Anamika

Anaamika (meaning “Nameless”), made in Tamil as Nee Enge En Anbe, is a 2014 mystery thriller directed by Sekhar Kammula, his Tamil debut. A remake of the Hindi film Kahaani, shot simultaneously in Telugu and Tamil, it stars Nayanthara in the title role, with Pasupathy, Vaibhav Reddy and Harshvardhan Rane.

Story

Anaamika, an IT professional, arrives in Hyderabad to search for her missing husband, Ajay. Ignored by most of the police, she finds an ally in a sympathetic officer, Sarathy, and a local boy who helps her find her way around. As she retraces Ajay’s movements, she discovers that almost everyone denies he was ever there, and her search draws her into something far more dangerous than a missing-person case.

Cast

• Nayanthara as Anaamika
• Pasupathy and Vaibhav Reddy
• Harshvardhan Rane as a software engineer

Production

Jyothika was the first choice for the lead before Nayanthara took the role with a new look, beginning the bilingual shoot in Hyderabad on 28 April. Instead of Kolkata, as in the original, Kammula set the story in Hyderabad’s Old City and planned to finish the film in under 50 days of continuous shooting there; because of the setting, many Telugu lines were kept in the Tamil version. It was co-produced by Endemol India, Logline Productions and Select Media Holdings. M. M. Keeravani composed the music.

Reception

The Times of India felt Kammula largely got away with the remake because he deviated a good deal from the original plot. Reviews of the Tamil version were mixed: Sify praised Nayanthara’s outstanding performance and Keeravani’s score, Deccan Chronicle called it one of the better remakes, while Rediff felt it was not in the same league as Kahaani and The Hindu found it lacking atmosphere.

Box office

The film opened to mixed reviews, was widely seen as inferior to the original, and failed commercially.

Sources: Wikipedia and Wikidata.