Naani is a strong reason for never ever plagiarising a Hollywood film into a regional language without sufficient nativity. Tom Hanks Big may have worked with the American audience but when you try to Indianise such subjects it leaves us dazed and totally confused.

What a letdown for Mahesh Babu who was climbing up the ladder of superstardom after that blockbuster Okkadu. And he has lost out in two consecutive films, Nijam and Naani and Mahesh has turned now into ‘Prince of darkness’ with this film. Even the camera of Guhan with his high-tech shots with blue-tint lighting has made the screen dark for more that 50 percent of the film that leaves the viewers further bewildered.

The story of Naani has not even been properly indianised by director S.J.Suryah, “who was working on the script for the last three years”! It is almost scene by scene lifted from the original.

An 8-year old kid Naani (Ashok Galla) feels that his mother (Devayani) is not treating him properly and tries to attempt suicide. When Naani seeks the help of a scientist named Science (!!) (Raghuvaran) about a way to become adult to get out of all this harassment the mad-cap scientist gives him an injection, which makes Naani a 28 year-old handsome hunk (Mahesh Babu). He works in a toy company as a product manager who test-markets new toys.

His kid-mind helps him to make great decisions and soon his boss (Nassar) daughter Priya (Amisha Patel) fall in love with his innocent good nature. But later he realizes that his mother is the epitome of love he wants to go back to her and the mad scientist now tries to bring him back to normal. But complications arise as he becomes an 8 year old during day and 28 year old during night! How this is sorted out forms the rest of this ridiculous story.

The film is disappointing as Suryah has made a mess out of the screenplay as the narrative is cluttered with too many characters and smutty dialogues. Aishwarya, Anjala, Brahmanandam, Ravi Babu and Sunil are wasted. The romance between the lead pair lacks any magic. The music of Rahman is average but the background score seems to have been done by someone else in Chennai.

The film has far too many double entendres and crude gags. And the much talked about “Markandeya…” item number from Ramya Krishnan was missing from the film. Have the censors cut it? One wonders if the film is from the sane S.J.Suryah who made a wholesome entertainer like Kushi?

Verdict: Disappointing