Thayagam

Thayagam is a 1996 Indian Tamil-language action film directed by A. R. Ramesh. The film stars Vijayakanth, Arun Pandian and Napoleon. It was released on 15 January 1996. Vijayakanth won Tamil Nadu State Film Award Special Prize for this film.

Plot
Three death row prisoners escape from the jail and hijack a plane where Abdul Salim, a scientist, owns a miracle drug. The pilot, instead of listening to the hijackers' instruction, manages to land in the Kashmir mountain. There, Snobir, a sadistic terrorist leader threatens the passengers for recovering the drugs. The pilot and the national boxing champion Pailwan plan to save the passengers and try to escape but they are caught during the plan taken as prisoners. Both attack and kill many terrorists; everyone escapes with them everything goes smoothly until an ambush occurs on a bridge so the brave Pailwan sacrifices himself to save the pilot and the passengers. Elsewhere, the short-tempered Sakthivel who is a family friend of Abdul Salim, and Abdul Salim's daughter Shakeela plan to save everyone so they find their crashed plane and they enter as prisoners. Sakthivel also lies that he is the scientist and tells the terrorist head to release everyone. The film ends with Sakthivel single-handedly killing all the terrorists and saving the day.

Soundtrack
The music was composed by Deva, with lyrics written by Piraisoodan. The song "En Kannil" is based on "In The Name of Love" by Grover Washington Jr. from Winelight.

Reception
Kalki called dialogues, cinematography and grandeur as positives but felt Arun Pandian, Ranjitha and Napoleon were wasted and concluded saying what can one say and praise the director who has given a comedy film with an action coating with a serious subject like Kashmir. D. S. Ramanujam of The Hindu wrote, "Thaayagam, a costly movie made in the snowy regions, will offer visual  thrill and   action,  despite  the  obvious  flaws  in   narration   and screenplay". He added, "Netaji's dialogue driving home this bitter truth. But his screenplay has lot of loopholes, which the director A. R. Ramesh has not corrected". The film won the Tamil Nadu State Film Special Award for Best Actor (Vijayakanth) and Best Lyricist (Piraisoodan).