Movie : Naan Ee
Director : SS Rajamouli
Producer : PVP Cinemas
Music : MM Keeravani
Cast : Sudeep, Nani, Samantha, Santhanam
Every once in a while comes a film that grabs your attention and throws you into an experience so profound that nothing else really matters.
SS Rajamouli’s Naan Ee is an escapist, comic book-like fantasy film which works big time as it is pure entertainment. Those who enjoyed the trailer of the film and wondered how one could make a movie where an ordinary Ee or house-fly is a super hero will not be disappointed.
Telugu cinema’s hot-shot director SS Rajamouli who conceptualised Naan Ee is a Magadheera (Brave Man). He has been able to serve what he is famous for, masala concoctions with local flavour. We are aware that what we’re seeing is just hokum and yet we go along for the ride anyway, because – let’s face it – it allows us to have such fun.
The basic plot of Naan Ee is simple and predictable but it is the directors packaging along with MM Keeravani’s background score &Re-recording along with riveting performance by Sudeep that takes it to the winning post. Another major plus for the film is KK Senthilkumar’s camerawork and special effects & animation which by Indian standard is superb.
The film begins with a voice over of a father trying to put his child to sleep with another fairy tale of a super hero Ee (house fly). Sudeep (Sudeep), a playboy and a business tycoon can charm any women till he meets Bindu (Samantha) a beautiful girl who is a miniature artist and a social worker. But she has a soft corner for a next door neighbour, a charming guy Nani (Nani) who is madly in love with her. Sudeep’s ego is hurt and in a murderous rage kills Nani. How our hero reincarnates as a house fly and takes revenge on Sudeep forms the rest of the story.
The story may sound trite but the way the director has made it look convincing and his packaging high on emotional factor, romance, and comedy is what that makes it an enjoyable fun ride. Sudeep’s encounters with the fly, Bindu realising that her lover has come back as a fly to take revenge and how she assists him is told in a humorous and entertaining manner.
If any revenge story has to work, the villain has to be powerful and the hero’s motive has to be strong. The romance between the lead pair has been well established and the climax is a clincher.
Sudeep as the bad, mean dirty villain steals the show. He had a very difficult role as he had to do all his scenes with an imaginary fly during the actual shoot of the film. Remember the fly was created at the post-production by CG work and special effects. Samantha looks beautiful and has done her role with consummate ease. Singer Chinmayi has done a great job in dubbing for her. Nani as the nice guy has a charm about him which makes the audiences later root for the fly.
Among the most breathtaking scenes in Naan Ee is the thrilling sequence when the Ee tries to stop Sudeep from reaching the airport so that he doesn’t take the flight with Bindu to Delhi! The romantic scene of the heroine whispering to the fly in a coffee shop with the waiter looking flabbergasted has you smiling. Santhanam in a cameo as a petty thief and how heroine’s ‘love’ transforms him is a scream.
Naan Ee is a film that touch both heart and mind; that make you surrender completely to the power of the experience. Ultimately however, the film belongs to one man and one man alone-SS Rajamouli. The man had the guts to make a film with a house fly as hero and used technology to translate his dream onto celluloid. PVP Cinemas who produced the film deserves a pat on their back for backing the project.
It’s films like this that make going to the cinema an out-of-the-world experience, and boy it’s jolly good fun. Don’t miss it.