Basha (1995)

Cast : Rajinikanth, Nagma, Raguvaran, Vijayakumar

Plot and storyline:

Basha is a Tamil Crime drama directed by Suresh Krishna. It is one of Rajinikanth's evergreen film in the Tamil industry, one that redefined his career. Basic storyline -  A life of a old gangster who flees from his past , gets stirred up again and he must face his worst enemy one more time.

Manikam(played by Rajinikanth) is an auto driver in Chennai, because of the death of his father he supports his mother, two sisters, and a younger brother. He lives a life of a simple man, sacrificing his life for the well being of his family. Manikam has a past, we can see the glimpses of it in between, The real flashback begins when the local mob boss tries to misbehave with his sister, Manikam beats all of them to a pulp , His bothers gets suspicious and questions him and the past is unraveled.

Manikam is Basha, a gangster feared by all in Mumbai. the scene starts with a rivalry between Basha and his rival gang leader Mark Antony( played by Raghuvaran), The rivalry goes on and on to a point where antony plants a rat- Kesavan in Basha's team to kill him from inside but that plan doesn't work.  Finally by Basha's influence the police catch Antony with evidence and sentence him to life,  Antony as a final revenge against Basha kills Ranagasami( played by Vijayakumar)- His personal assistant , aslo the father of Manikami. At his deathbed Rangasami, gets a promise from Basha to flee from Mumbai and leave this life of a gangster. The flashback ends there. Manikam gets caught in the real life when Antony escapes from prison and threatens to kill his family, What happens in the end is the rest of the film.

Basha got released in 1999, at the peak of  Rajinikanth career. It was a pivotal film for him, as he needed a different film from what he was acting at that time, Basha proved to be the biggest success not only for Rajinikanth's fans but to all over , it even increased his fan base dramatically. Rajini is known for his punch dialogues and cheesy lines, this film provided many of them, many to be remembered for along time in the hearts of his fans

" Nan oru thadava sonna 100 thadava sonna mathiri" 

" Ayya en peru Manikon, Ennaku innoru perun irruku"

Though Basha is an out and out commercial film, It proves to be a different film from the rest of the film Rajini has ever done Rajini underplays his character so much as Manikam, We can speculate that manikam has a past from all the scenes which happens on the first half ( His gang members always bring out his past, When his wants a medical college admission and Manikam Speaks to the Dean something and he gives him the seat). The director sets the moods in the first half giving only a glimpse of how the second half might be.
Rajinikanth entered the cine field as a villian ( 16 Vayathinile and Many more), He then played the the lead in many films and went one to be the superstar of the Tamil industry, Even in Basha and many other  Films the director tries to bring out the villain in him, and it has proved to be success in many of his films ( Basha and Chandramuki). Rajini's performance as Basha is truly electrifying, though it is not an artistic and it is fully made of  cinematic dialogues, It sets the Benchmark for cliched dialogues!. As a kid watching it was one of the memorable experiences I still have, some times his character is really scary.

Offbeat Films are not Rajini' forte, he always sticks to a formula , a tried and tested one, Though he has done some films for Mr K. Balachandar - Thilli Mullu, Ragavendra etc.  Basha is still one of these formula films which is to be noted but it doesn't feel that way when you watch it, it somehow feels a bit different,I could say that Rajini's performance as Basha would be the one of his best in his career.

Verdict;

Basha cannot be called is not an out and out commercial flick, it has many striking resemblance to Mani Ratnam's Thalapathy and Don. Mainly the scenes with his friend Anwar Basha and the his flashback as such. Even though it had all the elements of a Rajini film, fight sequences, punch dialogues, lots and lots of advice to the public, the director sets screenplay right for Rajinikanth so that film is still entertaining till the end. One of the best entertainers of all times in the Tamil industry