The strong point of the film is the excellent performance by Vimal in the lead role. He has managed consistent performances in tailor made roles for him, as a naughty and playful but well meaning young lad, in all his films – from Pasanga (2009), Kalavani (2010), Thoonga Nagaram (2011) and now this film, Ethan. Also, in all these films, the locales and stories, are very close to where their respective directors have grown up. In this film too, it is Kumbakonam where debutant director (in Tamil) L Suresh had grown up. Perhaps it is the ability of Vimal to adapt well to the local slang that has made all these directors cast him in their favourite stories. Moreover, after Kalavani, this is this is the second time the producer and hero combine has worked together.
In terms of plot, Sathya (Vimal) is a playful, but addictive borrower, who has borrowed money from all his friends, the entire neighborhood and all the money lenders. He strongly believes, borrowing is the only way to reach success and quotes Dhirubai Ambani’s success stories, who started out by taking loans. As his entire neighborhood is after him to return their money, Sathya applies for a Bank loan to start a business. But his father, an upright school teacher (Jayaprakash), who is having a tough time dealing with his son’s philosophy and habits, informs the Bank manager not to give his son a loan as he is already a big defaulter in the neighborhood. When the crisis deepens, Sathya succumbs to the pressures as borrowers starts chasing him. His father mortgages the house and returns all the loans that his son has taken. A transformed Sathya now gets a job in the bank as a collector of credit card dues of the Bank’s defaulting customers. In the meanwhile Sathya meets Selvi (Sanusha) by various coincidences. Pandian is a local thug and a relative of Selvi, dealing in shady operations and who wants to marry Sanusha himself. Satyal tries saving Selvi from Pandian and in the process falls in love with her and finally all ends well for Satya and Selvi.
The first half of the film, which deals with Vimal as the naughty, playful borrower, his ideas and life style, his conflict with his father, an upright school teacher, the deepening crisis and the way his father finally bails Sathya out from his troubles is brilliantly done, in terms of story line and screenplay. Jayaprakash, as Sathya’s father, brings a stabling presence and therefore, a lot of integrity to the film just like what he did in Easan. The director has cleverly woven into the issue of taking loans, living out of borrowed money for our basic functioning, its apparent traps etc, and this will definitely touch everyone in the audience. The director, who has worked as an associate with Balu Mahendra, (just like Vetrimaran, who went on to win the National Award for the Best Director with the film Aadukalam, this year), has earlier made a Telugu film Kalavar King, based on the same story. So in a way, this film Ethan is a remake of the Telugu movie. However, all the promise that he brings to the first half of the film, the topic that he is trying to expose, literally crumbles, with a rather forced love story, inane violence and action and even ending with some silly escapist goody-goodies. The director seems to get lost after an initial firm grip on the screen play and consequently Ethan ends as yet another film which might have been but…
Apart from Vimal and Jayaprakash, Singampuli as a money lender has given a strong performance. Sanusha’s role has no depth and the various contexts which brings her closer to Sathya, are all very petty and silly. The idea of her losing her necklace in Sathya’s house, which eventually brings Sathya in direct conflict with the villain, is all pretty convoluted and forced unlike the earlier part of the film, which was free flowing.
The cinematographer has excelled in his work. I especially liked the lighting in the scene when Sathya secretly enters the house in the middle of the night, searching for food in the kitchen. The editing lacks consistent pacing on the whole. The music by Taj Noor is pretty decent, but on the whole, the film just fails to lift off after a flouting an interesting idea.
Tamil, Drama, Color