Naan Mahaan Alla (2010 film)

Naan Mahaan Alla(transl.I Am Not A  Saint) is a 2010 IndianTamil-languageaction filmdirected bySuseenthiranand produced byStudio Green.It starsKarthi,Kajal Aggarwal,JayaprakashandSoori. The music was composed byYuvan Shankar Rajawith  cinematography handled byR. Madhiand editing byKasi Viswanathan.Set inChennai, Jeeva is an unemployed carefree young man whose father becomes the target of a gang of young criminals after witnessing a kidnapping.
The film is not related to the1984 film of the same nameand is based on a real-life incident.
Naan Mahaan Allawas released on 20 August 2011 to positive reviews from critics with praise for  the cast performances, action sequences and realistic tone.
Jeeva is aChennai-based youngster from a middle-class family. Pragasam is Jeeva's father and acall taxi driverwho is also the family's sole breadwinner. Jeeva meets a woman named Priya at their friend's wedding and soon they fall for each other. Upon meeting Priya's father, Jeeva is asked to get a job first to get married. Jeeva accepts and takes the job as abank manager, but soon gets fired. Pragasam, who had witnessed the killing of two youngsters by a group of 5 young men, gets attacked by them, where he is admitted to the hospital. The gang tries to kill him again in the absence of Jeeva but to no avail.
Pragasam is brought home and Jeeva starts taking responsibility for his family by reclaiming his lost job and maintaining all the accounts. Looking at the news reports of the girl that boarded his taxi and was raped and then mutilated by the gang, Pragasam calls Jeeva to accompany him to the morgue, where he helps theinvestigating officerby providing clues about the killer. Sensing trouble, the gang enlists the help of Pey Babu, one of the member's uncle, to plan and kill Pragasam after explaining how they killed the girl and her lover. When Pragasam and Jeeva go out to shop for the latter's sister's wedding, one of the men calls Jeeva on behalf of a store, thus separating him from Pragasam. The gang then creates a stampede by throwing bottles as one of them stabs Pragasam with a piece of poisoned glass shard. Pragasam soon dies in Jeeva's arms, leaving Jeeva devastated.
Following his cremation, Jeeva tells the cops not to pursue the killers anymore as it would bring nothing, but trouble for his middle-class family. However, Jeeva decides totake the law into his hands, fearing the gang might commit more inhumane crimes if they are scot-free. Jeeva recalls one of the men during his father's death, who looked the same as Pragasam described him during his visit to the morgue. Jeeva enlists the help of his friend and a gangster named Kutti Nadesan to track down the gang. With his influence, Kutti Nadesan asks his gang to bring all the guys who plan for a murder in Chennai so that Jeeva can identify him. While Jeeva is busy identifying the killers, Pey Babu leaves upon being questioned by Nadesan.
Jeeva realizes Pey Babu was the man who delivered pamphlets at his home before Pragasam's murder. A chase ensues and Jeeva succeeds in capturing Pey Babu after a brief fight. He orders him to call the boys and tell them to stay in front of their college. Jeeva succeeds in capturing his father's killer and tries to escape, but the gang gets alerted and ends up freeing their friend from Jeeva's custody following a glass bottle attack. One of the gang members stabs Pey Babu to his death. Jeeva chases the attacker near a railway line where the two brutally fight, resulting in the attacker getting run over by a train.
Jeeva visits the deceased gang member's funeral to catch his friends, who escape before Jeeva sees them. They go to the beach and Nadesan is also there, along with his henchmen. The gang gets drunk and vows to kill Jeeva, who contacts Nadesan to find out about the four remaining boys. Noticing the boys yelling, Nadesan asks for specifics and confirms the gang's location at the beach. While trying to confront the gang, Nadesan and his henchmen are lured into a trap, where they are all eliminated one by one before Jeeva arrives. A brutal fight ensues, leaving the gang members fatally wounded. Jeeva throws them into a pit and departs after burying all of them.
After his first feature filmVennila Kabadi Kuzhu, released in February 2009, became a success, receiving much critical acclaim as well, directorSuseenthiranstarted to work on the script for his next film. Initially planning to do one titledAzhagarsamiyin 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 inChennai.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 titledNaan Mahaan Allaand would be produced by K. E. Gnanavelraja under the banner of Studio Green, who earlier had producedSuriya'sSillunu Oru Kadhaland the award-winningParuthiveeranbyAmeer Sultan, which incidentally also starredKarthiin the lead role.It was reportedly based on a real-life incident that happened to one of the relatives of directorSuseenthiran.He scripted the film for five months.
WhileVennila 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 likePazhani,SarojaandModhi Vilayadu, was roped in. Suseenthiran chose her after seeing her performances in theTelugu filmsChandamamaandMagadheera. 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 inVennila Kabadi Kuzhuwas again included, while Jayaprakash, who played several supporting roles and rose to fame with his performance inPasangawas chosen to play Karthi's father.As in his previous film, Suseenthiran introduced several new artists,such as five boys who played the villains with one of them being Vinod who played the younger character ofSuryainNandha.According to the director, he found three of them "loitering on a popular road in the city", whilst cinematographer Vijay Milton's assistantRamachandran Durairajand cinematographerAruldossdebuted and played pivotal roles.
Filming began, after ten days ofrehearsals,on 4 September 2009 and was held in cities asChennai,HyderabadandVisakhapatnam.In mid-September, reported locations includedEast Coast Road(ECR) nearChennaiand later in the environs of the highways nearPoonamalleein Chennai.
The soundtrack ofNaan Mahaan Allais composed byYuvan Shankar Raja, making this his third collaboration withKarthi, after scoring highly successful results withParuthiveeran(2007) andPaiyaa(2010),and his first with directorSuseenthiran, who worked withV. Selvaganeshfor his previous film. The soundtrack album, which features five songs, with lyrics penned byNa. MuthukumarandYugabharathiwas released on 24 July 2010 atSathyam CinemasinChennai.The album received extremely positive reviews, with "Iragai Pole" in particular, sung by composer Yuvan Shankar Raja, becoming hugely popular, topping the charts for several weeks.
Naan Mahaan Allareceived positive reviews from critics.
Pavithra Srinivasan ofRediffgave 3/5 stars and described the film is "almost perfect."Sreedhar Pillai ofSifywrote "Naan Mahaan Allareinvents the staple formula but stands out for its sheer style, speed and storytelling methods."Bhama Devi Rani ofThe Times of Indiagave 3.5/5 stars, 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 considering Karthi's performance as his "best work yet".
The film opened well and made a steady progress in the box office, eventually becoming a very successful venture.In five weeksNaan Mahaan Allamade a collection of₹5 crore with₹4.47 crore was collected inChennai.