While bank robberies and other crimes have happened in many Tamil films(a recent one being Sindhanai Sei), they played only a small part in the story and the narratives focused more on what happened before or after the heist. We've never had a real heist movie - one where the crime itself was the biggest part of the story. Pre-release reports led us to believe that Naanayam was a Tamil film in this hitherto unexplored genre. And for the first half of the film, that does seem to be true. But then the film turns out to be an ordinary thriller masquerading as a heist movie. And its not a very original thriller either.

Ravi(Prasanna) has designed a new security system for Trust Bank and is given the chance to implement it at the bank's new branch. The success of the system will pave the way for him to get a loan to start up his own security company. He meets Nandhini(Ramya), a journalist, and their relationship quickly blossoms into a romance but he gets into trouble when her ex-husband enters the picture. Farid(Sibi), who has a score to settle with Trust Banks CEO(S.P.Balasubramaniam), uses the situation to his advantage and blackmails Ravi into helping him break into the bank's vault.

Once the movie gets things like Prasanna's dream of being his own boss and his romance out of the way, it puts the pieces in place for a good heist movie as we get an elaborate security system for the bank's vault with security cameras, lasers and electrified, underwater vaults. The fact that the man who designed and set the whole thing up is also going to be part of the heist makes things simpler somewhat but the security protocols, like the phone call from Bangalore and the key around the neck of a bank employee, ensure that there are still a few challenges to be surmounted. Prasanna's predicament also makes us sympathize with him and wonder how he is going to get out of it.

But the movie ends up being all foreplay. While there are a few instances of Prasanna setting up his plan (the movie is one of the few that uses technology correctly. Using an iPhone app to locate the place to dig is a nice touch), the film spends way too much time on things leading up to the actual heist. As Prasanna tries to extricate himself from the mess multiple times and Sibi turns the tables on him each time, it becomes clear that the movie isn't setting aside much time for the heist itself.

The heist ends up being not just short but silly too. Suspense and tension are non-existent as there is no time for things to go wrong and the participants to change their plan, an usual occurrence in heist movies. Ramya's dance to get past the lasers to switch them off is implausible and ridiculous, aside from raising the question of how someone who wants to reach the vault legally would do so since the only switch is located beyond the lasers. There are a few subsequent twists but these wouldn't come as a surprise to someone who has watched the Hollywood flick The Bank Job.

Prasanna does a neat job as the harried hero constantly looking for a way out. Sibi has always reminded us of his dad Satyaraj with his body language and dialog delivery and since he's playing a bad guy, the similarities seem more pronounced here. But the casual approach does work well. Ramya looks pretty and is convincing in her role while S.P.Balasubramaniam, who looks almost impossibly big, is adequate. The music, the cinematography and the editing give the movie a slick look and make it atleast look like a heist movie. Songs are unnecessary interruptions but Naan Pogiren... is a nice number that is also picturized in a nice locale.