Engeyum Kadhal Review

Love stories are perhaps one of the most retold stories in cinematic history. Within TFI, there is a love angle in pretty every story you come across. What's the few that escape this, have a mini-story in the flashback at least. For director Prabhudheva [he's changed his spelling], he has already swooned the Telugu audience with Nuvvanthanante Nenuvoddhantana but he has yet to show his charm to the Tamil audience after making a smashing entry with Pokkirri and Villu. Engeyum Kadhal brings together Hansika Motwani and "Jayam" Ravi Mohan in lead roles supported by Suman and Raju Sundaram with Harris Jeyaraj for music, Anthony for editing and Nirav Shah for cinematography. So what's it about? Read on.

The movie opens with the city of love, Paris. At every corner, at every street, Love is everywhere. No conditions, no restrictions. Just love. While the world sees Paris this way, Kamal [Ravi Mohan] sees it as his getaway place. After slaughtering it out for 11 months of the year in India, Paris is his destination for fun, frolic and female companions. The last thing he has on his mind is love. Enter Kayalvizhi [Hansika Motwani]. A firm believer in love, she sees love in every avenue she turns. Including in the cases that come to her private investigator father Rajasekhar [Suman]. So what happens when the believer falls for a non-believer? What lengths would you go to get the one you love to believe? Set in picturesque Paris entirely, Engeyum Kadhal is about how love is literally everywhere, you just need to open your eyes to it.

Honesty is the best policy so in all honesty, this is a very simple story driven by the lead pair "Jayam" Ravi Mohan and Hansika Motwani's performance and chemistry. And for what its worth, the two do quite well. After seeing him in varying roles yet still with a boy-next-door feel, Ravi has come out of this shell and becomes the total charmer Kamal is. Suave and stylish, he looks a million bucks and fits the bill perfectly. Hansika's filmography has some big films in Telugu but this is only her second one in Tamil. Yet, it would be safe to say the actress is going to be the cutie in town as she pouts, giggles, cries and schemes adorably and given she has a "Chinna Khushboo" tag floating, you can appreciate the boys are going to like her but considering when the serious emotions come out, she makes an honest attempt the girls will warm up to her as well. However, she really needs a different dubbing artist than Savitha. Raju Sundaram is back after a long time as an actor and tickles the funny bone with his antics. It would have been nice to give him some more scenes with Ravi but the actor in Raju works with what he has well. Suman as the caring yet friendly father is not there for very long but he cakewalks through his role. Manoj Pawar and newbie KJR are passable. A big hug and special mention to the dancers in Nangai. As short the roles may have been their lip-syncing and expression was just awesome.

With all that said, the main atraction of the film is Paris. Or should I say Nirav Shah's view of Paris. He has shown time and again how he spins his web of magic on seemingly plain locations. But with the city of love in his camera, the man steps up and dazzles Paris like none before. Simply exquisite. Editing by Anthony is his usual best while newcomer R.K. Naguraj's art work well with the film. Nalini Sriram gets a special mention just for the styling of the lead pair which looks great but suited the characters to the T. Background and music by Harris Jeyaraj is as exquisite as the camerawork with my personal favs from the OST being Nenjil Nenjil, Nangai and Engeyum Kadhal. But now to our main man, Prabhudheva. The actor-choreographer-director [he has sung/rapped but we'll leave that for now] is showing maturity in his work whilst still maintain his classic signature. A jovial man in real life, the ease at which he inserts humour into the screenplay is typical of him alone. The simple yet stylish presentation conveys more than most long-winded dialogues. 

Yet Engeyum Kadhal does have its downside. The story by AC Mugil and Ravi Chakkravarthy lacks detail in the most vital points and thus taking away from the connection with the audience. Its not enough to make people laugh when the focus is also on the romance between the leads. While the chemistry is refreshing and new, due to the fallbacks in the writing department, including dialogues by Ravi Chakkravarthy, G. Jayakannan and Premsai, it does falter a bit and lose intensity. 

Rating: 3.5/5. Feel the love and it will entertain. See the logic and it might not.