Enna Solla Pogirai Movie Review

Three individuals with clear notions of what romance discover the indefinable magic that is love when they end up in a triangular romantic relationship.

What is love? In the beginning of Enna Solla Pogirai, its three protagonists seem to have a very clear idea of what it is.

For Vikram (Ashwin Kumar Lakshmikanthan, who makes a confident leap to leading man), an RJ, it is finding the right girl who ticks the checklist he has in his mind - a konjam independent, creative and simple girl.

Romance writer Anjali (Avantika Mishra, pleasing) believes in falling in love with someone who has suffered a heartbreak, because "love panna payyanukku dhaan adhoda arumai theriyum.. oru maturity irukkum".

Meanwhile, Preethi (Teju Ashwini, effective), a theatre artiste, is confident that she can decide when she should fall in love. These three characters are brought together when a match is arranged between Vikram and Anjali. She asks him about his previous relationship, and he lies about having had one.

And when she expresses her interest in meeting his ex, he ends up getting Preethi to act as the girlfriend whom he had broken up with. In return, he agrees to pose as her boyfriend so that she can stop her grandfather (Delhi Ganesh) from pestering her to marry someone. Of course, we know they are going to end up falling in love!

Director A Hariharan sets up the premise and the characters quite confidently. The initial scenes are breezy and the three actors, too, are appealing right from the start. Even if the concept isn't novel, there's freshness in the way the scenes are written and staged.

Take for example the scene when Vikram narrates how he fell in love with Preethi. We get a meet cute set against the backdrop of a rainy night, and what's interesting is that we do not clearly see the face of the girl, because at that point, she's just an imaginary figure in his mind.

Later, when he meets Preethi, we get the visuals again, but this time, he's clearly able to fit her into the image of the girl he had in mind when he narrated the story.

The manner in which Vikram and Preethi realise that they are getting attracted to each other is also nicely done.

A scene between the duo that begins at her home and goes on as they walk and talk about their interests and desires, and finally ends up with the duo having a heartfelt moment on the beach is romantic.

But once they realise the complications that might follow if they start getting into a relationship, they try to move away. But things still become messy, given that this is love we are talking about.

From breezy, the tone becomes heavy as the characters try to navigate their way through the mess. Hariharan unties the knots convincingly, but even though the arc is a familiar one, he spends too long resolving this love triangle.

And so, after a while, the film begins to feel overlong. The forced comedy scenes involving Pugazh and Lollu Sabha Swaminathan also don't help. We also wish the performances from the actors in these portions were better. They are adequate, but the strong emotions needed something more forceful.

That said, the film doesn't become a boring affair. We are still invested in the characters and their decisions.

The lively music by Vivek-Mervin and the chic visuals by cinematographer Richard Nathan also help to keep us involved in the proceedings. And there is genuine warmth in the way the director manages to resolve the issues of the characters.