By Vivek Ramz

'Naan Ee' finally released amidst huge expectations and it turned out as the audience expected it to be – a good film. This bilingual film is the brain child of Telugu film-maker SS Rajamouli, who has given us blockbusters like 'Vikramarkudu' and 'Magadheera'. It was his childhood dream to direct a revenge film with a housefly in the lead! Yes, you got it right. The lead character in the film is a housefly! This film is the much awaited concept film that very few directors have attempted commercially.

What's it about?

The film opens with a voice over of a father narrating a story to put his child to sleep. Sudeep (Sudeep) is a playboy-cum-millionaire who can make any woman fall for him. Also, he can go to any extent to get his business deal done and doesn't even mind killing his wife or girl-friend for that. Meanwhile, we are also introduced to Bindhu (Samantha) who is miniature sculpture artist-cum-social worker who also secretly loves her neighbour, Nani (Nani). Sudeep sets his eyes on Bindhu when she comes to meet him for a donation campaign. Sudeep makes a pass at her but Bindhu decides to ignore him. She comes back and narrates the whole incident to her (now) boyfriend Nani. After getting to know that Bindhu loves Nani, Sudeep looses his cool and ultimately kills Nani. Nani is reborn as 'Ee' (Housefly) and remembers all the incidents of past birth. Now, he decides to take revenge on Sudeep as a fly. The revenge of Ee forms the rest of the story.

What works:

The film works mainly due to the gripping screenplay by SS Rajamouli. He has packaged the revenge saga with good mix of all the commercial ingredients like romance, comedy and songs. The film takes time to involve you as the director reveals the plot very slowly and inserts songs and unwarranted comedy sequences in the first half. The film takes off literally with the scene where the fly after his initial struggle, takes off from ground. After that, it's no looking back and the stage is set perfectly for the cat-and-mouse game between Sudeep and the housefly (Ee). Rajamouli has worked in detail to give equal strength to the characters and the action sequences are portrayed very realistically.

It's Sudeep who clearly walks away with top honours in this film. He has portrayed the bad guy with much perfection. Samantha is beautiful and has played her part well. Though there is very limited scope for Nani, he shines as the charming lover boy.

MM Keeravani's music is the backbone for this film as his re-recording elates the scenes to a higher level. Songs are okay-dokey type with only 'Veesum Velichathilea' standing out (mainly due to Karthik's voice). Kotagiri Venkateshwara Rao's scissors would have put to good use if he had decided to crop the lengthy first half a bit more. Senthil Kumar's camera work deserves special mention particulary for the colourful cinematography and super light work in the opening sequences between Nani and Samantha.

The review won't be complete without mentioning the scintillating visual effects. Almost half of the film has very high-quality CG work and Rajamouli never made a compromise anywhere when it came to special effects. The VFX work by Supervisor Pete Draper is just mind blowing where even the emotions of a fly are well brought out on the big screen.

Barring minor flaws, 'Naan Ee' is an entertainer all the way and Rajamouli succeeded in converting his dream into a near perfect commercial flick.

What to do?

'Naan Ee' is full-on entertainment guaranteed. So, go book your ticket, grab some coke and popcorn and enjoy this ultimate revenge saga!

in.com rating: 3.5/5