Cast

Credited cast:
	Kamal Haasan	...	Krishnaswamy
	Sukanya	...	Yamuna
	Cochin Haneefa	...	Dhanush
	Poornam Vishwanathan	...	Panjapakesan Iyer
	S. N. Lakshmi	...	Saraswathi Ammal
	Rajesh	...	Muthusamy
	Thalaivasal Vijay	...	Mannangkatti
	Mohan V. Raman	...

Storyline

Mahanadi (Tamil: மகாநதி) is a 1994 Tamil-language Indian drama film directed by Santhana Bharathi featuring Kamal Hassan, Sukanya, and Cochin Haneefa. It portrays the grief of a humble villager, who sees his family, property being ruined. The film dealt with several issues such as corruption and child trafficking.It was dubbed in Telugu with the same title. It is critically acclaimed but above average grosser at the box office. The film won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Tamil.

Krishnaswamy (Kamal Hassan) is a widower living happily along with his mother-in-law Saraswathi (S. N. Lakshmi), daughter Kaveri (Mahanadi Shobana) and son Bharani (Mahanadhi Dinesh) in a village near Trichy. Dhanush (Cochin Haneefa); a con from the city has an eye on Krishnaswamy's prosperity and asks him to join his chit fund business.

At first Krishnaswamy is reluctant; however when a rich friend from a foreign country visits house, he too wants to be rich like them. Hence he agrees to Dhanush's proposal and arrives at the city. However, he is unaware of Dhanush's tricks and when Dhanush swindles away the chitfund money, the blame is put on Krishnaswamy. and he lands up in jail.

He finds that even his future father-in-law Panjapakesan (Poornam Viswanathan) is also in jail for same reason whose daughter is Yamuna (Sukanya) working as nurse. He advises Krishnaswamy not to be angry if the jailor is cruel; as he might be released sooner if he is submissive in the jail. During Krishnaswamy's tenure in jail, Yamuna takes care of his family. Due to unavoidable situations, his mother-in-law dies and his son and daughter go missing. Krishnaswamy learns this after coming out from the jail suffering unnecessary hardships.

Krishna finds his son, with street-artists and gets his son back. He later finds from Dhanush that his daughter is in Kolkata, at a Red Light area called Sonagachi. When Krishnaswamy was arrested, Kaveri had attained puberty and 3 months later Krishnaswamy's mother-in-law becomes sick. kaveri and her brother go to dhanush asking financial help.

Dhanush takes them to his higher boss, so that the virgin Kaveri could sleep with him to get money. Though the boss provides money to dhanush for treatment of old lady, he chases out barani with his dog, and keeps the money for himself.

Kaveri is brutally raped by the boss and is then raped by many till she ends up as a prostitues in Sonagach Krishna goes to Kolkata with his father-in-Law and tracks his daughter Kaveri. Unable to bear the grief, he grabs Kaveri and tries to escape, while the pimps there beat him blue. The elder sex-workers/madam make truce and insist that Krishna take Kaveri, while they would work extra-hours to pay the pimps for the loss of Kaveri.

After coming back from Kolkatta, he wants to start a new life with Yamuna, but his friend in Police Muthusamy (Rajesh) tells him that Danush has planned to jail Krishnaswamy further by plotting a murder case against him & would be arrested the next day. Also Krishnaswamy overhears his daughter blabbering in sleep, that not to rape her.

He is heart-broken due to the state of his kids and decides to curb the root of all sin and grief against Dhanush, goes to seek revenge. He comes to know that Dhanush is just a pawn in the big game of cheating. He not only kills Dhanush but also the main person who was behind this game; but at the cost of losing his arm.

Krishna is sentenced to 14 years life-imprisonment and comes out a contented man, to see his daughter married and has a child, son being a grown up man. The whole family moves back to their native village and the movie ends with his son swimming in the river, reminding Krishna his own antics.   

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