Of the two releases this week, its ‘Enakku Vaaitha Adimaigal’ that has come with very little hype carrying relatively low expectations.  The director has taken up the evergreen subject of friendship and has added a darker tone to it and wins big in the comedy department.

Krishna (Jai) is introduced at a psychiatrist’s (Thambi Ramaiah) clinic with suicidal tendencies due to his girlfriend Divya (Pranita) who has ditched him for another man.  The doctor suggests that he call his close friends and share his pain with them.  When the hero decided to consume the  poisoned liquor in a hotel room, he gives a call to his friends Ramesh (Karunakaran), Moideen (Kaali Venkat) and Sowmi (Naveen) who have some important things going on in their middle class lives but give up everything to trace out their friend and save him.  What happens next is a slow paced, but laugh out loud fare that is worth a watch.

Jai nails the character of the confused self centered hero Krishna to perfection and he is an absolute delight in the final action duet he has with Mottai Rajendran.  The solid middle order batsmen of ‘EVA’ are Karunakaran and Kaali Venkat who have a blast in their respective roles.  Watch out for Kaali Venkat’s attempt to make out with his wife in midday and the hilarious consequences he faces after that.  Similarly Karunakaran with his natural screen presence handles both the emotions of the guilt ridden friend as well as the comedy one-liners with relative ease.  New comer Naveen is another natural performer who makes his mark.  Thambi Ramaiah as the psychiatrist actually kick starts the comedy and Mottai Rajendran as Karuppu Rock takes care of the climax with a variety of action , emotion and funny expressions.  Pronto does fit the role of the lover with a negative shade, but her looks in the film are not flattering at all to her.  All the other characters do their job well and succeed in bringing the laughs and there are also not so convincing cameos by Santhanam and Anjali.

Santhosh Dhayanithi’s music is a big plus in the background score and the couple of songs he has tuned do not drive anyone out for a smoke.  Mahesh Muthuswamy’s camera is okay dokey while Gopi Krishna’s editing could have been much better in pacing the film.  The stunts by Hari Dinesh passes muster.  Writer-director Mahendran Rajamani’s strength lies in his natural dialogues which spark off so much humor and to his credit all his comedy lines and scenes succeed.  He has also extracted neat performances from his entire cast including minor ones. Attempting a dark comedy he has consistently stuck to the task till the very end and that in itself is enough to give him a warm welcome.

The jarring minus of ‘Enakku Vaitha Adimaigal’ is its snail’s pace and one should say the director missed out on the opportunity to bring out a memorable movie like ‘Kalakalappu’.

Verdict : Go for it even if the pacing hurts as the high comedy quotient compensates every flaw.