Review: Ramante Edenthottam

Women empowerment, the necessity of retaining forests, the importance of mutual respect in a family life, good parenting and self discovery; writer-director Ranjith Sankar has beautifully managed to gather all these elements and make it one story, Ramante Edenthottam. As mentioned in the trailer, it is a brief affair that changes the lives of Malini, Elvis and Ram. This film do not exactly have a structured story but it takes the viewers through the lives of  the characters.

While the movie shows us the dream-like land of Eden, it also captures the chaos of the city life well. The film primarily and ultimately belongs to the character Malini. It is slow paced and mostly dialogue oriented but Ramante Edenthottam doesn’t fail in keeping the audience engaged from start to end.

The cinematography and music plays a major part in making the film more likable.

The first half of the film perfectly introduces the characters. By the interval, the feel of the movie is conveyed to the audience and Malini’s desire to escape from her life is also convincingly portrayed. The second half of the film, apart from the little progressions Malini makes in her life, do not add anything new until Malini is interrogated by Elvis. But the dialogues are fresh enough to keep it moving.

Madhu Neelakandan’s cinematography is truly commendable and Bijibal’s music gives the film a very warm feel. The background music supports the situations especially romance. The cinematography and music plays a major part in making the film more likable. The edits by V. Sajan were fine. The costumes of each character were apt for the roles.

Anu Sithara

On screen, Anu Sithara, who astonishingly resembles Kavya Madhavan, becomes Malini with great ease. She looks gorgeous and portrays Malini with the much needed maturity. Joju George plays the most complex character of the movie, Elvis. It is impossible to decide whether to like this man or hate him and the actor brilliantly presents the mood swings of Elvis. Performance wise, Kunchacko Boban has nothing tough to do but Ram is safe in the hands of the actor. His grace and calmness adds beauty to the film and that makes him the perfect Ram. The supporting actors Muthumani and Sreejith Ravi did a fine job. Ramesh Pisharadi’s comedy was in correct sync with the script, Aju Varghese’s extended cameo was also enjoyable.

On a whole, Ramante Edenthottam will make people who miss the vintage Malayalam films very happy. The film may not please audience who look for fast paced narration or the ones who believe in the orthodox systems of marriage and in the “adjustments” of family life. Ramante Edenthottam reminded me of the landscapes and characters from some literary pieces. Here, Malini is a representation of a lot of women in the society and Elvis is of a lot of hypocrite mentalities.

Ram just plays the role of a catalyst in Malini’s process of self discovery but at the same time Ram is also a reminder to today’s busy human beings about the importance of protecting the nature. Women empowerment may not be about competing with men or going out of the way for success but it is surely about valuing self esteem and Ramante Edenthottam will certainly inspire a lot of people especially women in that note. Kudos to Ranjith Sankar for bravely making movies on topics that require public awareness.