Nanban

There’s two camps that leave the ‘Nanban’ show. One complaining/showing-off how Shankar’s “copied” ’3 Idiots’ frame-over-frame, dialogue-to-dialogue, action-by-action. The other one blissfully ignorant about “that Aamir Khan” movie, who’re in absolute awe at Shankar’s latest (a big climb down from a certain film called ‘Endhiran’).

Then there’s me. I’m from the first camp, but I thought there’s a craftmanship in transplanting this “message movie” into a Tamil milieu and Shankar has pulled it off, while having a ball and poking fun at self. There couldn’t have been a better homage to Rajkumar Hirani, coming from a director of Shankar’s stature.

Also important was retaining the essence the conversations, without diluting the humour, laced so subtly in them. That “கற்பிக்க” stretch was hilarious and shifts the movie’s tone from mildly funny to side-splitting laugh riot.

If Shankar had little work with the script, he’s spent his energy wisely on the cast. Sathyaraj and Jeeva risk their ‘image’, while Sathyan and Srikanth know they’re never getting anywhere close to a role this meaty and it shows in their performance. Ileana’s probably never going back to Telugu after this. Shankar even goes the distance with a tribute to her (‘இருக்கானா இல்ல இல்லையான’).

If only he’d not tried Aamir Khan’s brand of body language on Vijay and Boman Irani’s style of hamming on Sathyaraj, it could have been better.

Nanban Trailer

A Very underwhelming teaser from Shankar. I’m sure they have a better movie, but this looks very forced.