Madhavan in a film still from ‘G.D.N’, based on inventor GD Naidu
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Men and machines. It’s a love story that defies logic. The soulful 2024 Tamil film Meiyazhagan explored the relationship between the protagonist and his cycle, and what the vehicle really meant to him. “In a way, this cycle coming into our lives changed it completely,” a teary-eyed Karthi tells Arvind Swamy in the film.G.D.N kickstarts proceedings with this fascinating emotion. A young Gopalaswamy Doraiswamy Naidu (GDN) follows an Englishman around for two years — not because he wanted to be friends, but because he was besotted with the motorcycle that he was riding. A few minutes into the film, a star-stuck Dorai asks the Englishman (who he ironically also calls ‘Dorai’ which means ‘master’) if he can sell him the motorcycle.It would be the start of a lifelong tryst with vehicles and machines.But it’s not just that alone that Naidu is fascinated by; “Padippu solli kudu kadha neraya vishayam en aarvam solli kudukkum (what my education doesn’t teach me my enthusiasm will),” Naidu tells someone in a sequence.G.D.N (Tamil)Director: Krishnakumar RamkumarCast: R Madhavan, Sathyaraj, Jayaram, Priyamani, Dushara Vijayan, Vinay Rai,Runtime: 147 minutesStory: All about the life and times of inventor G.D. NaiduBased on inventor and industrial pioneer GD Naidu, Madhavan’s latest biopic on the big screen captures the highs and lows of the life of an ambitious man who dreamed big. G.D.N is indeed an important piece of work — for, it seeks to educate audiences about a personality who might have changed the fortunes of thousands, if not for insecurity among other fellow Indians.
