Agni Natchathiram

Ashok is the son of a senior government official Vishwanath and his second wife Kamala. Vishwanath has another son, Gautham, a trainee police officer, whose mother is Susheela. Both Ashok and Gautham inappropriately take out their anger at their father on others, and they display open antipathy towards each other.

Gautham meets the Commissioner's daughter, Anjali, and they slowly become a couple. Upon graduating, Gautham is appointed as Assistant Commissioner. Around the same time, Ashok meets a mysterious girl and they too slowly become a couple. Meanwhile, Vishwanath is appointed the head of an inquiry commission to probe a nefarious factory owner Chidambaram.

One night, Ashok and his friends run into Gautham and Anjali, and one of Ashok's friends teases Gautham. Gautham soon arrests Ashok's friend on a trumped up charge, abusing his police authority. Outraged, Ashok and his gang throw stones at Gautham's house, accidentally injuring Susheela. The next day, Gautham arrests Ashok after provoking him into attacking him. As Vishwanath is out of town, Susheela helps Kamala bail Ashok, but then offers snide unsolicited advice about raising her children to be law-abiding. Meanwhile, Chidambaram tries to bribe Vishwanath multiple times, but is rebuffed. Irked, he orders a hit on Vishwanath.

On the day when Ashok's sister Mallika is meeting a prospective groom's family for a matchmaking ceremony, Vishwanath fails to turn up which causes the groom's family to question the seriousness of the marriage between Kamala and Vishwanath. Enraged, Ashok goes to Vishwanath's house and creates a scene only to realise that his paternal grandmother has died; Gautham throws him out. Later, Ashok learns that his girlfriend too comes from a broken family. The Commissioner learns of Gautham's romance with Anjali and doubts his monogamy, based on his father's behaviour.

Mallika runs into Gautham and Anjali on the same commuter train. Gautham ends up protecting her from a bunch of ruffians harassing her (hired by Chidambaram), and he and Anjali accompany her home safely. Mallika addresses Gautham as her elder brother, but before he can respond, Ashok arrives and throws him out. Another altercation occurs at a wedding in which both exchange words. The next day, they get into a huge brawl in public. Vishwanath berates them both, lamenting his public humiliation at his sons' behaviour.

While Vishwanath is leaving his office, he gets run over by a truck driven by one of Chidambaram's thugs and goes into a coma. Mutual fear brings the families closer as both Susheela and Kamala wait by his bedside. Chidambaram arranges for Vishwanath's murder in the hospital. When his thugs attack, Gautham and Ashok work together to foil the assassination attempt by switching the ambulance that Vishwanath was in. The next day, a bandaged Vishwanath is brought into the commission's office by the brothers to submit evidence of Chidambaram's crimes. Chidambaram is arrested, and the brothers high five each other, implying that they both have made peace.

• Prabhu as Gautham Vishwanath[1]
• Karthik as Ashok Vishwanath[1]
• Amala as Anjali[1]
• Nirosha as Ashok's girlfriend[2]
• Vijayakumar as Vishwanath[1]
• V. K. Ramasamy as Chettiar[3]
• Janagaraj as Lakshmipathi[1]
• Jayachitra as Kamala[1]
• Sumithra as Susheela[1]
• Tara as Mallika[1]
• S. N. Lakshmi as Vishwanath's mother[1]
• Disco Shanti as the prostitute[3]
• G. Umapathy as Chidambaram[4]
• Prabhu Deva (special appearance in the song "Raaja Raajathi")[5]

After Mouna Ragam (1986), the next script that Mani Ratnam wrote was Agni Natchathiram. Despite this, when he was approached by Muktha Srinivasan to make a film for Kamal Haasan (which eventually became Nayakan), he agreed. In January 1987, after two weeks of shooting on Nayakan, Ratnam resumed work on Agni Natchathiram, shooting scenes on Prabhu and Amala such as the song "Ninnukkori Varnam". However, Ratnam could not manage shooting two films at the same time, so work on Agni Natchathiram was stalled for nearly a year,[6] resuming only after Nayakan's release in Diwali 1987.[7] The film was produced by Ratnam's brother G. Venkateswaran, filmed by P. C. Sreeram and edited by B. Lenin and V. T. Vijayan.[1]

Agni Natchathiram is the feature film debut of Raadhika's sister Nirosha. According to Nirosha, she was not initially interested in pursuing an acting career, having previously declined an offer to act in Nayakan, but at Raadhika's suggestion, joined this film.[8] Vijayakumar, who had quit films and was settled in the United States, had come to India for a different purpose, when assistant director K. Subash met and offered him to act in Agni Natchathiram. Vijayakumar initially refused, but Subash remained adamant; when Ratnam narrated the script, Vijayakumar was impressed with the character and agreed to act, making his comeback to film.[9] To make the film more commercially viable, a comedy subplot was created, involving a middle-aged man (V. K. Ramasamy) and his chauffeur (Janagaraj) trying to cavort with a prostitute (Disco Shanti) without their wives' knowledge.[3][10]

The music was composed by Ilaiyaraaja, and the lyrics were written by Vaali.[11] Many of the songs are set in Carnatic ragas; "Vaa Vaa Anbe Anbe" is in Shivaranjani,[12] "Thoongatha Vizhigal" is in Amritavarshini,[13] and "Ninnukkori Varnam" is set in Mohanam.[14] For "Raaja Raajathi", Ilaiyaraaja used no string instruments and composed the opening stanza with only two notes.[15][16]

Agni Natchathiram was released on 15 April 1988, Puthandu.[18] The film ran for over 200 days in theatres, thereby becoming a silver jubilee film.[19]

Agni Natchathiram became a trendsetter in Tamil cinema for setting "a new standard in the use of lighting". Additionally, Lakshmipathy's dialogue "En pondatti orrukku poittaa" (My wife has gone to her town) in excitement when his wife leaves for her hometown, entered Tamil vernacular.[26] The film was remade in Hindi as Vansh (1992).[27]

• Dhananjayan, G. (2011). The Best of Tamil Cinema, 1931 to 2010: 1977–2010. Galatta Media. ISBN 978-81-921043-0-0.
• Rangan, Baradwaj (2012). Conversations with Mani Ratnam. India: Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-670-08520-0.

• Agni Natchathiram at IMDb