- Naan Mahaan Alla (2010 film)
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For the 1984 film, see Naan Mahaan Alla (1984 film).
Naan Mahaan Alla 
Audio posterDirected by Suseenthiran Produced by - K. E. Gnanavelraja
- S. R. Prakash Babu
- S. R. Prabhu
Written by - Suseenthiran
- Bhaskar Sakthi
Starring - Karthi
- Kajal Aggarwal
- Jayaprakash
- Soori
Music by Yuvan Shankar Raja Cinematography R. Madhi Editing by Kasi Viswanathan Studio Studio Green Distributed by Cloud Nine Movies
Ayngaran InternationalRelease date(s) August 20, 2010 Running time 126 mins Country India Language Tamil Naan Mahaan Alla (Tamil: நான் மகான் அல்ல; English: I'm No Saint) is a 2010 Tamil-language drama-thriller film written and directed by Suseenthiran. It stars Karthi and Kajal Aggarwal in lead and Jayaprakash and Soori among others in supporting roles. The film, featuring music scored by Yuvan Shankar Raja and cinematography handled by R. Madhi, is produced by K. E. Gnanavelraja and distributed by Dayanidhi Azhagiri's Cloud Nine Movies.[1] The film, not related to the namesake 1984 Rajinikanth-starrer,[2] but based on a real life incident,[3] released on 20 August 2010 to unanimously positive reviews,[4][5] while also becoming a commercially successful venture.[6] The film was later dubbed in Telugu as Naa Peru Shiva which was released across 230 screens in Andhra Pradesh and became a success there too.[7]
Contents
Plot
Jeeva (Karthi) is a typical Chennai youngster. His father Pragasam (Jayaprakash), a call taxi driver, showers love and affection on him. They lead a simple life and derive happiness in whatever they do.
One day, Jeeva comes across Priya (Kajal Aggarwal) at the wedding of their mutual friends. The two fall for each other. At first he doesn't tell her that he likes her but already knows that she likes him. He plays hard to get until their mutual friend tells Priya about Jeeva's infatuation. Jeeva tries to make her become more independent. One day Jeeva goes up to Priya's father even when Priya begs him not to and tells him of their love affair. Jeeva eventually gets a good job because that is one of the requirements for him to marry Priya. Eventually Priya becomes acquainted with Jeeva's family and is accepted as the future bride. When all seems to go well, a murder attempt on Jeeva’s father disturbs everything.
Jeeva’s father had witnessed a girl being taken by a sociopath teenage gang in his taxi. The girl gets killed and Jeeva's father decides to knock on the doors of justice. Sensing trouble, the gang murders him.
The death of his father shatters Jeeva. He vows to take revenge on the killers. He sets out on a mission to identify the culprits and goes running around the town baying for their blood. How he avenges the killers forms the rest of the story.
Cast
- Karthi as Jeeva
- Kajal Aggarwal as Priya
- Jayaprakash as Pragasam
- Soori as Ravi
- Ravi Prakash as Sudharsan
- Rajeevan
- Vijay Sethupathi
- Vairavan
- Lakshmi Ramakrishnan as Jeeva's mother
- Neelima Rani as Sudha
- Krishna Priya as Keerthi Pragasam
- Vinod Kishan
- Thanjai Mahendran
- Ramachandran
- Aruldass as Kutti Nadesan
Production
Development
After his first feature film Vennila Kabadi Kuzhu, released in February 2009, became a success, receiving much critical acclaim as well, director Suseenthiran started to work on the script for his next film. Initially planned to do a film titled Azhagarsamiyin Kudhirai, which failed to commence due to financial problems, he decided to first direct a film featuring a known lead actor, before coming back to that film.[8] He was ready with the script by August 2009, revealing details about the project. While his previous film was based on sporting incidents in a rural background, this film was said to be a "total city subject", shot entirely in Chennai.[9] An action family entertainer, the film would deal about problems in city life, according to Suseenthiran.[9] On 19 August 2009, it was then announced, that the film was titled Naan Mahaan Alla and would be produced by K. E. Gnanavelraja under the banner of Studio Green, who earlier had produced Surya's Sillunu Oru Kadhal and the award-winning Paruthiveeran by Ameer Sultan, which incidentally also starred Karthi in the lead role.[10] The film was reportedly based on a real life incident that happened to one of the relatives of director Suseenthiran.[11] Suseenthiran had been scripting the film for five months.[12]
Casting
