Ee Adutha Kaalathu review: "One of the very best in recent times!!!"

After the glorious period of the 80s & 90s, it wont be prudent to accept the fact that since last year the Malayalam industry has been coming up with impressive scripts at an encouraging regularity. One of the most notable movies of 2010 was Arun Kumar Aravind's "Cocktail", which garnered the applause of the audience owing to its sense of reality. So it was inevitable that his latest venture "Ee Adutha Kaalathu" would create a sense of anticipation which was heightened by the impressive promos as well. Hmm...can he deliver the goods yet again???

Every human's fate is determined not only by his actions but also with the people they come in contact. It might be at times maybe for just an instance, but it could still lead to life changing circumstances. Interestingly, it is this very concept that has been tackled with in this venture. Vishnu (Indrajith) belongs to the lower economic strata of the society & juggles various jobs, trying to meet the requirements of his family. Ajay Kurien (Murali Gopy), is the CEO of a  hospital whose marriage with yester year starlet Madhuri (Tanushree Ghosh) was on the rocks. At this juncture, the city was gripped by the fear of a serial killer on the loose who had the police led by Commissioner Tom Cherian (Anoop Menon) at their wits end. Along with being the laughing stock of the force, Tom Cherian also had to deal with the yellow paper journalism linking him to the fiery journalist, Rupa (Lena). Now how the lives of these entirely different characters gets linked & influenced forms the framework of the story.

Murali Gopi, son of the legendary late Bharat Gopi has been making the right noises for quite some time now with impressive performances in "Bharamaram" & "Gadhama". Though his writing skills didnt attract much attention in "Rasikan", this time around he has come with such a thumping script that he would be flooded with offers. The biggest plus point is the way he seamlessly weaves the situations & brings the characters in contact with each other. Arun's directorial skills has to be equally admired as he has done total justice to the script. Nowadays, it's hard to capture the attention of the audience for a sustained period of time, but Murali & Arun did manage to do it for close to 3 hours & that pretty much proves the quality of the script-direction combo. If at all there has been a flaw, it was the sequences involving Murali which seems a far too stretched for comfort at times.

If at all I have to pick someone from this ensemble cast, it has to be the talented yet under-rated Indrajith. Time & again, he has proved his acting skills by dabbling with various characters with finesse. Murali Gopi would have done his father proud while Mythili proves that she is here to stay though her dubbing was abysmal. Slowly & steadily, Anoop Menon is turning out to be a versatile actor displaying his humorous side admirably. Tanushree Ghosh & Lena were apt, while Nishan was average with Jagathy grabbing attention whenever he features on the screen. This review would be incomplete if I dont acknowledge the brilliant background score by Gopi Sunder, which played a key role in elevating the mood of the film.

Verdict: There is no doubt that the film is going to be a superhit as it has all the elements which will interest the audience. Though the makers made a cardinal flaw of delaying the release outside Kerala for close to a month, but still they should be filling the coffers without fail.  In short, you got to be a fool to miss this!!!

Rating: 4/5

Regards...Ben