Engeyum Kadhal Movie Review

May 06, 2011
Review by : AK Content Team

Starring : Jayam Ravi, Hansika,
Direction : Prabhudeva
Music : Harris Jayaraj
Production : AGS Entertainment

Imagine a brilliantly garnished plate of entrée. Now imagine you are tasting it and finding that it’s one of the drabbest food you ever had. That is most likely how you feel after watching Engeyum Kaadhal. Agreed Engeyum Kaadhal is one of the prettiest movies to have released in recent times. It has a handsome hero, a heroine who is as cute as a button, brilliant locales and some hum-worthy songs. Alas, if only these could save a movie from sinking!

 

So what we get out of Prabhu Deva’s romantic movie is just lots of gloss with a hollow plot. The plot is so hollow that it’s so hard not to look over it despite the fact that the movie is packaged brilliantly and it has to be one of the few movies that had good production values of late. What works against Engeyum Kaadhal is (well, pretty much everything) the most unimaginative plot with another lackluster (in fact, even irksome in many counts) comedy track thrown in for good measure.

 

Jeyam Ravi is an Indian, who doesn’t care much for love - unlike the NRI-but-desi-at-heart-Hansika. Hansika eventually falls for the Casanova Ravi and what they go through to realize each other’s love is Engeyum Kaadhal’s storyline. The story is uncomplicated and Prabhu has had the prospect to turn it into a good time pass entertainer. But he follows the tried and tested path and comes up with a movie that is absolutely no fun to watch. There are no engaging scenes in the movie except for the nicely shot songs. Dialogues are horrendously clichéd and the comedy track is another source of agony for viewers. It irks one than it entertains, thanks to Raju Sundaram.

 

The movie opens with the title song, performed by Prabu Deva and the crisply cut song makes you sit right up expecting the proceedings to be as brisk as the start. But everything goes downhill right after. And sadly, nothing in the movie salvages the impending doom that it finds itself in. Throughout its running time, it’s inevitable that you get a feeling of pointlessness watching the futile attempt unfold before your eyes for there are not many saving graces.

 

In the role of a rich Indian business man, Jeyam Ravi has pretty much nothing to do than look handsome, dance with ease with pretty white chicks and Hansika and fall in love unreasonably (by the way, the reason why Ravi falls hook, line and sinker is not explained and hence you do not tend to feel for the lead pair when they go through anything). If you can give full marks for these pointless acts, Jeyam Ravi gets them. Hansika, apart from having to look as cute as a button, also has nothing else to do in the movie. And like a quintessential heroine, she inexplicably falls in love with a loveless guy.

 

If the movie is, at least barely, tolerable it is because of Nirav Shah’s camera and Harris Jeyaraj’s music. They have done their best to pull off whatever they could and have fairly succeeded. There is one thing Prabhu Deva seems to have struck the right chord – choreography. But to watch only that, you have million other options, say television.

 

Verdict: All brawn and no brains!

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