Agni Natchathiram
Tags: suspenseful, violence

Plot synopsis:
Ashok (Karthik Muthuraman) attends a job interview in which the interviewer turns out to be his father, Vishwanath's (Vijayakumar), high school friend. The interviewer asks personal questions and it is revealed that Ashok is Vishwanath’s second wife Kamala's (Jayachitra), son. More personal questions anger Ashok and he beats the interviewer and storms out.
Gautham (Prabhu Ganesan) is a police academy trainee and during a routine boxing match, he goes overboard and beats up his opponent even after the referee has stopped the fight. The police commissioner reprimands Gautham and asks him not to take out his anger towards his father, Vishwanath, on someone else.
Ashok returns home to his mother, sister Mallika (Tara) and his inebriated father. His mother asks him to take his father to his first wife Susheela (Sumitra) home. Ashok initially protests but relents to take him home. After the ride, Gautham comes to the door and helps his father into home. There is a brief moment of animosity between Gautham and Ashok and it is clear that both the half-brothers hate each other.
During a party at the Police Commissioner’s house, Gautham meets the Commissioner’s daughter, Anjali (Amala) when he covers for her smoking. One day, when Ashok is just hanging out with his friends, a girl Anitha (Nirosha), looks at him, shouts "I love you" and drives away. A stunned Ashok tries to follow her but loses her in the traffic. Vishwanath is appointed the head of an inquiry commission to probe a chemical factory, owned by Chidambaram (G. Umapathy), believed to sell chemicals to terrorists.
Gautham graduates from the academy & is appointed as an Assistant Commissioner and Anjali and him fall in love with each other. Ashok runs into Anitha again but this time he memorizes her car number. He traces her address by bribing a transport officer, goes to her home and says "I love you" to a surprised Anitha.
Ashok and his friends run into Gautham and Anjali which prompts one of Ashok's friends to tease Gautham. Gautham soon stops Ashok's friend while he is riding his motorbike and asks for his license. When he shows it, Gautham throws it away and arrests him for driving without a license but instructs his constables to release him after a couple of hours. A peeved Ashok goes to Gautham's place and stones it causing an accidental injury to Gautham's mother Susheela.
The next day, Gautham tries to arrest Ashok but Ashok teases him that he doesn't have a warrant and cannot be arrested. Gautham accuses Ashok's parentage which causes Ashok to lose his cool and tries to assault Gautham. Gautham then arrests Ashok on charges of assaulting an officer of the law. Since Vishwanath is out of town, Susheela helps Kamala bailout Ashok.
Chidambaram visits Vishwanath at his office and later at both his homes and tries to bribe him but each time Vishwanath rebuffs him. An irked Chidambaram warns to put a hit on Vishwanath if he still continues with his investigation.
On the day when Ashok's sister is to be asked for her hand in marriage, Vishwanath fails to turn up which causes the groom's family to question the marriage between Kamala and Vishwanath. An angry Ashok goes to Vishwanath's home and creates a ruckus only to realize that his grandmother, Vishwanath's mother Rajamma (S. N. Lakshmi) has died. Gautham, angered by the scene caused by Ashok, throws him out.
Anitha visits Ashok at his home uninvited and falsely tells him that she is pregnant with his child in front of his mother to get him in trouble. Ashok finds her having lunch with her father and enquires about her pregnancy to scare her. But he stops once he learns that Anitha too comes from a broken home.
One day, when Ashok's sister is travelling by train she runs into Gautham and Anjali, so Gautham gets into the next train car. After he leaves, Chidambaram's men harass and threaten the sister. She runs away and tells Gautham and Gautham saves her. While dropping her off at her home, Ashok throws Gautham out of his house.
Another altercation occurs at a wedding in which both exchange words. The next day, Ashok finds Gautham and both get into a huge brawl, which Vishwanath witnesses. Vishwanath berates both of them and gives up hope on both of them ever getting along with each other. While Vishwanath is leaving his office, he gets run over by a truck driven by one of Chidambaram's thugs.
