ETHIR NEECHAL ("LONG SWIM")

May 1,2013

Cast: Sivakarthikeyan, Priya Anand.

Director: R S Durai Senthilkumar.

Sivakarthikeyan as the hero, Anirudh’s music topping the charts, Dhanush as the producer; he comes in an item dance with Nayanthara as well. Ethirneechal having all these mouth watering elements finally hits the screens so what more can you ask for, right? Well...a lot more!

A couple with no children for quite a long time gets blessed with a baby boy (Sivakarthikeyan) whom they believe has been given to them by the deity named Kunchithapadam, and for the same reason they name him after the deity. People start calling him Kunchi and Kunchithapadam who is a decent athelete feels cursed even when he wins races just because his name gets announced during the presentation ceremony. He is friends with Peter who runs a tailoring shop.

A lot of misfortunes come his way which he believes is because of his name. So he changes his name to Harish. He falls in love with Geetha (Priya Anand) who is a teacher cum LIC agent cum student cum charity worker. After a series of events he decides to take part in a marathon to “earn” his new name! He starts training under Valli who has the National record for 100 metres race.

The first half of the film is rather passable with a few funny scenes, some reminding you of Boss engira Baskaran. The romance between Sivakarthikeyan and Priya Anand is nice but lacks the chemistry actually required. At times it’s hard not to feel if the director was hoping to make the film appealing to the audience by stuffing in as many songs as possible.

The second half mostly concentrates on the training for the marathon and the actual event. The item song involving Dhanush and Nayanthara is nice but it is just as unwanted as Valli’s flashback!

The screenplay though earnestly written lacks the solidarity required  either for a romantic film or a sports film, and when it’s a combination of romance and sports the final product ends up with several loose ends unfortunately. This is not to belittle the training sequences that have been shot really well.

A filmmaker feels victorious when the audience empathise with the characters he is presenting to them, but the characters in Ethirneechal seems half baked and you as the audience end up watching a story that is happening somewhere out there and not something that you can relate to.

In spite of it feeling too long Ethirneechal cannot be termed as a bad film. It does offer entertainment in parts and does not make you feel bored. But that’s that!

Iam giving a 2.5/5 for Ethirneechal. Go in without expectations and you will not feel disappointed.

Rating Scale (Out of 5)

Less than 2                   -           Unwatchable.

2 to 2.25                      -           Below average.

2.5 to 2.75                   -           Average.

                                 

3 to 3.25                      -           Good.

3.5 to 3.75                   -           Really Good.

4 to 4.25                      -           Great.

4.5 and above               -           Extraordinary.