Yezhu Kadal Yezhu Malai
Drama Romance Fantasy Tamil
Caught between family duty and romantic love, a young man faces an impossible choice.
| Cast: | Nivin Pauly, Anjali, Soori, Ravi Mariya, N. Azhagamperumal, |
|---|---|
| Director: | Ram |
| Writer: | Ram |
| Editor: | V. S. Mathi |
| Camera: | N K Ekambaram |
All Guild Reviews of "Yezhu Kadal Yezhu Malai"
Ram's Philosophical Tale Is a Brutal Patience Test
Director Ram's Yezhu Kadal Yezhu Malai, starring Nivin Pauly, Anjali and Soori, is an eccentric tale about a man who is 8,000 years old. His escapades in an evolving world make for an unbearable, torturous two hours in the theatre.
Over the past few months, a popular meme featuring actor Karunas’s dialogue from Polladhavan has been doing the rounds: “Seri da, ippo enna?” (Okay, what now?). It is a short, almost throwaway line, but one that fits just about every occasion when you are subjected to an inconsequential story and find yourself desperately searching for a comeback that will shut the conversation down. “Seri da, ippo enna?” does the job. Brief, dismissive and brutal.
A Promising Fairy Tale That Spectacularly Loses Its Way
Whenever this film moves away from the train and indulges in a fairy tale about a man and a woman finding themselves and falling in love again and again, Yezhu Kadal Yezhu Malai shows what it could have been...
Eternal. There is so much positivity to the idea of something being eternal. But is it always a great thing? Experiencing a love that transcends time and space is a beautiful feeling, but what if it comes with the pain of separation, the angst of yearning, and the burden of repetition? In fact, the nameless protagonist (Nivin Pauly) of director Ram’s latest, Yezhu Kadal Yezhu Malai, is an immortal being who has been walking through the sands of time for over 8,000 years. He is worldly wise, weary, and anything but winsome. But one can’t blame him for his irritable demeanour because, as Kamal Haasan wrote in Uttama Villain, “Saagavaram pol sogam undo…” (Is there anything sadder than being immortal?) What keeps him walking on the face of the earth? Love. So an immortal falls in love with someone (Anjali); he has met her five times over 8,000 years, and between each meeting, he craves her and lives his life searching for her. Now, this timeless love story has all the makings of a… let’s say timeless love story. But even with the backing of a whimsical idea, it is perplexing to see Ram try to ground his film in a moving train that, unfortunately, chugs around in circles.
A One-of-a-Kind Chamber Drama About Humankind
Nivin Pauly and Soori star in a visually uneven but philosophically rich film that only director Ram could have made
What’s the name of Nivin Pauly’s character in Yezhu Kadal Yezhu Malai? It’s a question you’re likely to grapple with as you watch the film that’s narrated as a story to a little boy by his aunt on what appears to be a boring train journey. To this boy, Nivin’s character goes by Hulk, an all-powerful superhero who has been alive for centuries. As for Soori, the other central character in this story, Nivin goes by Sir at first, until Soori begins to call him Karuppiah, the name of his village deity. As for the viewer, we’re told that this character has been immortal for millennia, drifting from one phase of history to the next in search of the woman he’s loved since he first saw her, 4,000 years ago.
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