Ezra Review
Prithviraj’s highly anticipated horror thriller Ezra has finally hit screens today. The movie initially scheduled to release for Christmas had to be postponed due to the theatre strike.
Plot of the movie is set in two timelines dealing with the Jewish settlements in Kerala. In fact, Ezra is the first Indian movie to discuss about this subject.
The movie begins with the death of the last Jew in Kochi. An antique shop owner, played by Alencier Ley, who attends the funeral is impressed by the rare antique pieces in that place. He owns some of them including a box that has a Jewish symbol. One of his workers tries to open this box and gets killed mysteriously. ACP Shafeer played by Tovino Thomas is in charge of the investigation.
On a parallel track, we are shown the lived of inter-caste couples Ranjan Abraham and Priya. Ranjan who works in a multinational company gets transferred to Kochi and they move to a new place in the outskirts of the city. Priya being an interior designer buys some antiques, including the troubled box, for their new house. A mysterious box with a spirit, in the protagonist’s house in an eerie atmosphere. What next forms the rest of the plot.
On the technical front, sound designing is top notch. It helps in maintaining that spooky atmosphere and with Sushin Shyam’s intense background score, the mood is elevated to another level. Sujith Vaassudev’s cinematography is mediocre. Apart from the usual horror movie templates-long shadows, dim lights and flashes- there is nothing much to rave about. Editing by Vivek Harshan is crisp and seamless. The colour grading could have been slightly of a lesser tone for I felt it was too dark in many scenes.
Logical loopholes are aplenty in the movie. Make up for most artists looked very weird. Making could have been a lot better as the plot had enough potential in it.
On the performance side, Prithviraj Sukumaran, Tovino Thomas and Priya Anand were upto the mark. Performance from the other actors looked inefficiently staged.
Ezra does not offer many horror or spooky moments. But it certainly will be a different experience for Malayali audience who are used to watch substandard horror laced with the safe zone of slapstick humour.
