Review: Ezhu Sundara Rathrikal falls flat

Ezhu Sundara Rathrikal may have been an attempt to look at the fickleness of relationships in today’s times in a humourous way but it does not have the desired effect, writes Paresh C Palicha.

Everything goes wrong in the first 30 minutes of Malayalam film Ezhu Sundara Rathrikal, and the people involved in it try their best to salvage the situation. Finally, everything gets untangled in the last 15 minutes and the audience goes home happy.

There are a few guffaws, a couple of heartaches and one or two action sequences punctuating the narrative.

This description is suffice to summarise Lal Jose's Ezhu Sundara Rathrikal, with his actor friend Dileep in the lead.

Aby (Dileep), a hotshot ad-maker, decides to finally get married. He has a painful history, where the girl he had loved left him just days before their wedding.

After getting intoxicated in his own bachelor’s party, Aby decides to invite his old flame Sini (Rima Kallingal). When he reaches there, she is alone and both boast about their respective life partners. Sini is married to a boxer called Tyson Alex (Murali Gopy) and Aby is engaged to one of his models Ann (Parvathy Nambiar).

Their meeting results in complications that compel them to meet again and again. How they do it dodging their partners and their large circle of common friends before the hell breaks loose, is what the film is all about.

So, this is the story of seven beautiful nights from the day of the bachelor’s party to the day of the wedding, penned by James Albert (who had first scripted Classmates for the director). The narrative goes back and forth every now and then.

Tyson Alex is presented as an uncouth person, who seriously is a threat to Sini as she tells Aby once that their relationship exists only because they have a child.

The rest of the ensemble cast that includes Harisree Asokan, Tini Tom, Vijayraghavan, Sreejith Ravi and others provide comic relief at a sporadic interval.

Parvathy Nambiar, who makes her debut in this film, has an angelic smile that makes up for any deficiencies in her performance.

Rima Kallingal, who has to look distressed in her post marriage scenes, is good as nothing much is demanded of her.

Dileep has to have two distinct looks as a young photographer (which he does with a wig of shoulder length hair and stubble) and his age today as a matured ad-maker. Wishing for any other distinction in his character would be asking for too much.

Ezhu Sundara Rathrikal may have been an attempt to look at the fickleness of relationships in today’s times in a humourous way but it does not have the desired effect.

Rediff Rating: