Naani

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Naani
Naani poster.jpg
Film poster
Directed by S. J. Suryah
Written byS. J. Suryah
Sobhan (Dialogues)
Produced by Manjula Ghattamaneni
Starring Mahesh Babu
Amisha Patel
Devayani
Cinematography K. V. Guhan
Edited by A. Sreekar Prasad
Music by A. R. Rahman
Production
company
Release date
  • 14 May 2004 (2004-05-14)
Running time
120 minutes
CountryIndia
LanguageTelugu
Budgetest.₹9 crore [1]

Naani is a 2004 Indian Telugu-language science-fiction romantic comedy film directed by S. J. Surya and starring Mahesh Babu, Ameesha Patel and Devayani. The film is a bilingual, simultaneously shot in Tamil as New with a slightly different cast and features music composed by A. R. Rahman. Made on a budget of ₹12 crore, the film released on 14 May 2004. It was a disaster at the box-office. [2]

Contents

Plot

Naani is a mischievous eight-year-old boy who is always troubling his mother. His mother scolds him for his behaviour, such as when he eats toothpaste or wets his bed. Naani falls down on a road one day and a young woman helps him. Naani's elder brother plans to watch a movie with his friends in the absence of their parents and Naani demands to join him, which his brother does not allow. Angered, Naani cuts off the power which creates a short circuit at home. Naani's mother scolds him and shouts at her husband for not stopping with one child. This hurts Naani and he runs away from home to jump into a river. But he is stopped by an old man who takes Naani to his place. The old man introduces himself as a scientist who has his own laboratory. He insists that Naani help him in his research. Naani agrees and the scientist uses his research to transform him into a young adult man. Naani starts to live as a young man physically, but remains a child mentally. He stays away from his family. The only person other than the scientist who knows the truth is his child friend. Naani meets a girl (Priya) at a park who helped him once when he fell down. Naani helps remove dust from her eyes, smiles at her, and leaves. The girl is attracted to him and looks for him.

Naani goes for a job interview at a toy manufacturing company. The owner who interviews him demands that he think like a child to understand children's tastes. Naani gets the job easily. The company falls into the hands of the owner's daughter who turns out to be Priya. Priya is happy to see Naani in her company. Their friendship makes Raj (another employee) jealous. Naani overcomes Raj's idea for a new type of bed for kids and introduces his own idea. Naani meets his brother as an anonymous man and hears that their mother is depressed over Naani's disappearance. Naani meets his mother who had fallen ill. Naani asks the scientist to change him back. The scientist complies and Naani reconciles with his mother. That night he changes back into the young man, shocking the scientist.

Naani lives as an eight-year-old boy during the day and as a twenty eight-year man (Vijay aka Vichu) at night. Priya expresses her love, but Vichu tells her to love a man suitable for her age. The scientist tells Vichu to accept Priya. Priya asks him to accompany her to a matinee. Young boy Naani cannot appear. He sees Priya angrily waiting for Vichu at the theatre while going home with his mother. Naani's mother befriends Priya and Priya comes to like Naani. Priya gets angry at Vichu's absence. She finally decides to marry Vichu. Raj kidnaps him on the wedding day, but then Vichu becomes Naani. The kidnappers release him. Naani becomes Vichu and marries Priya that evening. Vichu knows nothing about marital life.

Naani somehow manages his mother by disappearing at night. Priya needs a child so she intentionally shows her skin to Vichu, who responds and they have sex. Priya becomes pregnant. Vichu once meets his mother and understands the difficulties of pregnancy for a woman. Naani's child friend demands to play with him, but Naani's schedule is too complicated. Naani slaps his friend and to make him angry and reveals the truth to Priya. Priya is shocked to hear that she is bearing the child of a child.

Priya argues with Vichu for marrying her and making her pregnant, but Vichu blames her arrogance for involving him. Naani turns into Vichu in front of her, shocking Priya. Vichu reveals that he loves her. Priya now goes into labour and Vichu takes her to hospital. On the way Vichu is stopped by Raj's men seeking revenge. Vichu overcomes them. Everybody learns the truth about Naani and Priya as she gives birth to their son.

Twenty years pass. Naani reaches twenty-eight. He lives with Priya as her husband. He goes inside his room as Naani and comes out as a forty-eight-year-old Vichu, father of a twenty-year-old son.

