Agni Natchathiram

Agni Natchathiram (Fire Star) is a 1988 Indian Tamil-language masala film written and directed by Mani Ratnam. It follows two half-brothers, Gautham, a trainee police officer, and Ashok, an unemployed and rebellious youth, who are set against each other by their claims to legitimacy as sons of a single father who kept two households. Prabhu, Karthik, Amala and the newcomer Nirosha play the leads. Ratnam wrote the script after Mouna Ragam but put it aside to make Nayakan, so production stalled for nearly a year and resumed in late 1987. G. Venkateswaran, Ratnam's brother, produced it, P. C. Sreeram filmed it and Ilaiyaraaja composed the soundtrack. It was released on 15 April 1988, the week of the Tamil New Year festival Puthandu, ran for over 200 days in Tamil Nadu theatres and was remade in Hindi as Vansh in 1992.