Will 'Nanban' repeat the magic of '3 Idiots'?

The Tamil remake of the 2009 Bollywood blockbuster '3 Idiots', 'Nanban' has hit theatre screens on Thursday, January 12. The big Pongal release has been directed by S. Shankar and stars Vijay, Jeeva and Srikanth in pivotal roles.

The interaction between the Hindi film industry and the Southern film industry has increased in last some years. 'Nanban', the official remake of Rajkumar Hirani's '3 Idiots' is the latest collaboration.

The inclination towards the social issues makes '3 Idiots' a difficult project to imitate. In fact one can entirely repeat the same storyline and dialogues but the soul of the film remains hidden in the core message. That's where the director Shankar will have to excel.

Shankar's last film was 'Enthiran' where he must have experienced the thrill of directing a larger than life superstar. This time too, he had three rather four big stars to handle. Shankar enjoys the back up of big studios and thus he can make film as per his choice but one thing that makes 'Nanban' distinct is its target audience.

South India is known for meritorious engineering and medical students who sacrifice their lives to crack prestigious entrance tests. It's not that they don't make it big in their chosen fields but somehow the majority of the students do so just for the sake of doing it.

This crowd is completely different than what we see in 'Rockstar' or for that matter in most of the Bollywood films. Youths with designer clothes and funky hairstyles are easier to pick than trees in these films.

The strata of the society represented in these films have a different social reality. It would be an insensible thing to degrade their problem or downsizing the severity of their problematic issues but how many of the Indians have the privilege of falling in love and feeling the pain of heartbreaks?

Probably this is the reason why '3 Idiots' was accepted in all quarters of India. Multiplexes and shopping complexes have mushroomed in metropolitans and the younger generation has shown the guts to spend big money on the articles of leisure rather say luxuries. This has helped the PR professionals to understand the true nature of the consumers and subsequently forming a well directed strategy. Their lies the actual difference because from here onwards films start to carve distinct audience base.

The makers can't avoid the tons of expectations but 'Nanban' has one plus point that it has a fixed story which is already appreciated by the audiences. Now, it's up to the makers to encash the buzz 'Nanban' has generated before its release.