Easter is here & a plethora of movies has hit the screens with Godfy Babu's "Enthada Saji" being one of them. At the same time, Maxwell Jose's "Khali Purse of Billionaires" was released on the Sun NXT OTT platform after an abysmal show at the box office. Well after checking them out, it isn't surprising as to why the latter didn't work while Godfy might also have to rely on the OTT platform sooner rather than later. Apart from these two, I have also added my opinion about Vineeth Vasudevan's "Poovan" which I had watched earlier but had forgotten to post.
Enthada Saji
With stars like Chackochan & Jayasurya on board & Listin Stephen bankrolling the project, there was an undeniable sense of expectation about Godfy's debut directorial venture. However, his script was way too amateurish & literally had nothing worthwhile that would keep us engaged. The protagonist is Sajimol (Nivetha Thomas) who was able to see & interact with Saint Rocky (Chackochan) and how he guides her whenever the need arose is what this movie is about.
Initially it starts off as the Saint helping her to express her feelings for Roy (Jayasurya) and if that track was persisted with some twists then it would have made a decent feel good movie. But for reasons best known to Godfy, that is left half baked & it changes into a search for a statue. Since Ranjith had already explored a similar track in "Prachiyettan & the Saint", this came across as an inferior version with the only difference being Saji & the Saint yapping stuff of no relevance for long periods. To add to the disadvantage, the art team made the interior of the chapel similar to Boban Samuel's "Romans" and with Nivetha & Chackochan appearing here as well, there is an inevitable sense of comparison.
The technical aspects were average at best while on the performance front, Chackochan has done justice to his role which felt more like an extended cameo. Nivetha was extremely average & at times cringe as well as it felt like her effort to appear bubbly was way too artificial. Jayasurya did his part aptly in his cameo role though I felt they could have opted for someone younger like Roshan Mathew.
Verdict: Despite the cast & investment at his disposal, Godfy fails to come up with an engaging storyline.
Rating: 1.25/5
Khali Purse of Billionaires
Was this movie even made with the intention of recovering the investment? I certainly doubt so since Maxwell Jose's has come up with a story that is barely existent & still runs for close to 2 h. It is about a new gen Vijay (Dhyan Sreenivasan) & Dasan (Aju Varghese) who are partners in a startup which was struggling to stay afloat coz of lack of funds. After failing to attract any investors & Vijay's company also struggling to pay him his salary, he decides to get married in the hope that he would be able to get some financial backing from his in laws.
From whatever I have mentioned above, it is evident that it is not a tale that is novel or unique & hence it was essential that the screenplay had some credible content to pull it off. On the contrary, I feel many of the skits that we watch on TV are drafted better. None of the technical aspects are worth mentioning while on the performance front, Dhyan & Aju were average, Tanvi & Arjun Ashokan were better while the rest were ok (though Major Ravi was pathetic).
Verdict: Unlikely to have much takers even on the OTT platform.
Rating: 0.5/5
Poovan
About a fortnight back, Vineeth Vasudevan's "Poovan" was released on Zee5 after a not so encouraging run at the box-office. For the benefit of those who don't quite know him, he played the role of Ajith Menon in "Super Sharanya". As for the script it was penned by Varun Dhara who has also acted with Vineeth in the same flick. Hari (Antony Varghese) is the protagonist who took medications to handle his insomnia but the arrival of a rooster in his neighbourhood made the situation worse. To add to that, his sister Veena (Akhila Bhargavan) was in an affair with his rival, Kannan (Vineeth). How Hari tackles each of these problems is what this movie is about.
On the positive side, there were quite a few humorous moments in relation to the romantic sub plots that happens especially the one that involves Benny (Sajin Cherukayil) & Sini (Anishma Anilkumar). If Varun had focused on those aspects that it would have been a far more enjoyable experience for the audience. But his interest was primarily on the angle that involved Hari & the rooster and that didn't work at any level at all despite trying to bring in some divine / supernatural elements to it. Sajith Purushan has done a decent job with the cinematography while Midhun Mukundan's music was ok.
There was refreshing to see Antony in a role that is quite unlike to what he has predominantly performed & he was fairly ok. Both Saji & Anishma has performed well while Vineeth & Akhila have also done their parts aptly.
Verdict: A movie that could have worked if they had made the sub-plots take centre stage!!!
Rating: 1.5/5
Regards...Ben
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