While Vennila Kabadi Kuzhu, Suseenthiran's first feature film, starred mostly newcomers, he chose Karthi for the lead role in the film as he felt, that Karthi has an "innocence in his face" that was needed for this role and that he could "convey charm, innocence and being jolly at the same time".[9] For the lead female role, Kajal Aggarwal, who had appeared in Tamil films as Pazhani, Saroja and Modhi Vilayadu, was roped in, who Suseenthiran had chosen, after having seen her performances in the Telugu films Chandamama and Magadheera and felt, that her "cute expressions" were what he needed for that character.[9] While Karthi's character is a middle class bank employee, Aggarwal would play an employee in a mobile phone company.[9] Soori, who also played a comedic role in Suseenthiran's debut venture Vennila Kabadi Kuzhu was again roped in, while Jayaprakash, who essayed several supporting roles and rose to fame with his performance in Pasanga was chosen to play Karthi's father in the film.[12] However, like in his previous film, Suseenthiran also introduced several new artists,[12] such as five boys who played the villains in the film.[13] According to the director, he found three of them "loitering on a popular road in the city", whilst cinematographer Vijay Milton's assistant Ramachandran as well as cinematographer Aruldass also debuted and played pivotal roles.[14]
Filming
The shooting commenced, after a ten days of rehearsal,[12] on 4 September 2009 and was be held in various Indian cities as Chennai, Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam.[10] In mid-September, the shooting was reportedly being carried along the East Coast Road (ECR) near Chennai [15] and later in the environs of the highways near Poonamallee in Chennai.[16]
Soundtrack
Naan Mahaan Alla 
Soundtrack album by Yuvan Shankar Raja Released 16 July 2010 Recorded 2009-10 Genre Feature film soundtrack Length 24:21 Label Think Music Producer Yuvan Shankar Raja Yuvan Shankar Raja chronology Thillalangadi
(2010)Naan Mahaan Alla
(2010)Boss Engira Bhaskaran
(2010)The soundtrack of Naan Mahaan Alla is composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja, making this his third collaboration with Karthi, after scoring highly successful results with Paruthiveeran (2007) and Paiyaa (2010),[17][18] and his first with director Suseenthiran, who worked with V. Selvaganesh for his previous film. The soundtrack album, which was released on 16 July 2010 at Sathyam Cinemas, Chennai,[19] features 5 songs overall, with lyrics penned by Na. Muthukumar and Yuga Bharathy. The song "Va Va Nilava Pudichi" is repeated at the end of the album, with singer Rahul Nambiar being credited for both songs. Nambiar, however, stated on his Facebook site, that two versions were recorded featuring his and Haricharan's voice, respectively, but that both songs in the album were rendered by Haricharan only and his own version wasn't included at all. The songs were later dubbed for the Telugu version Naa Peru Shiva. The Telugu album was launched on June 25, 2011.[20]
Only three songs were used in the film in their entirety, with "Oru Maalai Neram" being left out completely. The album itself received favorable reviews, with "Iragai Pole" in particular, sung by composer Yuvan Shankar Raja himself, becoming very popular.[21] Before the soundtrack release, Yuvan claimed on Twitter that the song was one of his favorite songs, on which he had worked for days.[22] Interestingly, after seeing the entire film, he was said to have remixed and completely reworked that song, altering the orchestration inter alia, to match it with the visuals.[23] He, meanwhile, garnered accolades for the film's score as well. As per Suseenthiran, the film music was "crucial" in the second half of the film, which was the reason for opting for Yuvan Shankar.[12] According to Karthi, Yuvan had worked for 12 days for the score of the second half only, which has "hardly any dialogues", adding that he was the one "who narrates the story in the second half through his music".[23]
Tracklist No. Title Lyrics Singer(s) Length 1. "Va Va Nilava Pudichi" (Singer credited as Rahul Nambiar) Na. Muthukumar Rahul Nambiar 04:47 2. "Iragai Pole" Yugabharathy Yuvan Shankar Raja, Tanvi Shah 05:19 3. "Oru Maalai Neram" (Not featured in the film) Na. Muthukumar Javed Ali, Shilpa Rao 04:46 4. "Theivam Illai" Yugabharathy Madhu Balakrishnan 04:41 5. "Va Va Nilava Pudichi II" (Singer credited as Rahul Nambiar) Na. Muthukumar Rahul Nambiar 04:47 Total length:24:21 Release
Reception
