Oho Enthan Baby Movie Review: Interesting ideas marred by unearned resolutions

Let's keep aside love, and discuss heartbreaks. How you deal with a heartbreak and how you define it is very telling of what love means to you. The protagonist of Oho Enthan Baby, Ashwin (Rudra), in a scene, tells Meera (Mithila Palkar) that he remained single after suffering a heartbreak. And what is the heartbreak he is referring to? A lesbian college mate, for whom he had one-sided feelings, turned him down and confessed she liked his female friend. Krishnakumar Ramkumar's film is a hard sell as a romcom for these reasons.

The film begins with Mysskin's (as himself) assistant director Ashwin getting an opportunity to pitch a story to Vishnu Vishal (as himself). The actor's witty assistant, King (Redin Kingsley), sends Ashwin back, saying that the actor is in a mood to act in a love story and not in the kind of story he has pitched. A dejected Ashwin leaves, only to realise halfway that he indeed has a love story – his own – and heads back to Vishnu's residence to narrate the story. What is Ashwin's love story? What is the self-discovery he makes while narrating it to Vishnu Vishal and where does this self-discovery lead him? These questions form the central plot of Oho Enthan Baby.

Director: Krishnakumar Ramkumar

Cast: Rudra, Mithila Palkar, Vishnu Vishal, Mysskin, Redin Kingsley

To the film and the filmmaker's credit, the story had all the trappings of a coming-of-age romance with regular laughs. There are some useful ideas, such as not wanting to exploit one's own love story for the sake of becoming a director and the exploration of the anxiety attachment style. However, the film suffers from narrative paralysis. It meanders before reaching a particular point. You tend to agree with the resolution but are not convinced that the characters go through stuff sufficiently to be able to think the way they think and do things as a result.

Ashwin's childhood episode is fraught with domestic issues and parental discord. He finds the cinema theatre an escape from his difficult life. Films that usually portray their protagonist as a cinephile and an aspiring filmmaker employ the trope merely to make some references to a star or provide no reason at all. Oho Enthan Baby is likeable for not trying to get away with a convenient writing choice. His loveless household with bickering parents and the unrealistic idea of love provided by his fascination for films is a screenplay goldmine. However, Krishnakumar merely scratches the surface in adding nuance and complexity to his characters. Instead, after a point, everyone in the film turns into a one-note character.

The charm of films that chronicle the romantic adventures of a protagonist right from his teens lies in the character evolution and the audience being able to resonate with the reflections of the lead. Ashwin's peachy perception of romance shatters after his high-school romance fails miserably. But he doesn't take away anything from it. He is not a changed person after that episode. He still makes the same mistakes. He has feelings for a girl in college and goes a long way just in his head before even getting to know what's in her mind. That too doesn't bring about a spectacular change in him, as he describes this as his 'heartbreak' story to Mithila Palkar's Meera. It would have been interesting to see how things unfold if the narration progressed from Meera's viewpoint. Unlike Ashwin, Meera, who is older than him, like his high school sweetheart, has been through a truly rough relationship and things back in her home aren't anywhere close to rosy either. With both hailing from a troubled household, the film does away with the oft-used concept of a 'healing relationship'. No one heals the other or mothers the other. The film bungles the opportunity of displaying how two traumatised persons with equally troubled families reconcile their past without being excessively dependent on their partner to get healed.

Films that claim to portray Gen Z relationships miss the precision with which people tailor their relationship  according to the mistakes they made in their past relationships. Oho Enthan Baby too joins such films. The stealing-glances-to-win-her-love manner with which Meera and Ashwin fall for each other does a grave injustice to depicting Gen Z relationships. Similarly, falling out of love is seamless. The film progresses from one scene to the other mechanically, like objects placed on a conveyor belt, with no emotional stakes. Once Ashwin is done narrating his love story to Vishnu Vishal, we are forced to revisit our decision of considering Ashwin as the victim of his previous relationship. As King rightly says to Ashwin, "Nee dhaan da toxic." Krishnakumar deconstructs whatever he built or tried to build in the first half. Ashwin's emotional unavailability and Meera's naivete make neither of them dear to us, as there aren't enough scenes to illustrate that both deserve a healthy relationship.

With the screenplay already taking a nosedive once Meera and Ashwin meet, the first half at least had glimmers of hope here and there. But things go haywire in the second half, as it relies for a good 20 minutes on Vishnu Vishal's presence, which did not help with the central plot. Then we are served a dash of the hero realising his folly under a bodhi tree, again, no explanation for his profound realisations, the return of the toxic ex, the hero wins back his love, and ta-da, that's your formulaic Tamil love film. Sitting through the second half would have been tough if not for the occasional chuckles delivered by Mysskin's portions and Redin's one-liners.

Oho Enthan Baby is another film that promises much and delivers less. It had a pretty decent start for an emotional love story, only to lose itself in the woods. The lack of proper alignment between the characters and their motivations unhooks us from the narrative and lets it stay that way. The film is a classic example of a story that knows its ends but not the means. Surprisingly, out of all the characters in the film, Redin Kingsley's King stays with us for a long time. He personifies the self-awareness of the film with his regular commentary. King wonders if Ashwin has a convincing love story to tell, as he just left, saying he had none. After the film, we attest to King's doubts.