Ennu Swantham Punyalan Movie Review: A forgettable film with hardly any takeaways

Over the years, Malayalam cinema has seen many films about the Christian community, their reverence for the Church, priests, and related customs. Ennu Swantham Punyalan is one such film that's almost entirely set around a church in a quaint village in the hills. The protagonist Thomas (Balu Varghese) is a junior priest, forced to take up priesthood by his family. His chance encounters, first with a girl (Anaswara Rajan) and then, a mysterious man (Arjun Ashokan) lead to a string of tense moments before the mandatory twists turn up. But bad execution, questionable casting, and some shoddy performances dampen the overall experience.

Director: Mahesh Madhu

Cast: Balu Varghese, Anaswara Rajan, Arjun Ashokan, Althaf Salim, Renji Panicker

Samji M Antony's screenplay is loaded with moments similar to several other films, like Adi Kapyare Koottamani, Marykkundoru Kunjaadu, Romans, etc. Even the opening stretch about Thomas' parents' desperation for a boy child seems to be borrowed from Ustad Hotel. But at the same time, there are some attempts to infuse freshness like employing AI-generated visuals to narrate the origins of a holy cross and its Mesopotamian heritage. Samji also spins an unique custom around this cross, which brings together the Christian and Muslim communities. It's a potent idea but explored only peripherally. The focus, instead, is on creating confusion comedies, that fail to evoke laughter.

'A priest getting caught with a woman' used to be an oft-repeated idea in the 80s and 90s Malayalam films. In such circumstances, the priest would invariably be shamed and stripped of his duties. Ennu Swantham Punyalan also treads this trajectory by playing around with Thomas' fear of getting caught with a woman. But isn't it too dated an idea in today's times? You also can't help but wonder why Thomas is so scared, despite not wanting to be a priest in the first place. Or is it his honour that he's trying to save here? He could have just shared his terrible situation with the head priest. Since that would have stopped the narrative from progressing, the makers have used the age-old technique of avoiding proper communication between characters to cook up drama.

Despite weak characterisation, Balu Varghese is still the film's only saving grace. With his earnest performance, the actor underlines the character's empathy, vulnerability, and helplessness effectively. Anaswara Rajan is an excellent actor as she has proven often, but she is a major miscast in the film. Not because it's too heavy a character for her to pull off. With the actor playing prominent roles alongside A-listers lately, it kind of gives away that she won't settle for a regular damsel-in-distress role. So when the transition happens, it's more like "Hmm, well.." than "Oh, wow."

Anaswara's performance is also way off the mark, especially the unintentionally hilarious expressions and body language after the big reveal. The fact that the same actor is winning unanimous praise for her charming performance in this week's other release, Rekhachithram, highlights the importance of well-defined characterisation, a performer's consistency, and a director's ability to extract the best from an actor.

Arjun Ashokan also falters, with his performance akin to what he did with his wide-open eyes in Romancham. Among the others, Renji Panicker puts on a silly over-the-top act, while Althaf Salim's trademark deadpan humour just doesn't click anymore. Among his other missteps, debutant director Mahesh Madhu has clearly floundered with handling his actors.

With nothing much going its way, Ennu Swantham Punyalan ends up as a largely forgettable affair.