'Ennum Eppozhum' was in limelight for sometime now because it marked the return of the celebrated combo of Mohanlal and Manju Warrier,sharing the screen-space after a long gap of 17 years,but is the end result worth all the wait?The answer is a big No.A strictly passable movie from sathyan aimed at families,'Ennum Eppozhum' fails to keep the expectations intact and ends as a lame effort from the whole team.
Here,even though the backdrop changes to the city,the characters are typical of Sathyan movies from the past and the situations they get into reminds of his own numerous films from the past where a virtuous lot and their problems are showcased with a fair quota of humor,which sadly doesn't work in the case of Ennum Eppozhum to a large extent.Yes,the title seem ironical,making a statement that the specialist in producing feel good family entertainers,Sathyan Anthikkad is not enthusiastic to move out of his comfort zone,but I do believe its hard time that he does something different from his usual done-to-death formula.
There isn't much substance in the storyline by Ravindran and Ranjan Pramod's screenplay too failed to make wonders without offering anything novel and the end result is a watch and forget affair similar to 'Snehaveedu' without any freshness or highlight to point out as such.The narration lacked the much needed energy and turned boring in between which was made worse by the inherent lag due to lengthy and unwanted sequences that could have easily been chopped off in the editing table.A small idea looks stretched unnecessarily into around 147 minutes with moments of thrill being few and far between.A lot of questions are left unanswered like the budding romance between Kalyani and Vineeth and the need for an array of underdeveloped and easily avoidable characters like that of Kochousep Chitilappally and Renji Panikker.
Lalettan as the lead character 'Vineeth.N.Pillai' is the prime factor which makes the movie watchable and he manages to hold the movie firm,even though with partial success,at times when one feel the narration is losing its grip on the viewers.The sequences involving him that reminds of movies like Ayaal Kadha Ezhuthukayaanu,Gandhinagar Second Street,Thoovana Thumbikal etc looked forced on screen,as if a desperate attempt to exploit one's nostalgia of the past.Many sequences involving Manju's character looked as if an advertisement of her own real life with dialogs aimed at Janapriyanayakan.Her performance too felt artificial at times and one must admit the fact the flow and naturality that the actress once possessed is missing of late.Jacob Gregory's comedy sequences couldn't make much impact as intended.
The album by Vidyasagar has a typical Illaiyaraja-Sathyan Anthikkad aura with the song 'Malarvaaka Kombathu" being the pick.The song placement wasn't perfect and affected the pace of the narration.Frames by Neil D'Cunha was fresh but the editing by K.Rajagopal was below par.
Overall,Ennum Eppozhum fails to keep up the expectations and turns out to be a lack-luster effort without much to be proud of.
Verdict::Ennum Eppozhum is a rather disappointing effort from Sathyan which is at best passable for yet another good performance from 'The Complete Actor'.Watch it or leave it,its up-to you guys to decide.Not recommended! Ma Rating::5.5/10
