Naadodi Mannan

Purathchi thalaivar M.G.R. stars along with Banumathi, Saroja Devi, M.N. Nambiar, Veerappa, M.G. Chakrabani, Chandrababu and many others in this revolutionary movie of the 'wanderer king'.
The movie begins with a group of people shouting slogans against the monarchy, in support of democracy with their leader Veerangan. But they are held back and their leader arrested. Calmly the crowd disperses.
In a few days, a new king is to be coronated. As the king arrives in town, so does Veerangan get released from jail. With company, Veerangan walks around the city, only to be treated with respect, as he resembles the king closely. He also meets his lover's, Madhana's, father, who is also another revolutionary trying hard to find the late king's daughter, Ratna (identified by a birthmark).
At the same time, Veerangan finds new enemies too. As he runs away from them, he enters the king's encampment and meets him. He finds the king to be very jovial and nice and accepts the king's suggestion to be friends.
With the new king coming, there are many villains around him - rajaguru i.e. head priest and the commander, both are hungry for the throne. They plan tricks to eliminate the king - add poison to his drink. Thus, as Veerangan and the king are enjoying their meal, the king falls unconscious. But the doctor manages to save him in good time. To supplement for the unconscious king and to make sure the coronation ceremony goes well the next day, king's trustworthy ministers request Veerangan to act as the king.
Thinking the king is dead, rajaguru announces the commander to be the next king, but Veerangan appears in the last minute to have the crown placed on his head instead. The act of being the king goes fine, until the queen appears. Veerangan is not able to betray the queen as she is very true to her husband, but continues the act nevertheless, as he hopes to do good for the people being in this post.
Rajaguru and the commander find out that Veerangan is not the real king and kidnap the real one, right when the king has recovered. The trustworthy ministers, who were planning to kill Veerangan after the real king returned, decide otherwise.
Veerangan begins to implement interesting new schemes for the people and is happy that he is able to achieve his needs. At the same time, the queen becomes restless that the king is not paying any attention to her. Veerangan's lover, Madhana, also begins to suspect that he is with another woman. When he tries to convince her of the truth, the queen sees them and runs to rajaguru for help. Rajguru pretends to help the queen and makes the real king see intimate scenes between the queen and Veerangan, when in reality, the queen is in a stupor.
To corner Veerangan, the commander captures Madhana, but Veerangan comes to the rescue. As Madhana is escaping, the commander fatally injures her. After Madhana's death, Veerangan is distraught and at this point, he admits the truth about himself to the queen.
Rajaguru has contacts with some tribal islanders and now advises the commander to come to the island. Surprisingly, the tribal head has exact resemblance to rajaguru. Veerangan follows them to find the king. Running away from the tribals, he enters the tribal chieftain's daughter's, Ratna's, room and sees her undress. She had the birthmark, as he had heard.
Having been told by her father that her groom would be meeting her today, Ratna thinks that's the groom and runs to her father to tell she likes him. But is in for a shock, when her father says he is to marry her and that she is actually the heir to a kingdom. She returns to her room in sadness, but helps Veerangan find the real king and plans her escape with him.
The commander finds the truth about the tribal chieftain and rajaguru being one and the same person. He plans to take revenge and passes by Ratna's window at the same time that Veerangan was supposed to meet Ratna. But yet again, Veerangan comes to the rescue and they rush to help the king. He manages to save the king, but loses Ratna. Tribal chieftain's men capture Ratna and when the marriage is about to happen, there comes an expected twist. After an excessively dragged climax and action scene, all ends well.
That was a grueling 3 hour movie, which was half done in black and white and half in colour. Just sitting and watching this was a painful business to the rear end, but the movie itself was worth the watch, but with breaks.
The songs were all very sweet and nice to listen to. The best part of the movie was probably M.G.R. He was too good to look at in this movie - prime of youth. Also his dialogues were partly the actual schemes that he implemented during his chief minister term in Tamil Nadu. Supposedly this was the first movie that got released with M.G.R. and Saroja Devi - a great classic on-screen couple.