Naan is a 2012 Indian Tamil-language crime thriller film written and directed by Jeeva Shankar. Composer Vijay Antony plays the lead role of a psychopathic killer; he also produced the film and worked as the music director. Siddharth Venugopal and Rupa Manjari appeared in supporting roles. The filming of Naan began in April 2010. The film was released on 15 August 2012. The movie was remade in Bengali in 2015 as Amanush 2 and in Kannada in 2016 as Asthitva. The film was followed by a sequel titled Salim, an action thriller that released in 2014. The plot of the film is loosely based on 1999 American film The Talented Mr. Ripley.
Plot
As a little boy, Karthik is a brilliant student but already shows signs of criminal behavior, forging his friend's parent's signature on a mark sheet. Sent home from school early for this misdeed, Karthik is shocked to discover his mother in bed with his uncle. His mother begs him not to tell his father, but he does so, and his father commits suicide. Karthik's mother and uncle continue their relationship; Karthik then kills his mother and uncle by setting the house on fire. He is sent to a juvenile home where he grows up. On his release, the warden gives him the address of another of his uncles and asks him to concentrate on his studies. Karthik's uncle and aunt are not interested in taking him in, so he goes to Chennai to start a new life. As fate would have it, the bus meets with an accident, and his co-passenger Salim dies. Karthik steals Salim's documents, adopts his identity, and enrolls in a medical school. He develops friendships with a rich fellow-student named Ashok, his girlfriend Rupa, and their friend Suresh. Ashok allows Karthik to stay in his house rent-free. Later, Salim and Ashok encounter the warden from the juvenile home, who seems to recognize Karthik. However, since Karthik is now impersonating Salim, he picks a fight with the warden and swears that he is not Karthik. This incident causes Ashok to doubt his friend's identity. One day, Ashok and Suresh plan to go to a farmhouse without Rupa. Suresh suggests that they take some other girls along. Salim lets Rupa know of this plan. Rupa starts to suspect Ashok's fidelity, and Ashok worries that Salim betrayed him to Rupa. Ashok slaps Salim and asks him to get out of his place. Salim, seeing no other way, apologizes to him and looks for another lodging. Ashok is still full of suspicion. While Salim is showering, Ashok opens Salim's briefcase. He finds a photo of Salim's real-life father and realizes that it is a different man from the one that Salim had introduced as his father earlier. Suddenly, Salim enters the room and asks Ashok to give back the photo. Ashok refuses, removes Salim's towel, and confirms that he is not a Muslim, as he was not circumcised. Salim gets angry and pushes Ashok; Ashok hits his head on a table and dies. At first, Salim is shocked by this unexpected accident, but he then covers up the murder so intelligently that no one ever finds out that Ashok is dead. When a family friend of Ashok's, who has seen Ashok only in his childhood, plans to meet him, he successfully impersonates Ashok in front of Ashok's own parents and Rupa. Suresh, however, discovers Salim's deception. Salim then kills Suresh and buries him. The following day, the police come and reveal that they have found Suresh's corpse. They interrogate several people in the community including Salim, but they cannot find the truth. They conclude that Ashok killed Suresh and then absconded; meanwhile, they consider Karthik an innocent student. Karthik continues to live as Salim, after seeking permission from Salim's father and promises to take care of him. The film ends with the tagline "To Be Continued", which hints at a sequel.
The film was initially launched in 2008, with Siddharth Venugopal and Rukmini Vijayakumar playing the lead roles, however, due to the failure of his previous film Ananda Thandavam, the producerOscar Ravichandran called off the project. The film restarted with Vijay Antony's intervention in December 2010 who also took the lead role from Siddharth.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack has six tracks, composed by Vijay Antony himself. Following Yuvan Shankar Raja, who created single tracks in Vaanam and Mankatha, Vijay Antony too released a single track "Makkayala Makkayala" in June 2011. All the songs in the album are composed by Vijay Antony.
Release
Critical reception
Malathi Rangarajan from The Hindu praised as "Well done!" and said: "A plethora of pluses make Naan watch-worthy. Vijay Antony’s acumen comes to the fore in his choice of a subject that’s strong and a character that’s stronger". N. Venkateswaran from The Times of India gave Naan 3.5 out of 5 stars, writing that "but for some minor blips, the writing is pretty gripping throughout, and keeps the audience on the edge of the seats", calling it "he perfect thriller to spice up the weekend". IBNLive writing that "'Naan' is racy and appealing" and also adding that "it is a racy crime thriller that is quite an appealing effort from Jeeva Shankar and Vijay Antony." The Behindwoods Review Board gave the film 2.5 out of 5 calling it a "suspense thriller that works for most parts." Deccan Chronicle stated that "Vijay Antony changes beat". Sify rated it average calling it a "decent psychological thriller." Upon release, it was noted that the film had been inspired from The Talented Mr. Ripley.
Other languages
Following its success in the Tamil market, the film was dubbed in Telugu, to be released under the title Nakili. It was remade in Bengali as Amanush 2 which released in April 2015. Kannada Remake released in 2016 as Asthitva.
Awards
Legacy
A sequel to the movie was released in August 2014 by the name Salim. In March 2014, it was reported that the film would be remade in Hindi with Prashanth in the lead role. Despite a production delay, Thiagarajan confirmed during an interview that the film would be made in February 2017.