Vishwanath survives with severe injuries and goes into a coma. Mutual fear between the families brings them closer as both Susheela and Kamala wait by his bedside. Ashok threatens Chidambaram with dire consequences if his father dies. Gautham tracks down the truck driver and arrests him. Unhappy that Vishwanath survived, Chidambaram arranges for his murder in the hospital. He uses his connections to remove the police security from the hospital and gets the truck driver out on bail. Vishwanath comes out of the coma and asks both his sons to help keep him alive till he presents his evidence against Chidambaram to the commission the next day. When Chidambaram's thugs attack the hospital, the brothers work together to stop the assassination attempt by switching the ambulance in which Vishwanath was in.
The next day, a bandaged Vishwanath is brought into the commission's office by the brothers and Vishwanath submits evidence proving Chidambaram's illegal activities. The movie ends with Gautham arresting Chidambaram and both the brothers embracing each other.
The film has a parallel comedy track which focuses on a rich man (V. K. Ramaswamy) and his chauffeur’s (Janakaraj) quest to ditch their wives and to sleep with a pretty call girl.

Review: A true Ratnam masterpiece.
I saw this movie on DVD recently and all I can say is "WOW"!!!
Ratnam really scored big time when he made this movie about two stepbrothers who hate each other.
P.C Sriram's cinematography is absolutely brilliant.
It pretty much changed tamil cinema.
Prabhu, Amala and the beautiful Nirosha all give great performances.
However, Karthik (who gave a memorable supporting turn in Mouna Raagam-another brilliant ratnam movie) gives the best performance in this movie.
His role as a street thug really stole the entire movie.
I believe he won a filmfare award for it.
Rest of the characters also give good performances.
Raja's music for the movie is just wonderful.
A real classic..
Honestly,when this movie was released,i was a two year old kid.But when i saw this movie....now,it is brilliant!!when compared to the conditions of that time in India,this movie is technically very good.Mani sir used exceptional lighting technique for the songs in this movie.Well,some may call this effect as "steven Spielberg" style,but i think there is definitely something different.All the actors done very well in their respective roles.The songs are superb.Mastero Ilyaraja has given awesome music for this movie.In one line,i think this movie is a worth watching movie.It is said that this movie is a big breakthrough for mani ratnam as a director,it is simply superb!!.
Vow!
what a great movie.
what a great movie.
If anyone want to direct a movie or compose music or to act, don't go anywhere..
Just watch this movie.
The film starts with a fantastic title..a traffic jam in the background (many thanks to Ilayaraja, the other hero) one of the best title made by ever and with wonderful scenes and songs and ends with a great climax.
In the 90's my dream was to become an engineer but after seeing this movie I had changed my plan to become a director like him.If anyone says that which movie is best than Agni Natchatiram then I will give all my wealth.
this is a great movie from Mani Ratnam..
this is a great movie from Mani Ratnam..
it depicted the love hate relationship between the two brothers who were born to different mothers superbly.
Mani Ratnam is one of the finest film makers in Indian cinema.
he has the potential of making the best films in history of world cinema!!
The songs of the movie are just classics with the Raja Rajathi Raja song the best!!!
Some of the other songs too rock..
Ilayaraja has showcased his talents in this movie in a big way.
This movie also lead to many movies coming in the same genre, notable one being the Vijay-Surya movie "Naerukku Naer".
My favorite scene of the movie is the one where Karthik's sister gets teased by some goons in the train and she moves to the other compartment where her step brother Prabhu is with his lover Amala and this girl calls Prabhu 'Anna' (brother) and asks him to save her from the goons!.
One Gr8 movie.
This is a wonderful movie.
I have watched it several times and never got bored.
Such a great music composition by The Maestro Ilayaraja and every song of this film is awesome.
'Raja Rajaathi Raajanindha' is a peppy song of the time and Ilayaraja's voice suites to the mood of the song.Karthik and Prabhu had done a wonderful casting.
All the fights were shot well and the camera was handle excellently.PC Sreeram has proved that he is one of the best through this film.Amala appears as a naughty girl who did her part quite pretty.Manirathnam has done a wonderful job and professionally and technically he proved his skills and abilities.