We saw Naanayam the day before, a Pongal release Tamil movie. Here's my review -

Rating 6.0/10

Tamil movie industry in the past 1-2 yrs has seen a renaissance of sorts with investment from risk-taking producers who give opportunities to new directors, actors, music directors, singers, technicians etc. This trend has given us several movies which are different from the usual norm. Naanayam is another one of those movies - to that effect, kudos to the folks involved for trying something new. Unfortunately, trying isn't everything...

The movie is about a bank heist. Prasanna designs the safest bank, gets blackmailed and now has to crack his own safeguards... The movie is sleek in style but the screenplay does not keep up the pace. The script and the director fail to maintain the suspense and unpredictability of the movie, which is critical and vital for movies in such genre. When you don't have grand action like the Italian Job, all you are left with is the mind games and the movie fails to do that.

Prasanna, the lead actor does justice to his role but nothing spectacular. Sibiraj tried his hand in playing a negative role - decent but when your Dad is the "Tagudenganne? Tagudu Tagudu?" guy you can't help but compare Sibi to Sathyaraj and he certainly doesn't match up. Bad casting for the lead actress, she attempts a Catherine-zeta Jones at dodging the laser beams protecting the bank vault (remember Entrapment?, a movie worth watching just for Zeta in that one scene) but has neither the looks nor the sensuality. Music sucks, background score is fine. Cinematagraphy is pretty good. SPB plays the role of the Bank CEO but is largely unused. Twists in the movie are predictable and don't make you sit up and focus.

Not a must see, watch it at leisure. Producer and Director should have studied the movie 'Eeram' to learn how to keep up the suspense till the end.