Nanban (Friend)
In most places, the first day first show of a film is normally on a Thursday night. But in India, I think they release movies every day! (Maybe because they make movies in a blink!..hehe)
Recently for the Ponggal new releases, there is Nanban and Vettai both released merely 2 days apart. As for here, only one movie is playing in the cinemas, which is Nanban. I am still waiting for the release of Vettai as one of my favourite hero Mr Madhavan@Maddy is in it. The star cast seems perfect and it is a movie from a good director, Lingusamy and what more, we get to see ‘many’ eye candies in the film.
But since Vettai is not released yet, my parents and I watched Nanban. Nanban is the Tamil remake of a Hindi film 3 Idiots. The Hindi film created waves when it was first released. Since I have watched 3 Idiots (which I thought was brilliant), I prepared myself with the least expectations as I didn’t want to disappoint myself. First of all, the script/story/screenplay of the film is so great that, the Tamil filmmaker will never go wrong with it but the question is, will he manage to get the same impact the Hindi film made? With a Director like Shankar, who had done films like Endhiran(Robot), Mudhalvan and other power packed films, this must have been a piece of cake for him.
When the press release stated the star cast for Nanban was Vijay (Hindi: Amir Khan), Jiiva (Hindi: Sharman Joshi) and Srikanth (Hindi: Madhavan), I was a little sceptical about the movie being any close to the Hindi version. I thought that Vijay and Srikanth were not an appropriate choice. Then again, I threw my doubts aside only because of Director Shankar. For a Director of that calibre, he must know what he is doing. (Even though we the audience doubt it!).
At the cinema, siting waiting for the movie to start, I hear myself chanting ‘All is Well..All is Well’. I was praying that the movie doesn’t spoil the soul the Hindi film had. Haha. The movie began and by the title card itself, I let a sigh of relieve. It didn’t have the extravaganza opening as how all Shankar and Vijay’s movie have. No unwanted intro song for Vijay and no unwanted flying text to state his name, everything was just so normal. Upon seeing those, a little confidence came in me for the film.
First time seeing Vijay as Pari (his character in the film), obviously brought my thought back to Amir Khan. Comparisons for some shots were there but after a while into the film, I started seeing a different version of the character and I actually liked Pari. J It was refreshing to see Vijay in a film sans all those car chasings, beating up 20 men, rescuing his ladylove and family sentiments. It felt like a breath of fresh air. (Note to Vijay: It’s not that we don’t like you in a Masala Entertainer Film but try to mix and match film choices). “All is Well”.
As for Jiiva and Srikanth, personally I liked Jiiva’s performance to the core. As for Srikanth’s role, I was not much of a fan. I didn’t feel the impact of the character as I felt in the Hindi version played by Madhavan. Maddy’s voice had you in grips while watching the film. Apart from that, the major role in the film, Professor Virus, played by Sathyaraj was par excellence. He is such a professor that you will hate him so much. (in the film!). Haha. The Silencer, Sathyan too was a delight to watch and plus his voice which naturally made you laugh even in a non-comical scene. When you have so much male dominant in the film, there must be some females rite?, So there comes in Illeana and Anuya. Both did their respective roles beautifully and especially Anuya’s character was quite an important non-glamor script oriented role. Big claps for an upcoming heroine like her to take up a role of that sort.
Overall, Nanban was a friendly watch indeed. The movie didn’t do damage to the original film and it had some added flavour of a south Indian film. The only thing I don’t approve in the film is the additional song. I wish Shankar did not add that part of it.
On a different note, recently I watched a show on Vijay TV called En Frienda Poala Yaaru Machan (Can anyone else be like my friend), and I must say that I enjoyed the program so much and I was laughing throughout the program. Normally, I don’t bother watching Vijay in an interview as he will hardly open his mouth or speak anything or sometimes it is so irritating to watch him as though he just got out of bed. But….this program had him participate and LAUGH!!! Surprisingly he was very lively throughout the show. Nanban literally has done wonders to Vijay!
Watch the show below. (courtesy of YouTube)
(do not try this for those in the city!)
