With the mercury rising close to 40 degree C in TN, the need of the hour is a refreshing and minty cool escapade as promised by debutante director Durai Senthilkumar’s ‘Ethir Neechal’. Produced by Dhanush, the movie carried a good pre-release buzz thanks to its vibrant title drawn from K.Balachander’s yesteryear hit. Also a bunch of carefully curated PR activities around the film got them noticed every now and then. But as always the proof is in the pudding; May 1, the movie got released and is being flocked by family audiences and youth alike. I was lucky enough to get the last ticket at a multiplex in Bangalore to see what’s so exciting about the movie as claimed by so many others who watched it.
Ethir Neechal is the story of a guy (next door) whose suffering carries a unique tone and that’s because of his name! He goes for a name change and everything seems to fall in place. Once again the forgone evil resurfaces and this time it seems to play spoilsport with his love life and so he decides to take it head-on.
The movie’s premise was crisp and clear and the director had no qualms in establishing that the hero’s family is lost within the first 15 minutes of the movie. In doing so, he focuses the narrative on Harish alias ‘Kunju’ (Sivakarthikeyan) for the rest of the plot to unwind without any jitters. The first half that establishes our hero’s problems and him wooing his girlfriend Geetha (Priya Anand) was a well conceived concept that was refreshing. The second half however took an about turn and was quite serious and had a cliched ending where everyone knew what was to come. Also the reason for such a rapid turn of events was not so convincing, but the screenplay took care of the logical loopholes.
Sivakarthikeyan has become red hot in the trade for such down-to-earth roles that has a blend of both comedy and sentiment. A keen observation on the kind of roles that he chooses would compel us to draw an anomaly with Malayalam star Dileep who does a variety of roles. Though these are early days to predict, Sivakarthikeyan seems to have got his foot on the right track. With his natural body language that is conditioned for a comedian, he can be versatile and convincing to do other challenging roles.
Priya Anand as Geetha ‘Miss’ was an eye candy selection and was too good for a nursery school teacher. She is one of the few heroines in the industry who has a Tamil origin and can speak the language at ease, though I was able to find a lot of awry lip-sync which might be due to some technical errors at the editing table.
Nandita as Valli, an athlete/coach was truly an out-of-the-box casting. After a demure role in ‘Attakathi’, this was only her second outing and she was willing to experiment in a ‘hard candy’ like role that demanded a subtle yet powerful performance - delivered with poise!
Satish as our hero’s sidekick was sort of a ‘Santhanam-replacement’. Though it was relieving to see someone other than Santhanam do such a role, the dynamics of the character demanded some cliches like the sidekick getting jammed at every possible juncture brought out laughter but at the same time made one wonder how to break the fourth wall for such a role?
Jayaprakash, Raviprakash, Manobala and Swaminathan form the rest of the crew and they helped in adding sentiment and comedy in equal doses wherever possible.
Also there were a beeline of cameo performances from Dhanush, Anirudh, Nayantara and ‘Attakathi’ Dhinesh which helped the movie gain some commercial mileage.
Music by Anirudh was a highlight and the song ‘Bhoomi Yenna Suthudhe’ which was already a rage among the FM stations was fresh to watch on screen as well. The songs were also well placed making room for a tight packaging.
Editing is another department that is to be lauded as they have managed get the audiences hooked for more than 90% of the movie especially the first half that passed off like a breeze. The second half however was marred by sentiments and had to carry some heavy baggage to do some justice, especially with an emotional flashback of Nandita hindering the pace a bit.
Cinematography by Velraj was nothing exceptional but was neat and delivered what was required.
Director Durai Senthilkumar has scripted a winner that has laughter as the mantra not only for the peaceful mind of the audiences but also for the movie’s producer and distributors alike.
Verdict: Breezy Entertainer
Rating: 3/5
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