Naan Mahaan Alla (2010 film)

For the 1984 film, see Naan Mahaan Alla (1984 film).

Naan Mahaan Alla
Audio poster
Directed 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 International
Release date(s)	August 20, 2010 (2010-08-20)
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, Kajal Aggarwal, Jayaprakash and Soori. It features music scored by Yuvan Shankar Raja and cinematography handled by R. Madhi and was produced by K. E. Gnanavelraja and distributed by Dayanidhi Azhagiri's Cloud Nine Movies. The film, not related to the namesake 1984 Rajinikanth-starrer, but based on a real life incident, released on 20 August 2010 to unanimously positive reviews, while also becoming a commercially successful venture.

It was later dubbed in Telugu as Naa Peru Shiva, released across 230 screens in Andhra Pradesh and became a success there too.

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. He doesn't tell her about his feelings and 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 he goes up to Priya's father against her pleas and tells him of their love. Jeeva eventually secures a good job as 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 group os sociopathic teenagers 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 his father forms the rest of the story.

Cast

• Karthi as Jeeva
• Kajal Aggarwal as Priya
• Jayaprakash as Pragasam
• Soori as Ravi
• Raviprakash 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 planning to do one 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. He was ready with the script by August 2009, revealing details about the project. While his previous work was based on sporting incidents in a rural background, this one was said to be a "total city subject", shot entirely in Chennai. An action family entertainer, it would deal about problems in city life, according to Suseenthiran. On 19 August 2009, it was 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. It was reportedly based on a real-life incident that happened to one of the relatives of director Suseenthiran. He scripted the film for five months.

Casting

While Vennila Kabadi Kuzhu (Suseenthiran's first feature film) starred mostly newcomers, he chose Karthi for the lead role in this 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". For the lead female role, Kajal Aggarwal, who had appeared in Tamil films as Pazhani, Saroja and Modhi Vilayadu, was roped in. Suseenthiran chose her after seeing her performances in the Telugu films Chandamama and Magadheera. He felt that her "cute expressions" were what he needed for that character. While Karthi's character is a middle-class bank employee, Aggarwal would play an employee in a mobile phone company.

Soori, who also played a comedic role in Vennila Kabadi Kuzhu was again included, while Jayaprakash, who essayed several supporting roles and rose to fame with his performance in Pasanga was chosen to play Karthi's father. As in his previous film, Suseenthiran introduced several new artists, such as five boys who played the villains. According to the director, he found three of them "loitering on a popular road in the city", whilst cinematographer Vijay Milton's assistant Ramachandran and cinematographer Aruldass debuted and played pivotal roles.

Filming

Filming began, after ten days of rehearsals, on 4 September 2009 and was held in cities as Chennai, Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam. In mid-September, reported locations included East Coast Road (ECR) near Chennai and later in the environs of the highways near Poonamallee in Chennai.

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), 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, features five songs, 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 credited for both. 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.

Only three songs were used in the film in their entirety, with "Oru Maalai Neram" being left out completely. The album received favorable reviews, with "Iragai Pole" in particular, sung by composer Yuvan Shankar Raja, becoming very popular. Before the soundtrack release, Yuvan claimed on Twitter that the song was one of his favorites, on which he had worked for days. 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. He garnered accolades for the film's score as well. As per Suseenthiran, the music was "crucial" in the second half of the film, which was the reason for opting for Yuvan Shankar. According to Karthi, Yuvan had worked for 12 days for the score of the second half, which has "hardly any dialogues", adding that he was the one "who narrates the story in the second half through his music".

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

It opened to unanimously positive reviews, with Top10Cinema.com labelling Naan Mahaan Alla as "outstanding", proceeding to highlight that "almost everything works: the plot and screenplay, performances, technical panoramas", while Pavithra Srinivasan of Rediff.com described it as "almost perfect", giving it 3 out of 5. Sreedhar Pillai of Sify.com also gave 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". 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 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".

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."

Box office

The film opened well, and made a steady progress in the Chennai box office, eventually becoming a very successful venture. In five weeks Naan Mahaan Alla made a collection of 5 crore; 4.47 crore was collected in Chennai city alone.

Accolades

Award	Category	Name	Outcome
2011 Edison Awards	Best Character Actor	Jayaprakash	Won
	Best Villain	Mahi, Anbu, Iman, Vinoth and Arun	Won
	Best PRO (Public Relations Officer)	John	Won
	Best Supporting Actress	Neelima Rani	Won
58th Filmfare Awards South	Best Music Director	Yuvan Shankar Raja	Nominated
	Best Male Playback	Yuvan Shankar Raja for Iragai Pole	Nominated
5th 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

External links

• Official website
• Naan Mahaan Alla at the Internet Movie Database