kamal naturally treats "Abba" the Muslim man, who is into smuggling. they both kill the police officer, and escape to Bombay, where they get shelter in a Muslim house hold.
velu decides to take revenge, and is supported by his friend, Sela(janagaraj). his father a labor leader is murdered by a ruthless police officer. This film is an out an out kamal hassan and Mani ratnam film, without Mani ratnam kamal would not have been able to display his magic, and without kamal, Mani would not have been able to show his magic. A must watch movie, for anyone who hasn't seen it. The Music of Illayaraja, Photography of P C Sreeram and the Art of Thotta Tharani were other High points of the movie, not to mention the magical touch of Manirathnam, who made a permanent name for himself after making Nayagan.
Kamal had given one of his best performances in this movie, for which he rightfully won the National Award for Best Actor. Velu grows into a Don and slowly the power of it takes him to a different world, where he is the command, but he slowly losses his dear ones and it finally ends with his death at an old age, with a moral message that one who lives by the sword(gun), dies by it. By turn of events, Velu is pulled into committing Crime(and fighting too). In Bombay he is brought up by a pious Muslim fisherman. Nayagan is the story of a boy(Velu), who loses his father(a Trade Union leader) and runs away to Bombay, after assualting the Police who kills his father.
Apart from changing the very face of movie making in India, it had send so many refreshing trends. Nayagan is probably one of the best movies made in Tamil(and may be in any Indian language). Even though Nayagan seems like a compressed version of The Godfather series and despite the fact that a lot of the scences in the movie give you sense of deja vu(after you've watched Godfather.