Aug 04, 2016 03:38 AM
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The film was produced by V. Thamilazhagan and V. Rajammal under the production banner Sathya Movies. The film stars Rajinikanth and Nagma in lead roles with Raghuvaran, Janagaraj and Vijayakumar playing supporting roles. The plot revolves around the life of an autodriver Manikkam, who stays from violence but forced to show his violent side after his sister is attacked and his past life as a gangster is revealed.
Principal photography of the film took place at AVM Studios and majority of the film was shot in a set built at Vijaya Vauhini Studios. P. S. Prakash was the film's cinematographer, and it was edited by Ganesh Kumar. The dialogues for the film were written by Balakumaran. The soundtrack and background score were composed by Deva and lyrics were written by Vairamuthu.
The film was released on 12 January 1995 to positive feedback and became one of the highly successful films in the career of Rajinikanth. Rajinikanth won Filmfans Association Award and Cinema Express Award for the Best Actor for his performance in the film. This film was dubbed into Telugu with the same title and released on 12 January 1995. This film was later remade in Kannada as Kotigobba starring Vishnuvardhan and Priyanka Upendra in the lead roles.
Manikam(Rajnikanth) is an auto driver who lives with his family consisting of mother Vijayalakshmi(Sathyapriya), brother Shiva(Shashikumar), sister Geetha(Yuvarani) and one more sister. Manickam is innocent and kind hearted who goes to any extent for the well being of his family members.
Manikam gets his sister married in a good family. Shiva manages to become a sub inspector of police. On seeing Manikam’s photo, DIG Dinakar(Kitty) who interviewed Shiva wants to meet Manikam. Manikam hesitatingly comes to meet Dinakar in his office. Dinakar is reminded of a don on seeing Manikam. Geetha gets admission in a medical college but the college chairman hesitates to give seat as she is poor. Manikam interferes and discloses that his name is "Baasha", hearing which the chairman is scared and gives him seat.
Meanwhile Priya(Nagma), the only daughter of a rich businessman Kesavan(Devan) travels in Manikam's auto frequently and develops a liking towards him seeing his good character. Priya discovers that her father is a smuggler and decides to maintain a distance with him. Priya proposes her love to Manikam but Manikam does not accept at first as he knows that she is the daughter of Kesavan(with whom Manikam has some issues). But later accepts her love.
Indiran(Anandaraj) is a local rowdy who uses his henchmen to collect "commission" from all business owners; one day an elderly man was not able to pay commission and one of Indiran's henchmen started to attack him; Shiva gets involved and beats the two men; Indiran finally steps out the van and explains to Shiva that he runs that area and his laws apply. Shiva and Indiran fight only to be stopped by Manikam. Afterward, Manikam interferes and requests Indiran to beat him and not to disturb Shiva. Manikam is tied to a pole and is severely beaten by Indiran and his men. But Manikam bears it for the sake of his brother without any retaliation. Later Shiva once again takes action against Indiran by submitting an arrest warrant which makes him furious again. This time after his release from jail, Indiran kidnaps Geetha and tries to molest her infront of the public. To everyone’s surprise, Manikam finally snaps and hits back Indiran and his men badly thereby saving his sister. The beating of Indiran and his henchmen was so severe that it shocked Shiva and he asks about Manikam’s past lifestyle in Mumbai when they were young.
The film enters a flashback where Manikam lives with his family in Mumbai while his siblings are young and they are studying in Chennai. Manikam’s father is Rangasamy(Vijayakumar), an honest person but employed with gangster Mark Antony(Raghuvaran). Rangasamy works with Antony as he helped him during initial days and Rangasamy in turn decided to stay loyal to Antony throughout his life. Manickam and his close friend Anwar Baasha(Charan Raj) protest against the ridiculous behaviours of Antony’s men which angers Antony and he kills Anwar. Manikam is spared as he is the son of Rangasamy. Manikam decides to take the same path to destroy Antony. Manikam in turn kills Antony’s hit men to avenge Anwar’s death. Manikam gets the support of local people in Mumbai who feared for Antony. Manikam transforms into a gangster and changes his name to Manick Baasha and frequently interferes in Antony’s activities which create enmity between the two. Manick Baasha’s command over the city increases and Antony decides to kill Baasha during a function. But Baasha escapes from Antony’s plan. Enraged, Antony kills Rangasamy which shocks Baasha. Before dying, Rangasamy requests Baasha to leave everything and return to Chennai to start a new peaceful life for which he accepts. Baasha creates a fake accident and makes everyone believe that he is dead and secretly leaves to Chennai along with his mother where he starts a new life as Manikam, an auto driver.
Antony gets arrested by police; meanwhile Kesavan kills Antony’s family and steals the money to settle down in life. In the present, Kesavan arranges Priya’s wedding against her wishes. Manikam comes to the wedding hall and Kesavan is shocked to see Baasha alive in the form of Manikam. Kesavan is feared and permits Priya to go along with Manikam.
Antony escapes from prison and comes to take revenge. First he kills Kesavan for betraying him. He also kidnaps Manikam’s family members and threatens Manikam to surrender to him failing which his family members will be killed. Manikam rushes to the spot and he fights against Antony and saves his family. Suddenly Antony tries to shoot Manikam with a gun but is shot dead by Shiva; Manikam marries Priya afterwards.
