The film starts near the end of his life when tax authorities are trying confiscate his wealth and then we switch to a textbook committee meeting that was to discuss books for the next school year. A strange woman enters and explains she wants to make sure they include a chapter on G.D. Naidu while a few protest that he a traitor, a tax evader and not properly educated having dropped out of school after grade 3. She gives each member a copy of some biographical information and the story moves on.
We are introduced to a young G.D. Naidu as he wants to buy a motorcycle to see how it works. He is very curious person, studying lots of processes. Another move is to work at a cotton mill owned by Robert Stanes and find a way to improve cotton processing that led him to start his own mill. While there he learned to speak English. Unfortunately he gambled on prices and lost when the market for cotton declined.
He goes back to Robert Stanes asking for a job and instead is given a bus. After a few years he proved his management skills after devising more efficient routing he persuaded a number of bus drivers to join him, pooling their resources to share in profits. At one point United Motor Services had 600 buses. This is also where he partnered with Ramiah Pillai who stuck with him to the end.
His list of innovations is diverse. In agriculture he made improvements with cotton, maize and papaya. He found better ways to extract fruit juice. He made voting machinery more safe and efficient. Motors was one of his first interests and that is reflected in transportation. One sideline was developing an electric shaving razor. Education was boosted by encouraging wider spread schools. He was a founder of a polytechnical institute and revised a curriculum to give engineering training in only two years. Concerned over the plight of the poor he developed a way to construct a more affordable, safe house in one day. A man who loved taking photos he developed accessories to make cameras more efficient.
As he succeeds he is generous to his fellow Indians which of course upset some British. They tried to cut him down using tax rules to force him into a corner. One British colonist, Winston Smith did some dirty tricks to stop him, but was constantly outsmarted. He then hooked up with a high level income tax collector, Ambalapara Kristnan who over years was always finding parts of Naidu's business to tax and try to confiscate his assets, but failed.
His employees, and customers could see through the attempt and helped him evade unfair taxes. Other tricks learned was to have the stock given to a dog and another was to divorce his wife giving her the right to take 98% of his assets, so the government could not confiscate 80% of them and still live together.
He travelled over Europe and elsewhere looking for suppliers and ideas. He spent time in Britain, France, Belgium and Nazis Germany and eventually got a deal with Benz to manufacture automobiles in his part of India. These efforts branded him a traitor.
At the end we learn the textbook committee has been swung over and there is an ironic twist.
"G.D.N." makes a good case for great contributor to India. A lot of people help present a superb case. Here are a few.
A key person was Madhavan who played.the title character, but more than that he co-wrote the script and was also a producer. He had won a national public speaking award and is fluent in English, Hindi and Tamil. He took part in a student exchange program to Stetler, Alberta, Canada, He has appeared in such films as "Rang de Basanti" (2006), "Guru" (2007) and "3 Idiots" (2009) which were all exceptional. Altogether he has 100 acting credits, 5 for writing and 1 for directing. Another film was the American, "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" (2012). My first awareness of him was with "Kannathil Mutthamthal" (A Peck on the Cheek) (2002), but I assumed it was a Bollywood film and much later learned it was a Tamil film, opening another door for me. Other films include "Arbe Sivan" (2003), "Tanu Weds Manu" (2011), "Dhoka" (2022) and "The Railway Men" (2023). See http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2023/11/the-railway-men.html In "G.D.N." one scene had him throwing away a cigarette as requested by Ramiah Pillai. It turns out that Madhavan in real life does not smoke although willing to act if the script calls for it.
Krishnakumar Ramakumar was the director and co-writer. He was the founder of Black Box Films in Chennai that mostly does advertisements. He has 3 directing credits, 1 for writing and 31 for acting including "Madras Cafe" (2017).
Sathyjaraj played Ramiah Pillai, the loyal supporter. He has 233 acting credits and 2 for producing including "Mersal" (2017), "Baahubala: The Conclusion" (2017) and "Idly Kadri" (2025).
Priyamani played Chellamanal, the first wife who asked for a divorce so as not to drag him down. She modelled which led to films. She has acted in Hindi, Tami, Telegu, Malayalam and Kannada films. Primayami has 85 acting credits including "Raavan" (2010), "Raavanan" (2010), "Chennai Express" (2013), "The Family Man" (2019-2025), "Article 370" (2024) and "Maidaan" (2024). See http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2023/03/the-family-man.html
Durshal Vijayan played Ranganyaki, Naidu's second wife who stuck with him through a wide variety of circumstances. She studied fashion design which led to modelling and in turn tv. commercials and then films. In 2017 she won a contest for Face of Chennai and in the same year Miss South India, placing second. She has 14 acting credits including "Natchaathiriam Nagangirahu" (2022).
Richard Bhakti Klein played Robert Stanes who gave Naidu critical support. Lived in America and moved to Mumbai in 2005. For a few years he was a professional singer/guitarist and has taught music and science. He has 92 acting credits including "Dear Zindagi" (2016), "Gully Boy" (2019), "Love Aaj Kal" (2020), "RRR" (2022), "Dunki" (2023) and "Maidaan" (2024) See http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2024/06/maidaan.html
Jayaram played Ambalapara Krishnan, the brutal income tax collector you will come to hate. He has 250 acting credits, 4 for the music department and 1 for additional crew including "Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo" (2020), "Poniyin Selvan, Part 1" (2022) and "Hi Nanna" (2023). See http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2024/01/hi-nanna.html
"G.D.N." is available dubbed and subtitled on Netflix
As usual I have bolded the first mention of films I have seen. They are not necessarily a recommendation, but generally these are among my favourites. The cast and crew are well connected to outstanding films and if you follow the links you should be better able to determine if a particular film is worth following up.
