Nanban

Three engineering students meet in the same hostel. One is under pressure from a wealthy family, one wants to be a photographer, and the third obeys no rule at all. Years later two of them set out to find the third, and across that search the narrative returns to their university years. The subject is not friendship but rote learning. The institution facing these characters rewards marks rather than understanding, and the film's entire objection is aimed there. The strand about suicide is its hardest passage. The form is mainstream Tamil cinema: songs, comedy, emotional confrontations. Shankar was known for large-scale work; here he mostly stays on campus. The production is the Tamil remake of the Hindi film 3 Idiots. The plot was largely preserved, which became a matter of debate; some critics wrote that the film added nothing of its own. It nonetheless worked with Tamil audiences and did well commercially. Vijay, Jiiva and Srikanth play the three friends and Ileana D'Cruz the female lead. The music is by Harris Jayaraj. Who it is for: viewers who like campus stories and criticism of the education system. Who it is not for: anyone looking for something original; the film follows a known source scene by scene.