New (film)

New is a 2004 Indian Tamil-language science fiction comedy film directed, written and produced by S. J. Suryah, who also stars alongside Simran. Kiran Rathod and Devayani play supporting roles. In the film, an 8-year-old child gets an experiment done on him that requires him to live as himself during the day and like a 28-year-old man at night. Chaos begins after he toggles between two roles simultaneously.

New was simultaneously shot in Telugu as Naani with Mahesh Babu and Ameesha Patel, while Devayani reprised her role in Naani. The plot is adapted from the 1988 American film Big. It was released on 9 July 2004.

Plot
Pappu is a mischievous eight-year-old boy who always troubles his mother Indira. He frequently gets scoldings due to his bed-wetting. Pappu's elder brother Kishore plans to watch a porn movie with his friends in his room, to which he insists on joining them. When Kishore refuses and gets rid of him, Pappu cuts off the power out of anger, creating a short circuit at home. Indira scolds Pappu for his dangerous act and shouts at her husband for not stopping with one child. Distraught, Pappu runs away from home to end his life near a river, but is stopped by a man who takes him to his home. The man introduces himself as a scientist who has his own laboratory. He insists Pappu to take a medicine invented by him which will transform a boy into a fully-grown man. Pappu agrees, and the scientist transforms him into a young man. Pappu starts to live as a young man physically, but he is childlike psychologically. The only person other than the scientist who knows the truth is Pappu's classmate and friend, Deepak.

Now an adult, Pappu goes for an interview in a toy manufacturing company under the name of Vichu. The owner interviewing him demands that he empathise with children to understand their taste. Since Vichu is a child, he gets the job easily. Vichu meets the daughter of the owner, Priya, whom Vichu helped her to her feet at an amusement park before. She is surprised and happy to see him in her company, and love blossoms between them. The Priya-Vichu intimacy creates a jealousy for Raj, another employee in the company who intends to woo her and humiliate Vichu. Vichu meets Kishore as an anonymous man and learns that their mother is very depressed and sick following her younger son's disappearance. She laments being so strict with him. Vichu realises his mother's love and goes to the scientist to revert him to his eight-year-old self. The scientist transforms Vichu into Pappu, and he reconciles with his mother. But at night, he changes back to Vichu, and he immediately rushes to the scientist who does not know what had gone wrong and both of them are shocked at the mishap.

Pappu now lives as an eight-year-old boy during daytime and as a 28-year-old Vichu during the night. Priya expresses her love to him. Vichu tells her to love a man suitable for her age, but he reciprocates her love upon the scientist's coercion. One day, Priya asks him to accompany her to a matinee show, to which he rejects due to his transformation mixup. Pappu's mother befriends Priya as they are neighbours, and Priya likes the boy Pappu. Priya is angered by Vichu's absence. She angrily hits Vichu and finally decides to marry him. Raj gets Vichu kidnapped on the day of marriage, but he changes to Pappu during the day. The kidnappers release him as they think they kidnapped a child by mistake. Pappu transforms to Vichu and marries Priya that evening. Pappu somehow manages his mother by disappearing during nights. Priya longs for a child, so they have sex which results in Priya becoming pregnant. Vichu/Pappu meets his mother and understands the difficulties of pregnancy, prompting him to take care of his wife with more affection.

Deepak demands ice cream but Vichu refuses as has a tight schedule as a son, employee, and husband. Deepak gets angry, fights with and reveals the truth to Priya that Vichu is Pappu and she is shocked that she is bearing the baby of a child. Priya argues with Pappu for ruining her life and making her pregnant, during which he transforms to Vichu in front of her eyes. Vichu blames her for all this and reveals that he started to love her when she got pregnant and he saw his mother in her. Priya goes into labour, and Vichu takes her to the hospital. But on the way, Vichu is stopped by Raj and his men seeking revenge. Vichu fights them and admits her in a hospital. Everybody now learns the truth about Pappu, and Priya gives birth to Pappu's son while she is upset on her fate of being a child's wife.

20 years pass by. Pappu is now actually a 28 year-old. He still lives with Priya as her husband. He goes inside his room as a young man and comes out as the 48-year-old Vichu who is now a husband of a 40-old Priya and father of a 20-year-old son, who looks like him. Vichu contacts the scientist to see if he had found a remedy for his transformation, to which he replies in the negative.

Production
Suryah began pre-production work on a third story titled New in early 2001, which he would also produce. Starring Ajith Kumar and Jyothika, composer Deva had composed ten songs for the film by June 2001. After Ajith Kumar had become busy with other commitments, Suryah decided to enact the lead role himself, revealing he had always wanted to be an actor. Simran signed on to play the leading female character, while Kiran and Devayani were cast in pivotal roles. A simultaneously shot Telugu version titled Naani featuring Mahesh Babu in the lead role was also made after Suryah felt that Babu would suit the character, and the Telugu version helped with finances. Suryah noted that he was loosely inspired by the American film Big (1988). The film was shot in hundred days, with Suryah revealing he would often stop acting in between the scenes, when he knew that his performance was not up to his expectation as a director. Suryah noted that script-writing began in 2001, while production with the final cast began in 2002.

Music
The soundtrack was composed by A. R. Rahman. In an interview in 2001, Surya earlier stated that Deva had composed ten songs for the film, but he was later replaced by Rahman. The song "Thottal Poo Malarum" reuses lyrics from the song of the same name from Padagotti (1964) but the tune is completely new.

Reception
Malathi Rangarajan from The Hindu claimed that "belonging to a genre that is rare to our cinema, "New" however, gets bogged down in a mire of duets and double entenders", but hinted at potential success citing that director "seems to have hit the bull's eye." Visual Dasan of Kalki gave a negative review, criticising Suryah for ruining Big by adding vulgarity on the pretext of mother sentiment, while stating that Penny Marshall, the director of Big, would cry like M. R. Radha by seeing this adaptation. Malini Mannath of Chennai Online wrote that "It's director Suriyah's third directorial venture after his highly successful 'Vali' and 'Khushi'. Wonder what made him rehash Big for his debut 'heroic' misadventure!" The film grossed ₹18 crore from 120 screens on Day 1.

Controversies
The film's adult theme generated controversy, and women activists in the state of Tamil Nadu demanded a ban on a film after release, which they say contained obscene scenes. Suryah responded by claiming that the scenes are there because the storyline requires them and described his film as "fiction laced with adult comedy".

In August 2005, the Madras High Court revoked the film's censor certificate and directed the Chennai Commissioner of Police to investigate two criminal complaints registered against Suryah. They ruled that the film did not provide a "clean and healthy entertainment" and that it would be failing in its duty if it did not revoke the censor certificate, claiming it originally attained an "A" certificate "under questionable circumstances". Suryah was arrested by city police on 22 August 2005 in connection with allegedly throwing a mobile phone at a woman censor board official in a fit of anger during the post-production of the film. According to the complainant, Vanathy Srinivasan, Suryah was denied permission to add the "Kumbakonam" song to the film due to excessively obscene scenes and as a result he allegedly threw a mobile phone at her. He was later released without charge. A fresh case was launched in March 2006, with the Censor Board filing a complaint against Suryah for using stills from scenes that were deleted from the film, with a poster which showed Suryah resting on Simran's cleavage resurfacing. He was arrested for the second time before being released.