The film opened to unanimously positive reviews, with Top10Cinema.com labelling the film as "outstanding", proceeding to highlight that "almost everything works: the plot and screenplay, performances, technical panoramas",[24] while Pavithra Srinivasan of Rediff.com described the film as "almost perfect", giving it 3 out of 5.[25] Sreedhar Pillai of Sify.com also gave the film a very positive verdict, stating that director Suseenthiran comes up with a "rocker of a film" that is "refreshingly fresh, innovative and packaged in a breezy manner within the commercial format", adding that it is "engrossing and racy".[26] Furthermore, he praised lead actor Karthi's "power packed" performance, citing that he "nails the character to perfection" and "carries the film to its winning point". Similarly Times of India reviewer Bhama Devi Ravi, gave the film 3.5 out of 5, claiming the film to be "entertaining almost till the end", whilst addressing high praise to both Suseenthiran, who according to her is "turning out to be a treasure", and Karthi, whose performance she described as his "best work yet".[27] In contrast, a Behindwoods reviewer gave 2.5 out of 5 and said "Although there are a few slow patches, Suseendiran should be appreciated for coalescing the energy and entertainment of a mainstream film with a sensitivity of a realistic one. He has the wholesome attention of the audience in most parts."[28]
Box office
The film opened well,[29][30] and made a steady progress in the Chennai Box Office,[31] [32][33] eventually becoming a very successful venture.[34] In five weeks time the film made a collection of
4.47 crore was collected in Chennai city alone.[35]Accolades
Ceremony Award Category Name Outcome 2011 Edison Awards[36] Edison Award Best Character Actor Jayaprakash Won Best Villain Mahi, Anbu, Iman, Vinoth and Arun Won Best PRO (Public Relations Officer) John Won Best Supportive Actress Neelima Rani Won 58th Filmfare Awards South[37] Filmfare Award Best Music Director Yuvan Shankar Raja Nominated Best Male Playback Yuvan Shankar Raja for Iragai Pole Nominated 5th Vijay Awards Vijay Awards Best Actor Karthi Nominated Best Villain Vinod Nominated Best Art Director Rajeevan Nominated Best Stunt Director Anal Arasu Won Best Editor Kasi Viswanathan Won References
- ^ "Karthi - Tamil Movie News - Dayanidhi opts for Karthi... Udhayanidhi prefers Arya - Karthi | Arya | Naan Mahaan Alla | Madharasapattinam". Behindwoods.com. 2010-06-22. http://www.behindwoods.com/tamil-movie-news-1/jun-10-04/naan-mahaan-alla-karthi-arya-22-06-10.html. Retrieved 2010-08-24.
- ^ "Eagerly awaiting Karthi's Naan Mahaan Alla: Rediff.com Movies". Movies.rediff.com. 2010-08-18. http://movies.rediff.com/slide-show/2010/aug/18/slide-show-1-south-interview-with-karthi.htm. Retrieved 2010-08-24.
- ^ "Actor Karthi - Tamil Cinema Actor Interview - Karthi | Naan Mahaan Alla | Kajal Agarwal | Paiyaa | Tamannah - Behindwoods.com". Videos.behindwoods.com. http://www.videos.behindwoods.com/videos-q1-09/actor-actress-interview/actor-karthi.html. Retrieved 2010-08-24.
- ^ "Friday Fury- August 20". Sify.com. 2010-08-20. http://sify.com/movies/tamil/fullstory.php?id=14953926&cid=2363. Retrieved 2010-08-24.
- ^ "Naan Mahaan Alla - Behindwoods.com - Tamil Top Ten Movies - Naan Mahaan Alla | Karthi | Kajal Agarwal | Suseendran | Yuvan Shankar Raja | Cloud Nine". Behindwoods.com. 2010-08-20. http://www.behindwoods.com/tamil-movies-slide-shows/movie-4/top-ten-movies/tamil-cinema-topten-movie-naan-mahaan-alla.html. Retrieved 2010-08-24.[dead link]
- ^ http://www.behindwoods.com/tamil-movies-slide-shows/movie-4/top-ten-movies/tamil-cinema-topten-movie-naan-mahaan-alla.html
- ^ http://www.deccanchronicle.com/channels/showbiz/tollywood/karthi-hits-t%E2%80%99wood-big-time-180
- ^ http://www.videos.behindwoods.com/videos-q1-09/director-interview/director-suseendiran.html
- ^ a b c d e "Karthi is My Hero - Susi". top10cinema.com. http://www.top10cinema.com/feature/748/karthi-is-my-hero-susi. Retrieved 2009-08-19.
- ^ a b "It’s Naan Mahan Illai for Karthi!". Times of India. 2009-08-19. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/regional/news-interviews/Its-Naan-Mahan-Illai-for-Karthi/articleshow/4906556.cms. Retrieved 2009-08-19.
- ^ http://www.indiaglitz.com/channels/tamil/article/58999.html
- ^ a b c d e Rangarajan, Malathi (2010-07-01). "Good tidings continue". The Hindu (Chennai, India). http://www.thehindu.com/arts/cinema/article495354.ece.
- ^ http://www.indiaglitz.com/channels/tamil/article/59827.html
- ^ "Suseenthiran to release a telegu film?". The Times Of India. 2010-09-03. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/regional/news-interviews/Suseenthiran-to-release-a-telegu-film/articleshow/6480605.cms.
