Nam Naadu (1969 film)

Dharmalingham (S. V. Ranga Rao), Aalavandar (S. A. Ashokan) and Punniyakodi (K. A. Thangavelu) are three VIPs in a township who have established themselves as noble citizens of the country but in reality are traitors who dare to do any type of crimes for money.

Durai (M.G.R) is an honest government office clerk who wants to be sincere for the nation and to help the poor and needy. In order to save the rights of the poor he fights with higher society people which is disliked by brother Muthaiya (T. K. Bhagavathi) who works for Dharmalingham and is an equally honest person as Durai. Though Muthaiya scolds Durai for his acts he is very affectionate to him and Durai is equally respectful and affectionate towards him and his family. Durai once picks a fight with Aalavandar in a shop — he insists on his standing in a queue like everyone else as there should be no special right for him over poor people. This creates tension between Aalavandar and Durai. Muthaiya worries that he will get into trouble because Aalavandar and Dharmalingham are good friends.

Durai meets a tender-coconut selling girl Ammu (alias Alamelu) (Jayalalitha) and gets attracted towards her nobility and honesty. Aalavandar takes revenge on Durai by making fake bribery complaint on him and because of which Durai loses his job. The enmity between Dharmalingham and Durai increases gradually because of which his brother shouts at him and ask him to get out of the house as Muthaiya believes Dharmalingham is honest and treat him like God. Ammu supports Durai and takes him to slum. Durai works for them and earn the love of slum people and people support him to contest and win in the municipal election. Durai takes action against the trio with his rights and enmity further increases. The trio plan and succeed to throw Durai away from the municipal office. Meanwhile, Muthaiya finds that Dharmalingham has looted a sum of Ten lakh Rupees which actually belong to the welfare of poor people. So he runs away with the money to save from them and he buries it in a place. But the trio catch him and shut him at a secret place when he refuse to open his mouth on the whereabouts of the money.

Now Durai plans to take revenge on them and to reveal themself and their crimes by their own mouth. Did Durai succeed in his mission and found the money and his brother forms the rest of the story.

• M. G. Ramachandran as Durai
• J. Jayalalitha as Ammu (alias Alamelu)
• S. V. Ranga Rao as Dharmalingham, the chairman
• S. A. Ashokan as Aalavandar, a contractor and Dharmalingham's friend
• K. A. Thangavelu as Punniyakodi, a shopkeeper and Dharmalingham's friend
• S. V. Ramdas as The doctor
• T. K. Bhagavathi as Muthaiya
• R. S. Manohar as Vijay, Ammu's elder brother
• Ennatha Kannaiya as Kannaiya the lame
• Thengai Srinivasan as Kuppuswamy, the superior of Durai (in office)
• Nagesh as Govindha, Durai's friend
• K. R. Ramswamy Velayudham
• V. Nagaiah as Kandhaya
• Mukkamala
• Pandari Bai as Bakiyum, Muthaiya's wife
• Kutty Padmini as Selvi, Muthaiya's daughter
• Baby Sridevi as Raja, Muthaiya's son

After the success of Enga Veettu Pillai (1965) produced by B. Nagi Reddy, M. G. Ramachandran was considering an entry into politics, so he told Reddy that he wanted to make a film to gauge audience response to seeing him as a politician. Nagi Reddy suggested remaking the Telugu film Kathanayakudu; Ramachandran agreed and remade the film as Nam Naadu.[1] Unlike the Telugu original, Nam Naadu was made with many politically-charged dialogues because, according to film historian Prakash Raman, "that was the time when MGR was about to launch his party".[2]

Nagi Reddy recalled watching the film with Ramachandran: "When it was released, we both went to Mekala Theatre to watch the reaction of the viewers. Except for the manager, no one was aware of our presence. It was a pleasant evening and the doors had been kept wide open. MGR stood leaning on one side of the door and I was leaning on the other. There was a scene in which Jayalalitha, the heroine of the movie, appeared singing the song Vaangaiya Vaathiyaraiah while welcoming MGR after his victory in the elections."[1]

Reddy went on to say "The audience rose as one man, cheering, clapping, whistling. There were cries: ‘We want to see the scene again! Repeat the scene!’ We advised the manager to oblige the audience. The reel was rewound and the sequence was shown again. I turned to MGR. His eyes were filled with tears of joy. He hugged me. ‘O Reddiar! I have received the people’s acceptance.’[1]

The Indian Express wrote, "That contemporary politics can be made into a successful film is proved by Vijaya International's Nam Nadu". The reviewer went on to say, "Colour is pleasing. The editing is component. Music by M. S. Viswanathan fails. The film is too long."[3]

Music is composed by M. S. Viswanathan.[4]

• Nam Naadu at IMDb