Eetti (2015)

Eetti revolves around a sportsperson but it is not a sports film. It is a masala action movie that has smarts but is undone to an extent by the compromises that the director makes to his story. This, he seems to have done to ensure that the layman isn't turned away from the high-concept premise, but he shouldn't have feared so. As Thani Oruvan proved earlier this year, it is very much possible to attract crowds to an action film without resorting to needless comedy and romantic tracks. It is these segments that prove to be the film's Achilles heel and puts Eetti into the 'Could have been better' list.

The film opens with a health show on TV on the medical condition Glanzmann's thrombasthenia, a bleeding disorder where the blood doesn't clot for those afflicted with this. We are then told that Pugazhenthi (Atharvaa), the film's protagonist, has this disorder. Pugazh is a college student and a champion athlete in Thanjavur who has made it to the national athletics meet breaking the national record. A wrong call acquaints him with Gayathri (Sri Divya, in yet another bland role), a college student in Chennai, and predictably, this association blossoms into romance. Pugazh, who comes to Chennai for the meet, saves Gayathri's brother Dinesh (Thirumurugan), who has got into trouble with a fake currency racket. Now, the gang is after him as well. Can Pugazh, whose medical condition causes him to faint at the slightest scratch, take on knife-wielding gangsters?

Eetti is at its best when it gets into action mode. The pre-interval stunt, a Run-like scenario where the hero runs away from the goons chasing him only to turn the tables on them, delivers the adrenaline rush that we expect from a film in this genre. Even the scenes where the villains hunt for Pugazh are decent enough, and the climactic fight, when Pugazh takes on Eka, the right hand man of Sampath (an effective RNR Manohar), the head of the gangsters, is done well, though the villains come off as less intelligent when they fail to take advantage of the hero's weakness. The stunt choreographer, Rajashekar cleverly introduces sharp objects during the fight scenes that add an extra bit of tension as we know of the hero's medical condition. And he smartly integrates the athleticism of Pugazh into the stunts and shows us how the guy manages to evade his attackers.

Even the initial romantic portions — a wrong call that becomes an excuse for the hero to communicate with the heroine — are fun. But Ravi Arasu stretches this track unnecessarily with one too many songs, even in the second half. A supposedly funny scene with Adukalam Murugadoss is a test of patience. So, when it had to shift gears and race to the fun, the film moves from the one scene to the next in a jerky manner. Thankfully, Atharvaa, who literally sweats it out to make the athletics portions believable, holds things together and carries the film past the finish line.