) is another factor for which I see Nayak again and again. My favourite scene is Paresh Rawal’s lecture to Anil Kapoor to join the politics. “Agar Gandhiji beta beta, biwi biwi kehkar ghar pe baithe rehte to tum aaj kisi angrej ka letrin saaf kar rahe hote (taaliyaan…).
Another humerous dialogue comes when Injured Anil Kapoor is sleeping and in early morning all politicians come and ask him to join their party. One politician asks “kya faisla kiya aapne?” and immediately Johnny Lever answers “Sandaas Jaaneka. Bhagwan ne pet diya to khane ka hi. Hisaab nahin dene kaa.(taaliyaan!). and “subah subah mantralaya, what about Sauchalaya?” I also enjoyed Johny Lever’s punch line “kya be chakkey”. The comic scene where Saurabh Sukla tries to interupt the telecast of interview by showing his chappal and paresh rawal says “chappal neeche kar, yeh assembly nahin hai. TV pe live telecast ho raha hai. tera chappal dikh raha hai aur usme laga hua gobar(shit) bhi”.
Against powerful performance by Anil Kapoor; there is Amrish Puri who superbly leads the bad guy side. Remember the Amrish Puri and Anil Kapoor interview scene. How Amrish Puri’s voice tone and facial expressions are changing after each question. Most of superb one liners and dialogues are given to Paresh Rawal and he makes them more humerous and heart renching by his performance. Saurabh Shukla and Johny Lever support their respective sides superbly. Rani Mukerjee has not much to do.
Nayak has sharp editing and sound cinematography. Rememeber the scene when Injured Anil Kapoor joins the politics and whole crowd welcomes him- the collages of the crowd, election, politicians, televisions and background commentry of Shivaji winning the election with hair evoking background music. it was quite innovative in 2001.
There are memorable scenes
-when police comes to arrest the ministers all of them rushes to toilet
- Amrish puri breaks hand of a follower from his car
- As a one day chief minister he rushes to different places, identify corrupt people and give them punishment.
While watching this highly dramatic movie audience do not get time even for toilet and that is the success of writer, director and whole team.
Weakest point of the film is music (A.R. Rehman). May be it was proper for south India but for hindi it is irrelevant and outdated. Songs are excellently and innovatively picturised but not suitable to the treament of the film. It seems that they are meant to show special effects or for another picture or music video. I wonder Anand Bakshi can write “rukhi sukhi roti tere haathon se khake aaya bada mazaa”, “chalo chale mitwa in oonchi neechi raahon se” “shakalaka baby” and “Saiyaa pakad baiyaa”
Though somehow I felt that in effort of showing technical brilliance,action (the mud action sequence and flying tractors) and performances; Shankar messed up the message of the film. There are some ridiculous scenes also… like Anil Kapoor in Sikh getup capturing the corrupt people or his fight with a goon on bus. Climax could have been better by having crowd and dialogues. But I (and perhaps most of the people) neglected these things while watching the film because life line of any film- (story line, treatment and performances )are excellent in Nayak.
Nayak-The Real Hero is remake of one of the hits of South India but it got flopped in hindi; why I don’t know? My uncle has seen it more than 10 times. I am still enjoying the film every time it comes on TV. It is definitely a Paisa vasool film.
-Shailesh Limbachiya
Tags: amrish puri, anil kapoor, Direction, johnny lever, nayak, Paresh Rawal, shankar
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
wont say much
my dad, biggest nayak fan
i brought the tickets for devdas,
he didnt come
why?
nayak was playing on set max..
NAYAK … was a miss fire … i remember seeing “Mudhalvan” in theatre, i was in my 10th grade then .. thoroughly njoyed it !! but in retrospect … i feel shankar has got into this formula thingy !! and his best works were his initial films … Gentleman and Indian (probably masterpiece )
I was soo pleased to see ‘Sivaji’ !! just loved it !! it had everything i wanted from a Rajni Khanth film !!!
Saw it three times in theatre !!!
got to write a post on Shankar !!!
the only part i liked abt Nayak is when Anil kapoor becomes CM for 1 day …rest is over-hyped …
I think that Nayak might well be the most popular movie on Set-Max. I have seen many times people appreciating Nayak when it is played on this channel. Not much can be said about the movie. You liked it, I didnt.
indian is shankar’s best really .. i had seen mudhalvan tamil version much before nayak was made and was actually looking forward to see how shankar would adapt it for hindi audiences ..i saw it FDFS and was found the movie a little jarring ..i dont know how to put it in words for me the plot was move to maharashtra but the movie’s sentimentality was rooted in south which somehow didnt quite jell at all.
Shankar is repeating himself over and over again with his Common man against a corrupt system theme in movie after movie and somehow it has worked every time !
I think Shankar “The Director” is not willing to take the same risk as Shankar “The Producer”
May be this will change in the future…
Set Max=Nayak
I also thouroughly enjoyed Nayak ( Apart from the mud-action scene ). Nice review.
you made a stupid shitty muddy movie look like the greatest movie of the century man, its a bad movie-PERIOD.
BTW, after over-(ab)using it SET Max has finally given it to Zee Cinema.
I loved the one day’s CM part and thats it.
PK, i have not said that it is greatest movie. but it was a good masala movie and i liked it.
@sunnylalany
“I brought the tickets for devdas,
he didnt come
why?
nayak was playing on set max..”
lol
:d/…i cant stop laughing
Actually nayak is very popular on our society katta… we recite the dialogues recollect the scenes and have a blast laughing our stomachs out… the action scenes are hilarious… i never miss the movie when set max plays… Ya as most of u the 1 day CM part of the movie is rocking… and the background score by AR rahman whenever he suspends someone (the sanskrit chanting) is awesome…. Anil kapoor delivers a knockout performance…. overall a super entertainer
Amrish Puri was indispensable during the 80s and 90s and bollywood producers and directors never thought of making any film without the versatile actor.
NAYAK would have been SUPER-DUPER-HIT ONLY IF AAMIR KHAN HAD PLAYED THE ROLE INSTEAD OF ANIL KAPUR.
BUT I READ THAT AAMIR REJECTED THE ROLE – MUST BE BECAUSE HE KNEW THAT SHANKAR WOULD TRY TO SHOW-OFF HIS DIRECTOR-SKILLS BY MESSING UP WITH THE SCRIPT.