It has been a week of paranormal movies for me. I watched
Malayalam movie Ezra followed by Tamil's contribution to the week -
Dora. First let's see how Ezra fared.
Ezra
is a well-put together movie. Is it a great horror film? It is not a
horror film; it is a ghost story, you earth bound being. It did not work
for me as a horror movie at all because horror means I am looking for
something that would
bring on the chills like The Shining or The Silence of the Lambs or The
Vanishing.
I could easily watch Ezra in the dead of the night
without any one around. Even with the menacingly dark shapes of trees moving outside the window it miserably failed to create even a flinch in my
ghost film meter needle. Movies with paranormal perpetrators
do not make much of an impression on me, so that is not a huge minus. I
could even predict who the ghost was trying to take a shot at.
*SPOILER* Even ghosts cannot resist the handsome and intelligent
Prithviraj, just like us girls. You cannot blame the ghost for
choosing wisely 😉
For a first time director, directing experienced
actors like Prithviraj is a commendable achievement. Good job, Jay K.
Now do not ask the question whether Prithviraj swapped seats with the
director anytime during the shooting of this film.
When Prithviraj is acting in a new director’s movie I have a feeling
that he gets possessed by the director persona quite often – ghost flick
or not.
Prithviraj has controlled and contained himself,
maturing further as an actor. I can see he had nursed a secret wish to
play a 'nukular' scientist and he got to do it in this film. Soon as he
donned the 'nukular' outfit it was obvious who would
be irresistible (more irresistible than usual I mean) to the paranormal
(and normal folks.) Priya Anand - good to see the Fukrey actress after a
long time, although she has nothing much to do as a stand-in
temp.
The Jewish backstory is the real hidden gem in this
whole movie. Don’t go looking for other gems, there aren’t any.
Beautifully filmed with great cast and production design it is almost
like a self-contained short film within the main movie.
My general impression about Ezra is it is an effort
in the right direction to introduce exotic spirits to Malayalis who are
all round ‘spiritual’ people. But there is nothing really scary in
there. If you want a real scary movie I just
remembered a better one from our next door neighbors from not too long
ago -
Yavarum Nalam or 13B.
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