Ettekaal Second Malayalam Movie
With a title as 'Ettekal Second' you expect the film to wind up quick, but it doesn't. it runs for around one hundred and forty two minutes, and it isn't exactly easy to sit through it. Especially if you are in the mood to discover what has gone wrong with the film.
Sandeep (Govind Padmasoorya) discovers love when he meets Neethu (Mia George). Everything is perfect that except that Sandeep happens to be a car driver's son and Neethu his boss's daughter. And not just that she is engaged to be married in a few months time which isn't really good news for the love birds either.
There isn't a single sequence in 'Ettekal Second' that you haven't seen somewhere else before. Everything follows the customary love tale pattern, and it's almost like you could count on the film to live up to your tedious predictions.
So it simply isn't enough that you make your heroine a sound engineer who is out there to record for a Bollywood film. It simply isn't enough that the hero shows tremendous promise in photography. It isn't enough that the villain works in a new gen bank. You need to have a story, and a real good one at that, which has changed with the times.
Poor boy meets rich girl. Money wreaks havoc on love tale. The theme has been done to death, and it feels even a cliche to write a review on it. Which makes one wonder how and why a film maker decides to make a move on it. Yet again!
There is the underwater song that has been projected as the highlight of the entire film, and it goes without saying that it's a song that goes easy on the ear. It has been shot under water, yes, and there is a whole lot of swimming around, and even a dinner table set underneath. Interesting indeed, but it still remains a song for song's sake.
And finally arrives the climax, where Sandeep makes that final attempt to win over Neethu. As he blurts out those awfully corny lines, your crouch in your seats, out of sheer embarrassment. They might have seemed okay, perhaps a good twenty years back.
The significance of the title 'Ettekal Second' appears late in the day, just as you have given up all hope of discovering it. As an aside, someone in Neethu's office murmurs that there is a well accepted psychological theory that insists that if one looks at a person for about 8.2 seconds the first time he meets her or vice versa, they are sure to fall in love.
I really do believe that Govind Padmasoorya is an actor who deserves better roles, and the script of 'Ettekal Second' does no justice to the young actor's talents. Mia George is remarkably good, and this must have been one of her initial performances for the big screen though it has taken more than quite a while to reach there.
And thus it is, that 'Ettekal Second' turns out to be an imminently forgettable love yarn that leaves you twiddling your thumbs. Skip this one, and stay safe.
