Review of Nanban (2012) by Praveen N — 16 Jan 2012

Nanban is thought-provokingly funny. I went into the cinema with low expectations for this film (as I always do for Vijay's recent movies), however my opinions changed as soon as the words "Ilaya Thalapathy" were missing from his name in the opening credits.

Having seen and thoroughly enjoyed 3 Idiots, I have to put my hands up and admit, the feeling was the same for Nanban as well. Extremely funny and moving, Shankar's remake is definitely up to its original mark; bear in mind this would have been an impossibly tedious task, as 3 Idiots is still one of the biggest grossing and critically acclaimed films ever.

Kudos to Shankar as his touch is clearly felt in what is an otherwise frame-by-frame re-viewing of Rajkumar Hirani's cult film. Ileana is a breath of fresh air, as she is gorgeous in many scenes (especially THAT song).

Jiiva has showed his acting chops while Srikanth is average. Sathyaraj evokes too many similarities with Boman. The highlight though is Sathyan, who almost steals the show with his rib-tickling antics, watch out for his speech.

It is equal nay supersedes Omi Vaidya's. Vijay definitely begins his second innings with this film as he has also done a great job. Overall, it is worth catching this movie in the cinema even if you have seen 3 Idiots.

In closing, "Nishabdam Pranasangadham".