Ezra

I have to say that the first half of the movie Ezra is crafted very smartly packaging it with typical horror movie ingredients plus a conflict that is genuinely fresh. The impression the movie manages to create through it is a positive one. But the film fumbles considerably in the second half, especially towards the last 45 minutes or so where the developments are happening in a loud way but doesn’t have the kind of impact one would expect from the film. With great visuals and cuts, Ezra is definitely a watchable one, but not a great one.

Ranjan is this young man working in a company that deals with the business of managing nuclear waste from three major nuclear power plants in South India. He came to Kochi with his wife Priya. Priya who is an interior designer by profession buys a dybbuk box which starts to create issues in the house. What are the issues? Whose dybbuk is inside the box and what all things they had to do to resolve the issue is what Ezra talking about.

If you accuse the movie for being typical, then I guess you will have to accuse almost all horror films for that. We all know the drill in a horror movie. The amount of darkness will be high. People will go behind voices even after knowing something scary is going to happen (who does that?), we always kind of know when the ghost face will be shown. Yes, Ezra isn’t devoid of the standard ingredients we have seen in almost all the horror films. But where it manages to create some novelty is in the conflict part. I don’t have any extensive knowledge in the genre, but the intermission dilemma of the main protagonist was a refreshing one. The second half has the quintessential flash back sequence which looked good on a production design level but it was terribly bad because of poor performances. The twist was an impressive one but a little more refined presentation of the climax stunts would have made it a more exciting experience.

On screen Prithviraj was good in those earlier portions where he is reacting casually. But in those climax portions there was a little bit of overdoing in terms of expressions. Priya Anand looks pretty and the director smartly reduces close up shots featuring the actress to minimize the dubbing flaws. Vijayaraghavan was good. I really wish to know why Sunny Wayne dubbed for Sujith Shanker, because Sunny Wayne’s voice doesn’t have the kind of depth one would expect in such a character and Sujith is known to have an intense voice. Tovino Thomas was fine in the extended cameo as the ACP. Sudev Nair disappointed me.

Jay K as a director shows promise in making films in an uncompromised way. In the case of Ezra, the scale is something that adds a quality to the entire attire of the film. Sujith Vassudev and Vivek Harshan have done a really appreciable job in giving an output that manages to create a good impression in the minds of the audience. As a maker, Jay K narrates the film in an engaging way, but the excitement gets reduced considerably in the last quarter where predictability becomes a disturbance. The whole exorcism episode doesn’t have that breath taking feel to its credit. The art direction was good. The tracks and background score from Sushin Shyam and Rahul Raj deserves applauds.

To sum up, I would say you should experience Ezra in a theater. It has its moments to excite you, but it fails to maintain that excitement till the end. It is definitely scary, because that second half wall walk gave me a mini heart attack.

Rating: 2.5/5