Enga Kaatula Mazhai Review: A disappointing comedy with no redeeming features

A poorly written spin-off of Thedinen Vandhadhu, that hardly evokes a giggle 
Enga Kaatula Mazhai Review: A disappointing comedy with no redeeming features

Director Sri Balaji's debut film Kulla Nari Kootam, which was released seven years back, was loved by most of the audience for its witty one-liners, well-written characters and realistic treatment. Fast forwarding to 2018, out comes Enga Kaatula Mazhai by the same filmmaker, which ends up being an antithesis to his maiden venture. 

This is yet another film where the jobless hero falls for a beautiful girl, stalks her dutifully, and does everything possible to stop her from marrying an actually perfect groom. Everything about the love track in the film is not only morally incorrect but also so loosely written, that you hardly find any trances of romance in this so-called romantic comedy. 

Director: Sri Balaji 
Cast: Mitun Maheshwaran, Shruti Ramakrishnan, and Appu Kutty

The main plot of the film revolves around the cat-and-mouse game between two friends, Murugan (Mitun Maheshwaran) and Guberan (Appu Kutty), a hawala mafia gang and a corrupt policeman, Agni Eshwaran (Arul Doss), to get a particular money bag. Does the storyline ring a bell? That's likely because this film appears to be heavily inspired by the 1997 Prabhu-Goundamani film, Thedinen Vandhadhu. The director who goes to the extent of aping iconic portions of that Crazy Mohan script, fails miserably in recreating the magic here. 

Leaving aside the poor usage of the golden retreiver, which was promoted as the USP of the film, the dialogues mouthed by the dog (with the help of a Goundamani-like voiceover) like "Enaku vayir la pasi, ungaluku idhayathula pasi.." make us wonder what was going through the filmmaker's mind while scripting. Logic goes for a toss with scenes like the one where Murugan goes to the extent of selling his chain to buy his girlfriend a drink at a coffee shop, or the one where a goon enters and leaves a crime scene casually in the presence of police. And when we finally get a laugh-worthy moment, it is ironically the serious scene where the hero repeatedly asks his hand-cuffed girlfriend to open the locked car door instead of simply breaking the glass.

The screenplay falls flat with hardly any major twists and the entire plot can be easily guessed just a few minutes into the film. And yet the film runs so long that we find ourselves in agreement with the dog that, in a particular scene towards the climax, says, "Ivanunga mudika maatana pola iruku.. Naane erangidren.."

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