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On a fateful Diwali night, a man (Soori), returning from Dubai, meets a stranger (Nivin Pauly) in an empty train compartment on his way to his native place. His initial excitement about meeting his son in person for the first time — since he left for Dubai when his wife was pregnant and couldn’t get leave for eight years — quickly turns to fear as the “weird” Nivin starts following him.

As they talk inside the hurtling train, Nivin reveals that he is 8,822 years old and has been searching for Anjali, his lover from her past “four lives.” Meanwhile, Soori realises that his destiny has become intertwined with Nivin’s — not because of good luck, but because of bad luck. With nowhere to run and no one to turn to, Soori begins making futile attempts to save himself.

A chaotic mix of realism and fantasy

Yezhu Kadal Yezhu Malai feels like no one involved in the movie, especially Ram, had a clue what they were doing. It isn’t that the fantasy drama is bad in the conventional sense, but it’s all over the place, and not in a good way.

One of the biggest issues with the film is the director’s lack of clarity on whether to give it the tone of a fantasy or a realistic drama. If one were to assume that he was aiming for a blend of both, it makes Yezhu Kadal Yezhu Malai appear even sloppier, like a mediocre mishmash of both styles.

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In the scenes set inside the train, Ram mostly gives it the texture of a gritty action drama, whereas when it cuts to the flashback, it becomes slightly fantastical. However, even in moments where he should have gone fully fantastical, Ram maintains restraint, making one feel as if he is haunted by his signature style of highly dramatic realism.

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At times, Yezhu Kadal Yezhu Malai even resorts to Mickey Mousing, almost as if compensating for the lack of humour in its supposedly comedic moments and lines, further diminishing the movie’s already limited quality.

Deep ideas lost in execution

Although the film’s basic themes of temporal disorientation, slight memory erosion from having lived thousands of years, guilt over the collective sins of one’s species, and universal egalitarianism are fascinating and hold immense potential, writer-director Ram is as clueless as one can be and struggles throughout to weave everything into an already fragile story.

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None of the characters in the film has names. Each of them can be seen as the embodiment of various human emotions and natures. Soori is the one who survives everything, while Nivin Pauly works to bring order, where even a rat gets justice if wronged. Anjali, meanwhile, is the amalgamation of everything nice, beautiful, and sweet, like music.

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At one point, we see the immortal Nivin sleeping through a monstrous thunderstorm, suddenly waking up upon hearing the sound of Anjali’s cycle and sensing its light from afar. Yezhu Kadal Yezhu Malai features several such moments, highlighting the power of love transcending centuries and lives.

Even though Ram tries to make it appear similar to the essence of F Scott Fitzgerald’s line, “There are all kinds of love in the world, but never the same love twice” from his short story The Sensible Thing, the eternal love in Yezhu Kadal Yezhu Malai never manages to pull at our heartstrings or even create a slight impact, failing to make us want to root for them.

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From disastrous slow-motion to soulless dialogues, pointless plot devices, and uneven narrations, the movie is marred by poor creative choices. Aside from the metaphors and philosophies, Ram even stuffs in references to Hulk and She-Hulk that add nothing worthwhile.

Nivin Pauly and Soori try hard, but no use

Nivin Pauly’s dialogue delivery is as bad as Ram’s writing and direction. Although Anjali doesn’t have much to do in the film, she at least brightens up the frame every time she appears.

Both Soori and Nivin, nevertheless, deserve commendation for the physical effort they put into the movie, as they are almost constantly engaged in some form of action within the confines of an unclean train compartment. However, all those efforts are ultimately wasted on a movie that clearly doesn’t know what to do with them.

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Do you remember that iconic moment from Pranchiyettan and the Saint (2010), where Pranchiyettan (Mammootty) is walking through a painting exhibition and tells his friend, “Did you understand anything? All these (paintings) have big meanings.” Even though he is just as clueless as his friends about what any of the works imply, he believes that they carry significant meaning because… well, that’s how we have been taught.

That’s pretty much how I felt watching Yezhu Kadal Yezhu Malai. Ram, or anyone who’s going to rave about the fantasy drama for any reason, can make tall claims about the movie, saying it carries deep allegories, metaphors, and philosophies. But if a film can’t communicate those properly to viewers of all walks of life and ends up simply boring them, it’s done.

If people like a work, they will find the inner meanings, ethos, underlying themes, and more themselves. They will formulate theories and build on them by reading or listening to more. But if a movie can’t keep them hooked and instead becomes a cinematic endurance test, any expectation that people will explore its subtexts is simply unrealistic.

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It will definitely sting more when such a work comes from a director like Ram who gave us many memorable movies in the past.

On the technical front, composer Yuvan Shankar Raja and production designer Umesh J Kumar deserve praise for their work, which offers some relief in an otherwise tiring watch.

Yezhu Kadal Yezhu Malai movie cast: Nivin Pauly, Anjali, Soori


Yezhu Kadal Yezhu Malai movie director: Ram


Yezhu Kadal Yezhu Malai movie rating: 1.5 stars