- ^ "Naan Mahaan Alla shooting in ECR". Ayngaran. http://www.ayngaran.com/frame.php?iframepath=newsdetails.php?newsid=1905. Retrieved 2009-09-17.
- ^ "http://www.top10cinema.com/news/1041/karthi-shoots-for-naan-mahaan-alla". top10cinema.com. http://www.top10cinema.com/news/1041/karthi-shoots-for-naan-mahaan-alla. Retrieved 2009-09-28.
- ^ June 1, 2010 (2010-06-01). "Naan Mahan Alla - Movie Preview". Southdreamz.com. http://www.southdreamz.com/2010/06/naan-mahan-alla-movie-preview.html. Retrieved 2010-08-24.
- ^ http://www.behindwoods.com/tamil-music-reviews/review-1/naan-mahaan-alla.html
- ^ "Naan Mahan Alla audio launched!". Sify.com. 2010-07-16. http://sify.com/movies/tamil/fullstory.php?id=14949787. Retrieved 2010-08-24.
- ^ "Naa Peru Shiva Audio Release". http://www.ragalahari.com/functions/4416/naa-peru-shiva-audio-release.aspx. Retrieved 30 June 2011.
- ^ http://www.top10cinema.com/news/5846/naan-mahaan-alla-has-been-passed-with-u-a
- ^ http://www.indiaglitz.com/channels/tamil/article/58404.html
- ^ a b http://www.videos.behindwoods.com/videos-q1-09/actor-actress-interview/actor-karthi.html
- ^ "Naan Mahaan Alla | Movie Review". Top 10 Cinema. 2010-08-20. http://www.top10cinema.com/review/6136/naan-mahaan-alla#. Retrieved 2010-08-24.
- ^ "Naan Mahaan Alla is almost perfect: Rediff.com Movies". Movies.rediff.com. 2010-08-20. http://movies.rediff.com/report/2010/aug/20/south-tamil-review-naan-mahaan-alla.htm. Retrieved 2010-08-24.
- ^ "Movie Review:Naan Mahaan Alla". Sify.com. http://sify.com/movies/tamil/review.php?id=14954041&ctid=5&cid=2429. Retrieved 2010-08-24.
- ^ BHAMA DEVI RAVI, TNN, Aug 21, 2010, 06.11pm IST (2010-08-21). "Naan Mahaan Alla movie review: Wallpaper, Story, Trailer at Times of India". Timesofindia.indiatimes.com. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/movie-reviews/tamil/Naan-Mahaan-Alla/moviereview/6388035.cms. Retrieved 2010-08-24.
- ^ "NAAN MAHAAN ALLA MOVIE REVIEW". Behindwoods. http://www.behindwoods.com/tamil-movie-reviews/reviews-2/naan-mahaan-alla-movie-review.html. Retrieved August 2011.
- ^ http://www.behindwoods.com/tamil-movies-slide-shows/movie-4/top-ten-movies-aug-23/tamil-cinema-topten-movie-naan-mahaan-alla.html
- ^ http://www.behindwoods.com/tamil-movies-slide-shows/movie-4/top-ten-movies-aug-30/tamil-cinema-topten-movie-naan-mahaan-alla.html
- ^ http://www.behindwoods.com/tamil-movies-slide-shows/movie-4/top-ten-movies-sep-06/tamil-cinema-topten-movie-naan-mahaan-alla.html
- ^ http://www.behindwoods.com/tamil-movies-slide-shows/movie-4/top-ten-movies-sep-13/tamil-cinema-topten-movie-naan-mahaan-alla.html
- ^ http://www.behindwoods.com/tamil-movies-slide-shows/movie-4/top-ten-movies-sep-20/tamil-cinema-topten-movie-naan-mahaan-alla.html
- ^ http://www.behindwoods.com/tamil-movies-slide-shows/movie-4/top-ten-movies-sep-27/tamil-cinema-topten-movie-naan-mahaan-alla.html
- ^ (http://www.behindwoods.com/tamil-movies-slide-shows/movie-4/box-office-2010/naan-mahaan-alla.html)
- ^ February 14, 2011 (2011-02-14). "4th Edison Awards 2011 Winners". reviews.in.88db.com. http://reviews.in.88db.com/index.php/movie/movie-news/6946-4th-edison-awards-2011-winners. Retrieved 2011-05-19.
- ^ "Nominees of Idea Filmfare Awards South". Indiaglitz. http://www.indiaglitz.com/channels/tamil/article/67252.html. Retrieved 01 June 2011.
External links
Categories:- 2010 films
- Indian films
- Tamil-language films
- 2010s action films
- Films set in Chennai
- Tamil-language films dubbed into Telugu
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