Cast

Production

After the success of Kushi (2000) and its Telugu version Kushi (2001), Suryah began pre-production work on a third story titled New (2004). [4] During the process, he felt that making the story into a bilingual film with a Telugu version would help the film's finances and that Mahesh Babu was a perfect fit for the main role. [5] Hence, production began for the Telugu version, Naani, as well.

Soundtrack

Naani
Soundtrack album by
A. R. Rahman
Released2 April 2004
Recorded Panchathan Record Inn
Genre Feature Film Soundtrack
Producer A. R. Rahman
A. R. Rahman chronology
New
(2004)		Naani
(2004)		 Dil Ne Jise Apna Kahaa
(2004)
No.TitleLyricsSinger(s)Length
1."Naani Vayase" Veturi, Blaaze (English lyrics) Karthik, Vijay Prakash, Blaaze, Sunitha Sarathy, Tanvi Shah 4:33
2."Chakkera" Sirivennela Seetharama Sastry S.P. Balasubrahmanyam, Sujatha Mohan 5:53
3."Vasta Nee Venuka"Sirivennela Seetharama Sastry Hariharan, Harini 5:34
4."Pedave Palikina" Chandrabose Unnikrishnan, Sadhana Sargam 4:24
5."Spiderman"Sirivennela Seetharama Sastry Kunal Ganjawala, Gopika Poornima 5:59
6."Markandeya"Veturi Shankar Mahadevan, Nithyasree Mahadevan 6:12
7."Naaku Nuvvu"Sirivennela Seetharama Sastry, Blaaze (English lyrics) Hariharan, Gopika Poornima 4:11
Total length:36:56

Reception

Jeevi of Idlebrain.com rated the film two out of five, writing, "the movie suffers from artificialness and [a] bad script." [6] A critic from Sify wrote that "The film has far too many double entendres and crude gags" and added that "One wonders if the film is from the sane S.J.Suryah who made a wholesome entertainer like Kushi". [3] A critic from IANS rated the film two-and-a-half out of five and wrote that "It is interesting fare for viewers who crave for different movies. Unfortunately, the Telugu audience has rarely patronised films with non-heroes or anti-heroes". [7] A critic from Full Hyderabad wrote that "Overall, Naani has the half-baked feel of a shabby music video. The tale is definitely told, but it lacks a lot of character". [8] The Tamil version performed well, while the Telugu version was not as strong commercially. [9]

See also

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References

  1. ↑ Kanth, K. Rajani (26 December 2003). "2003 - Year of all-time hits & mega failures for Tollywood". Business Standard. Archived from the original on 15 July 2022. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
  2. ↑ Ogirala, Mohan Rao (24 June 2004). "It's raining flops on Tollywood's parade". The Times of India . Archived from the original on 12 September 2022. Retrieved 12 September 2022. The Chiranjeevi-starrer Anji didn't run for long though the film took over Rs 30 crore and five years to complete. Similar was the fate of Teja's Jai, Mani Ratnam's Yuva, Mahesh Babu's Nani and Prabhas starrer Adavi Ramudu.
  3. 1 2 "Naani". Sify . 17 May 2004. Archived from the original on 30 August 2020. Retrieved 30 August 2020.
  4. ↑ "Telugu Cinema Etc - Idlebrain.com". www.idlebrain.com. Archived from the original on 2 July 2013. Retrieved 7 September 2015.
  5. ↑ Mannath, Malini (20 April 2004). "Director S J Surya". Chennai Online. Archived from the original on 16 October 2006.
  6. ↑ "Telugu cinema Review - Nani - Mahesh Babu, Amisha Patel - SJ Suryah - AR Rehman". www.idlebrain.com. Archived from the original on 13 September 2019. Retrieved 7 September 2015.
  7. ↑ "Naani Telugu Movie". IANS . 11 December 2003. Archived from the original on 8 May 2024. Retrieved 12 April 2024– via Nowrunning.
  8. ↑ Verma, Mithun. "Naani Review". fullhyd.com. Archived from the original on 2 February 2022. Retrieved 12 April 2024.
  9. ↑ "Entertainment Hyderabad : His father's son". The Hindu . 3 June 2005. Archived from the original on 6 July 2015.
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