Eeswaran

Eeswaran, directed by Suseenthiran, is an utterly disappointing movie that is just flat out hasty in terms of scripting. As the film progresses, you will find yourself wondering what exactly is the conflict of this movie. And Suseenthiran tries to project the protection of a joint family as the theme of the film. But as the movie progresses, everything falls apart, and it was a cliched mess that was way too difficult to sit through despite being only 125 minutes long.

Eeswaran, our hero, is a son-like figure to Periyasamy. Periyasamy’s children haven’t visited him for a long time after some disputes happened between them over financial issues. So when the PM declared lockdown, Periyasamy decided to invite all of them to their house to spend some quality family time together. What all things happened in that family during this unprecedented reunion is what we see in Eeswaran.

As per Wikipedia, the movie’s shooting was wrapped in 22 days after Silambarasan heard the script’s narration in a virtual conference. While you watch the film, you might feel that they made the script while shooting the film. There are too many disjoint tracks in this movie that are not blending with the story. You have a last ball sixer hero introduction, there is your typical opening dance number, a heroine is there who has no real space in the movie, and then you have multiple tracks that show the greatness and sacrifice of the hero. They have created a villain also, who, towards the end, was absolutely pointless to the script.

Suseenthiran seems to have got the idea from the Malayalam movie Kadhanayakan starring Jayaram. I am not calling this plagiarism as Kadhanayakan itself has felt like a familiar idea. It’s just that as the story progresses in Eeswaran, the cliches you will have to tolerate becomes enormous. The script here is an amalgamation of all the Tamil movie traits one can guess, and if they had included a bit more annoying comedy featuring Munishkanth, it would have easily become an inspiration for one more Tamizhpadam. Tirru’s cinematography and Anthony’s editing can’t save this lackluster movie as the story here is built on a brittle platform. By the time the film reaches that Snake Master episode featuring Silambarasan, you will be skipping through the upcoming sequences in your head; it’s that predictable and lame.

Apart from the physical transformation, there isn’t anything here that would give you a feeling that Silambarasan has developed a new strategy. The swagger he tries to create through the mannerisms will initially give you the sense of unintentional comedy, but it becomes a major facepalm factor as the movie progresses. Bharathiraja plays the extremely typical Periyasamy, and when he cries in certain scenes, I felt he was crying thinking about how less Tamil cinema has evolved. Nidhhi Agerwal, who already made a forgettable debut on OTT with Bhoomi, gets another pointless leading role. Munishkanth and his eccentric acting is one more torture you will have to tolerate.

Eeswaran is a hastily made family drama that just doesn’t have any focus or intent to deliver something new or exciting. The only bit of relief I had was that the extremely awkward “electrifying” Asuran-Eeswaran dialogue at the end of the trailer of Eeswaran wasn’t that bad when it came to the actual movie (It was still bad).

Final Thoughts

By the time the film reaches that Snake Master episode featuring Silambarasan, you will be skipping through the upcoming sequences in your head; it's that predictable and lame.

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Green: Recommended Content

Orange: The In-Between Ones

Red: Not Recommended

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By Aswin Bharadwaj

Founder and editor of Lensmen Reviews.