Natpukkaga

Natpukkaga (transl. For Friendship) is a 1998 Indian Tamil-language drama film directed by K. S. Ravikumar, starring R. Sarathkumar in dual roles as a father and son, Simran, Vijayakumar and Sujatha. It became a blockbuster upon release. The film won two Filmfare Awards South and Tamil Nadu State Film Awards, both ceremonies conferring Best Film and Best Actor (Sarathkumar). It was remade in Telugu by Ravikumar as Sneham Kosam (1999), and in Kannada as Diggajaru (2000). It is Sarath Kumar's 75th film.

Natpukkaga
DVD cover
Directed byK. S. Ravikumar
Screenplay byK. S. Ravikumar
Story byJyothi Krishna
Produced byA. M. Rathnam
StarringR. Sarathkumar
Vijayakumar
Simran
Sujatha
CinematographyAshok Rajan
Edited byK. Thanikachalam
Music byDeva
Production
company
Sri Surya Movies
Release date
  • 25 June 1998 (1998-06-25)
Running time
162 minutes
CountryIndia
LanguageTamil

Plot

Chinnayya works for an aged landlord named Karunakaran aka Ayya in a village in Coimbatore district. Chinnayya has great respect and affection towards Karunakaran and Karunakaran too 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 ostracized 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, Muthaiya (also Sarath Kumar), Chinnayya's father, 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.

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 home. Karunakaran brings the then-12 year old boy Chinnayya to his home 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 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 stab 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.[1][2] The initial choice for Vijayakumar's role was Sivaji Ganesan who left the film due to unknown reasons.[3] Director K. S. Ravikumar initially approached Mammootty to play the lead role.[4] For reasons unknown, he declined the offer. Sarathkumar was then chosen to play the lead. The team had initially considered Soundarya, Meena and then Keerthi Reddy to play the leading female role; their unavailability led to Simran being cast.[5]

Soundtrack

There are six songs composed by Deva. Lyrics were by Kavignar Kalidasan.[6][7] Sarathkumar and Vijayakumar made their singing debut with this film, performing "Namma Ayya Nallvarungo".[8]

SongsSingers
"Namma Ayya Nallvarungo"Mano, Malaysia Vasudevan, Sarathkumar, Vijayakumar
"Adikkira Kai Anaikkuma"Harini
"Chinna Chinna Mundhiriya"Mano, K. S. Chithra
"Garuda Garuda"Krishnaraj, Sujatha
"Meesaikkaara Nanbaa"Deva
"Meesakkaara Nanbaa" (Sad)Krishnaraj

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".[9] Ji of Kalki said the film could be watched for its vivacity.[10] K. Vijiyan of New Straits Times wrote, "Natpukaga shows every sign that it will do well at the box-office".[11]

Accolades
Event Award Awardee Ref.
46th Filmfare Awards South Best Film – Tamil Natpukkaga [12]
[13]
Best Actor – Tamil R. Sarathkumar
Tamil Nadu State Film Awards Best Film Natpukkaga [14]
Best Actor R. Sarathkumar

Remakes

Natpukkaga was remade by Ravikumar in Telugu as Sneham Kosam (1999),[15][16] in Kannada as Diggajaru (2000),[17] in Bengali as Dada Thakur (2001) and in Bengali Bangladesh as Janer Jaan (2001).

References
  1. Kamath, Sudhish (28 December 2003). "Filmmaker with a difference". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 23 December 2014. Retrieved 23 December 2014.
  2. Rajitha (4 August 1998). "Put to the test". Rediff.com. Archived from the original on 17 June 2022. Retrieved 17 June 2022.
  3. "கவர் ஸ்டோரிகள்". Kalki (in Tamil). 17 May 1998. pp. 88–89. Archived from the original on 29 May 2023. Retrieved 29 May 2023.
  4. கெட்டதா இருந்தாலும் Commercial படமும் வேண்டும்! - K. S. Ravikumar | Peranbu Audio Launch (in Tamil). Shruti TV. 15 July 2018. Event occurs at 4:35. Archived from the original on 2 June 2023. Retrieved 13 January 2022 – via YouTube.
  5. "Shrewd Simran". Minnoviyam. September 1998. Archived from the original on 17 June 2022. Retrieved 17 June 2022.
  6. "நட்புக்காக (1998)". Raaga.com. Archived from the original on 5 August 2020. Retrieved 29 August 2020.
  7. "Natpukkaga / Moovendar". AVDigital. Archived from the original on 17 June 2022. Retrieved 17 June 2022.
  8. "Year highlights". Dinakaran. 1 January 1999. Archived from the original on 12 January 2001. Retrieved 29 August 2020.
  9. Ramanujam, D. S. (26 June 1998). "Tamil Film Review : "Natpukkaga"". Google Groups. Archived from the original on 10 June 2022. Retrieved 10 June 2022.
  10. ஜி (5 July 1998). "நட்புக்காக". Kalki (in Tamil). p. 83. Archived from the original on 13 September 2022. Retrieved 17 June 2022.
  11. Vijiyan, K. (4 July 1998). "Story well told about enmity between families". New Straits Times. p. 40. Retrieved 4 March 2023.
  12. G.L, Savitha (25 April 1999). "Filmfare awards presented at a dazzling function". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 17 June 2022. Retrieved 17 June 2022.
  13. Waheed, Sajahan (24 June 1999). "Indian film awards on Vaanavil". New Straits Times. p. 48. Retrieved 4 March 2023.
  14. "Film awards announced". The Hindu. 18 July 2000. Archived from the original on 23 March 2012. Retrieved 17 June 2022.
  15. Rajitha (13 October 1998). "Cyclone warnings". Rediff.com. Archived from the original on 1 April 2018. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
  16. "Throwback Thursday: 5 epic box-office clashes between Chiranjeevi and Balakrishna". The Times of India. 1 November 2018. Archived from the original on 29 September 2020. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
  17. "Diggajaru Shoot planned in China". Screen. 21 July 2000. Archived from the original on 19 November 2000. Retrieved 17 June 2022.
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