The only entertaining and mildly funny part of Yenda Thalayila Enna Vekkala [Why Isn’t Your Hair Oiled?] – which joins the list of very odd titles only after En Aaloda Seruppa Kaanom [My Girlfriend’s Shoes Are Missing] (2017) and Ivanukku Thannila Gandam [Death By Water] (2014) – are the first few moments that introduces the lead.
A family dotes on its son who brings home a seemingly handsome pay. The mother hovers over him, the sister requests for expensive gadgets while the father sheds tears of happiness and pride – all before he leaves for work. A few seconds later, it is made known that the youth (Azhar as Praveen) is unemployed, and his family is acutely aware of it.
YTEV wants to be a screwball comedy; it also desperately wants to hitch a ride on the horromedy wagon that was in vogue back in 2014, but unfortunately for it, the genre is not exactly the flavour of the season. But even if it were, YETV would cease to evoke interest after the first couple of frames. It begins much the way last week’s release – yet another horror – Nagesh Thiraiyarangam did. An unemployed young man attends a job interview, but meets the woman of his dreams (Sanchita Shetty) instead. He woos her by making jokes about women-kind; she gives in. Where’s the horror, you ask? It is unfurled soon, but the strategically-placed spooky elements fail in their task while those that appear seemingly comedic amount to the real deal.
Just when Praveen is about to get married to the woman he loves, he begins hearing voices. It introduces itself as the God of Death, and assigns him a few challenges a la Blue Whale that he needs to complete in order to save himself. And there begins the horror. The film has him (sexually) assault young women and the elderly, reeking of the 90s movies that specialised in cringe comedy.
Recommended
Why? Because, his first task is to get slapped by an old woman. It makes for terrible viewing, a vicious ocular assault; trudging through the sequences require special energy, and the rest of the film is filled with questionable plot elements.
But, they work. They work for the rest of the theatre that can’t seem to get enough of the couple who go on live television for some marital counselling. They laugh at the double entendres, the loud, never-ending slapstick sequences, the couple’s domestic troubles that involve paramours, and other threads that try hard to entertain but just end up being plain distasteful.
*****
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