Lot of movies have been remade in tamil cinema for decades. From MGR to Rajinikanth everybody has acted in a remake films, but what’s different in those movies was the actors exhibited their own style of acting in the remake movies. Rajini movies in the 80’s and Billa 2007 are typical examples of actors delivering their own style in remake movies. Sometimes these remake movies have surpassed their originals. Nanban is a remake of ‘3 idiots’, one of the record breaking block busters of indian cinema. There was much expectation for ‘Nanban’ for two reasons, it was going to be directed by Shankar, one of the best film makers in Tamil Cinema, and Vijay was to be cast in the lead role. Many believed the duo would deliver something better than 3 idiots. Manoj Paramhamsa handled the camera and music by Harris Jayaraj.
Plot:
Plot:
Nanban is about two friends embarking on a journey in search of their friend, who changed their lives during college days. Panchavan Parivendan sees everything in a different manner and believes in two things - learn to gain knowledge and application rather than for marks, excel in what you would like to do and success will be yours. Pari joins engineering for his sheer passion with machines. He befriends two people Venkat Ramakrishnan, an aspiring wildlife photographer who ends up in engineering to fulfill his father’s dreams, and Sevalkodi Senthil, who studies to get a job and holds the responsibility of reliving his family from poverty. Virumadi Santhanam aka VIRUS , the dean of the college, is a firm believer in the present educational system and believes success is achieved through marks and getting placed. Pari encounters consistent tiffs with virus as their study approaches clashes and the story revolves around how he inspires his friends to achieve their dreams and changes virus’ mind.
Characters:
Vijay - Panchavan Parivendan - apes Aamir khan from beginning to end with few faltered attempts to deliver in his style. Jeeva - Sevalkodi Senthil - is fantastic and Shrikanth - Venkat Ramakrishnan - couldn’t match upto to Madhavan’s performance in the original. Sathyan couldn’t deliver what Omi vaidya gave us while the individuality of Sathyaraj - Virumadi Santhanam aka VIRUS - is lost in imitating the Virus role, all we could see is Boman Irani in screen. Ileana is too puny to get etched in our minds once the movie gets over. Though Ileana had performed well, her appearance made her role unnoticeable.
Vijay - Panchavan Parivendan - apes Aamir khan from beginning to end with few faltered attempts to deliver in his style. Jeeva - Sevalkodi Senthil - is fantastic and Shrikanth - Venkat Ramakrishnan - couldn’t match upto to Madhavan’s performance in the original. Sathyan couldn’t deliver what Omi vaidya gave us while the individuality of Sathyaraj - Virumadi Santhanam aka VIRUS - is lost in imitating the Virus role, all we could see is Boman Irani in screen. Ileana is too puny to get etched in our minds once the movie gets over. Though Ileana had performed well, her appearance made her role unnoticeable.
The problem with Nanban is that it is an exact replica of 3 idiots from screen play to character portrayal and everybody has tried their best to ape their roles. Manoj’s camera is simple and Harris Jayaraj could have better copied the songs as well with Aska Laska, an exception. Background score is pathetic and no match to the original.
Movie is altogether good with the story and everyone who haven’t watched ‘3 idiots’ will enjoy it to the core, there is no question about it, but what baffles me is Shankar’s imagination. After delivering a good sci fi movie to tamil audience, he has delivered us a photocopy of bollywood movie. With two good actors, Vijay and Sathyaraj, Shankar could have altered the storyline or at least he could have come up with a different portrayal of the two roles and delivered us the content in a different manner which would have been more enjoyable. Ultimately he got the message delivered without altering the storyline. Wonder what stopped him from thinking, but the same output would have come if Director A.Raja had took the movie and it is quite disappointing to see one of top directors delivering us such a movie.
Verdict: 6/10
