Nayak: The Real Hero

After achieving fair amount of success dubbing his Tamil blockbusters - Kadhalan (1994) and Indian (1996) - in Hindi (as Humse Hai Muqabla and Hindustani respectively), noted Tamil director S. Shankar decided to make his first Hindi film which would be an official remake of his Tamil hit called Mudhalvan (1999).

Anil Kapoor played the honest diligent TV reporter who gets to interview the corrupt chief minister (CM) Amrish Puri and attempts to expose his indifference which lead to State riots. In a knee jerk response, the CM offers his chair to the reporter for a day and Anil Kapoor ends up becoming the 'Ek Din Ka CM'.

The interview sequence is the films highlight and both, Anil Kapoor and Amrish Puri, are brilliant here. The economic as well as political measures Anil Kapoor takes on becoming the CM also makes for an interesting watch.

On the flipside, Rani Mukerjee's romantic track with Kapoor acts as a speed breaker to the narrative and even AR Rahman's score is not up to the mark.

Corruption has been Shankar's recurring theme right from Gentleman (1993) to Anniyan (2005). Nayak also deals with his pet topic and offers food for thought that we need to elect well educated and well intention candidates to power.

Despite being a box office failure, Nayak earned its due later on satellite television to emerge a cult classic. I had seen the film at Chitra cinema, Dadar on its first Sunday and still catch it whenever it comes on tv. Good and still relevant cinema!