Naan Avan Illai could have been better

Selva directs Naan Avan Illai (Tamil), a remake of K Balachander's movie with the same name released in the 70's. Looks like the remake fever is catching up with Kollywood also what with Ajith announcing Billa 2007, a remake of Rajnikanth's Billa, which in itself, was a remake of Chandra Barot's AB cult classic "Don". I know I am deviating from this remake to remakes in general. Let me come back to the remake in question. Naan Avan Illai is the story of our hero (Jeevan- can't name his character as he sports different names in the movie) who is into wooing good looking girls, marrying them and then, duping them of all their belongings, obviously, after sleeping with them. The movie starts with 4 such duped girls (Malavika, Jyothirmayee, Keerthi Chawla and Namitha) filing a complaint against the hero. The police manages to arrest the culprit and produce him in court and the rest of the movie is about how each of the girls tries to prove that Jeevan is the culprit and how he cleverly manages to claim "Naan Avan Illai" (I am not him) against each of their allegations. As the drama unfolds in the court room, the audience is taken to the flashbacks which shows how the hero had duped each of his victims. In the middle of all this, there is another girl who falls for the hero's intelligence and that is none other than the judge's daughter played by Sneha. Coincidentally, Sneha has also been duped in the past by Jeevan of some money, posing himself as a painter and delivering her an empty frame instead of the painting. At the end of it all, we have the hero being acquitted by the court since the prosecution is unable to prove that it indeed was Jeevan who duped all the four ladies. Then comes a twist, quickly followed by another and there ends the movie! Naan Avan Illai suffers from what every remake suffers- comparisons with the original. And when the original is a classic, directed by one of the best directors Indian cinema has ever seen, the comparisons and criticisms can only get worse. Director Selva does have some grip on his narration, but could have concenterated more on building up the stories and the characters, instead of wasting time by filming one song each on each of the five heroines. He seems to have made this compromise to attract the audience who will feel cheated if they dont have things like Namitha and Malavika showing off their skin during the song sequences. This is where the problem lies with the movie. It ends up being neither here nor there. At times, one wonders how could smart, educated and intelligent girls fall for a guy head over heels in just a couple of meetings. Mind it, the girls who are duped are not your dumb teenager kind- one is a model, another is a successful entrepreneur etc etc. Pattukottai Prabhakar's dialogues are good. His mastery comes to the fore in the final court verdict, effectively delivered by the veteran actress Lakshmi, who plays the judge. Vijay Antony's music is fair, "Yen Enakku" filmed on Jeevan and Sneha and the title song with Jeevan and all the five heroines stand out. Camera, Editing, Art direction and Sound are good. The movie has a glossy look about it too. Namitha scorches the screen with her presence, but the rate at which her waistline is increasing, the time is not far away when she will end up playing the screen mother to our heroes. Malavika looks hot, Keerthi Chawla does not get much screen time and Jyothirmayee is adequate. It is good to see veteran actress Lakshmi back on the screen after a hiatus, and that too in a significant role. As always, she makes good use of her screen time. Sneha looks fetching though she does not have much to do in terms of acting. The actress needs to be complimented for her extremely wearable wardrobe, as opposed to the other girls in the movie. Jeevan carries the entire movie on his broad shoulders. With every movie, one can see him maturing as an actor. However, he needs to work on his looks, hairstyle and wardrobe, if he does not want to get himself typecast as an anti hero. On the whole, Naan Avan Illai is a glossy remake of its classy original and borders on crassy at times, thanks to the presence of Namitha, who has still not learnt how to look sexy without being vulgar.