Review: Enna Satham Indha Neram fails to thrill

Enna Satham Indha Neram is a dull and unexciting film revolving around 8-year-old quadruplets who get lost in a zoo during a school excursion, says S Saraswathi.

Debutant director Guru Ramesh’s Enna Satham Indha Neram has been in the news ever since it earned a place in the Limca Book of World Records for being the first film to feature quadruplets.

The film was said to be an adventure thriller revolving around four eight-year-olds, who get lost at a zoological park during a school excursion. 

Unfortunately, their adventures fail to thrill. The film seems more like a tame imitation of some Hollywood flick.

A voice-over narration by Suhasini Maniratnam in the opening scene introduces us to all the characters in the film.  The entire film is about the incidents that take place on one particular day.

We meet the four adorable girls, Aditi, Aakriti, Akshiti, Aapti and their mom (Maanu).  All four are identical and suffer from a hearing and speech impairment.

This is the day of their school excursion and they are excited.  Their mom, however, is troubled.  Today is the day she expects her divorce to come through.  Raja (director M Raja) is her workaholic husband.

Kathir (Nithin Sathya) is an overdramatic zoo keeper.  His ex-girlfriend plans to get married at three that afternoon, and he is visiting all the pharmacies in the city to collect sleeping pills without prescription, to commit suicide at just that precise moment. 

Debutante Malavika Wales is the teacher in charge of the excursion.  She too has an important day ahead. She plans to elope with her boyfriend, leaving behind her dad and old grandmother. 

The stage is set; the girls leave for their excursion with their teacher.  Kathir is on duty at the zoo. 

Things are fine until the security workers at the zoo realise that the gate to a dangerous python has been left unlocked and the snake has escaped. 

In the pandemonium that breaks out, the girls lose their way and are separated from their teacher.

The rest of the film is all about the hunt that is organised to rescue them. 

Though the story begins on a promising note, there is nothing to hold your attention.  Even at just an hour and forty minutes, the film seems really long.  Neither the girls’ ordeal at the zoo nor the rescue mission is interesting. 

There are no exciting or nail-biting moments, and you feel absolutely no empathy for the characters or their predicament.

The film does have an interesting message though - you never know the value of what you have till you are going to lose it.

The director also attempts to bring to light the callousness of the media while reporting a sensitive issue.

As far as performances are concerned, no one stands out.  The girls are cute, but do not make much of an impression. 

Raja and Maanu appear in very few scenes. Malavika is average, while Nithin Sathya’s actions are over exaggerated.

Imman Annachi, Manobala and Shiva Shankar turn up at odd intervals, but their attempts to make us laugh are really pathetic. 

Music by Naaga is mediocre, and so are the visual effects for the snake.  But children might enjoy the excellent visuals of the zoo and the animals caught by cameraman Sanjay B Lokanath.  

Rediff Rating: