Keep your shortlist together and see where it’s streaming
1987 · Tamil · 2h 36m · Drama, Crime · CBFC A
Keep your shortlist together and see where it’s streaming
Filmi Score
Exceptional
3 reviews · provisional
88
3 exceptional
What the critics say
Critics call Nayakan one of Mani Ratnam's finest films, praising Kamal Haasan's performance, the direction, cinematography and score, with only the familiar gangster-story cliche and a stray commercial dance number as reservations.
Audience Score · not yet · appears once three readers have written a review
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Upperstall calls Nayakan one of Mani Ratnam's most accomplished and finest Indian films, praising Kamal Haasan's performance, the cinematography,… Read it there →
Time's All-TIME 100 Movies entry praises Nayakan as a defining early Ratnam work, admiring his fusion of melodrama, music, violence, comedy and… Read it there →
The critic calls Nayakan the film every director dreams of making, praising Mani Ratnam's restrained direction and Kamal Haasan's performance,… Read it there →
Derived by Filmi
82
How this number was made. We read every review and derive a 0–100 reading from each — including where the critic printed a number, which stays first on its row, because it’s theirs. The Filmi Score is the mean of 3 readings; 0 of those rows also carry the critic’s own rating, shown beside ours. Rubric v2.1, computed 26 Oct 2026. Any critic can ask us to remove a derived reading.
PublishedStated in videoDerived by FilmiNo score
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Nayakan: quick answers
Box office, where to watch and what critics said — from the same data as the page.
Where can I watch Nayakan?
Nayakan is streaming on OTT: Prime Video (India) and Vi Movies and TV (India). It can also be rented or bought on Amazon Video (the US and the UK). Availability comes from JustWatch and is checked every Friday.
What did critics say about Nayakan?
Nayakan has a Filmi Score of 88 (Exceptional), the mean of 3 readings of critic reviews, one per review. The score is provisional until at least five reviews are read. Readings run from 82 (The Hindu) to 93 (Upperstall.com). Every review and how it was scored is listed below.
What readers say
The Audience Score appears once three readers’ reviews have been read under the rubric — built from what people write, never from the rating numbers.
