Naanayam

Plot

The plot opens with the introduction of Ravi (Prasanna) an electronics engineer,who introduces himself as a youthful guy who aspires to become a businessman. He meets Viswanath (S. P. Balasubrahmanyam), the CEO of Trust Bank in a golf course when he fights to grab a bag belonging to Viswanath from a stranger. Ravi saves Viswanath and chases the stranger. He is unable to catch him, but gets a glimpse of the man's face. Viswanath thanks Ravi and offers him a job in his bank and also assures his to provide a loan of Rs. 2 crores to start his own business. The bank promotes its new branch as the 'World's safest bank' with the security locker designed by Ravi. Ravi works in Trust Bank for 5 years as his loan approval gets rejected so many times despite Viswanath's attempts to get it approved.

Ravi meets a girl Nandhini (Ramya Raj), a divorced news reporter in a golf club and they become friends. Slowly love blossoms between them and Ravi, once during his date with Nandhini, is attacked by Nandhini's ex-husband Raghu. He counterattacks him and goes home. While in his home, Ravi meets Fareed (Sibi Raj) who tells that Ravi killed Raghu and there are evidences to prove. Fareed also kidnaps Nandhini. Despite Ravi is confident he did not kill him, he has no other go but to obey the words of helping them to rob the bank to save himself and Nandhini. Fareed says that he is an ex-employee of Trust Bank and was fired by Viswanth for mismanagement of funds. So Fareed wants to take revenge on Viswanath by robbing Trust Bank which will negatively impact its trustworthiness and he wants Ravi to help him as he is the one behind the safety system design. Ravi and Fareed plan to rob the bank which has infrared lasers and a four-leveled lock system vault. Meanwhile, Ravi records the conversations going on between them and hands it over to his assistant Devaki (Yasmin) to save himself. Ravi demands Rs.2 Crore, the photographic evidences of the murder from the robbers before the theft. Fareed initially gives it but takes it back and gives Ravi another bag similar to it.

Ravi discloses all the security system to enter the vault and as per plan Fareed and his men enter into the vault. Ravi did not inform them about a secret exit in the vault and he makes a plan to get Fareed and his men to get trapped. Ravi suddenly escapes through the secret exit and locks others inside the vault and rushes to meet Viswanath where he also sees Nandhini with him. Ravi gets shocked seeing Nandhini along with Viswanath and gets to know all the truth. The robbery is actually a plan of Viswanath who did it in order to grab the bag which has evidences of his illegal affair with Nandhini actually named Eswari. The stranger took pictures of Viswanath and Eswari and blackmails Viswanath in turn for money. The stranger also safely places the evidence in Trust bank's locker. So to steal the evidence, Viswanath planned a robbery with Fareed who is the brother of Eswari. The man who Ravi was told to be killed by him was actually a new employee in Fareed's gang. Viswanath apologizes to Ravi for the trouble created by him and kills himself. Fareed and Eswari are arrested and all his gang members die inside the vault due to the lack of oxygen supply. Ravi destroys all the evidence of the illegal affair of Viswanath and finds Rs.2 Crore in the back side of his car which actually was demanded by him from Fareed and which he actually opt for to start his new business.

Cast

Production

In November 2008, the film began its pre-production with Prasanna being signed on to play the lead role, whilst before the end of the year, Sibiraj and Ramya Raj also signed on to be a part of Charan's project. The film progressed quietly through 2008 under the working title of Kavasam, with the subject being described as a "crime thriller". The music for the film released in November 2009, whilst the film released the following January coinciding with the Tamil festival of Thai Pongal.

Soundtrack

Film score (BGM) scored by Thaman of Eeram and Mundhinam Paartheney fame. The soundtracks are composed by James Vasanthan of Subramaniapuram and Pasanga fame, who for the first time scores music for a thriller film. Actor Silambarasan and music composer Devi Sri Prasad sung together for one song, apart from the likes of S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, K. S. Chithra and Sunitha Sarathy.

Box Office

The film opened in most centres across Chennai, Tamil Nadu to a mixed opening. The film which grossed Rs. 7,99,274 in the opening weekend in Chennai

Reviews

Upon release, the film generally received mixed reviews. In reference to the performances, Rediff claimed that Prasanna is "sweet, savvy, intense and desperate as the situation demands" and that his diction "too is superb". It went on to claim that Sibiraj who makes more of an impact despite, that "he apes his esteemed father often, especially in tone of voice and modulation" but "he seems to have had a blast doing it". Ramya Raj has "more than one role to play, and does justice to it" whilst SPB plays his role with "élan". In reference to the script Behindwoods criticized it by labelling that "the script employs countless twists and turns, although only a few of them really work – before which the damage of ruining it is already done", whilst also mentioning that "Naanayam also feels like it is inspired from a vaguely familiar Hollywood movie."