Pretty hesitant to go for a first day first show for a dubbed movie, I refrained and made a visit to the theater yesterday only to realize that it was a bilingual and the Tamil lip sync from the actors were perfect for almost 90% of the movie. S.S. Rajamouli who has the reputation in Tollywood for directing hits like 'Mahadheera' has come up with this amusing piece of work - 'Naan Ee'. Congratulations to the director who has wielded his imagination to cast an insect which is as low as a house-fly as the protagonist with the help of some tacky animation and great packaging.
Naani (Naani) courts Bhindhu (Samantha) and the couple are about to fall in love; in comes Sudeep (Kicha Sudeep), a lustful business man who takes pride in making women fall for him through unlawful means and kills Naani when he learns about his relationship with Samantha. Naani reincarnates as a housefly and seeks revenge.
The director narrates the story as a voice over story-telling conversation between a father and daughter and thus manages to put forth a convincing pre-text that this is a work of fiction. Also he managed to take the traditional and proven route of revenge seeking underdog, laced with some sentimental under-currents which has been etched out well and works to the film's advantage.
Naani, who has done an extended cameo as a 'Romeo' next door was convincing and neat.
Samantha as Bindhu was pretty and had her expressions in place.
Kicha Sudeep as the antagonist walks away with the winner's trophy. He was suave and menacing at the same time. Be it the scenes where he lusts over Samantha or the scenes where he is chased by the housefly, he had his own versatile show going his way.
Last but not the least, the animated house-fly was well designed and the gimmicks performed was largely believable though over-blown at times.
How can the Tamil flavor lack an essential ingredient - Santhaanam? A cameo from him was the cherry on the cake and please don’t leave the theater once the end credits start rolling!
The biggest asset for the movie was the BGM and it has upgraded so many ordinary scenes to extraordinary ones. Kudos to music director Keeravani.
Keeping it under 2 hours and 15 minutes, the editing department bags some brownie points as well, thanks to KV Rao.
SS Sendilkumar's cinematography was laudable in terms of capturing details and pinning them down so convincingly.
Overall, it was a convincing show with an unbelievable storyline.
Verdict: Good Attempt!
Rating: 3/5
.jpg)