Raveendra Nee Evide Review | The Only Thing Working in the Audience’s Favor Is the 103-Minute Runtime

The movie Raveendra Nee Evide is directed by Manoj Palodan, who was an associate of Saji Surendran and has previously directed Asif Ali-starrer Ithu Thaanda Police. The script of this movie is by Krishna Poojappura, who was also a constant collaborator of Saji Surendran in the Ivar Vivahitharayal, Husbands in Goa era. Krishna Poojappura used to write daily soaps back in the day, and even now, he is writing serials like Santhwanam. The movies he had written also had a sensibility similar to serials, and the reason why he faded away from the film scene was his inability to understand the movie-watching audience. When it comes to Raveendra Nee Evide, nothing has really changed in terms of the quality of writing, and what you get is a lazy film that mocks the audience for 103 minutes.

Our title character, Raveendran, is a senior employee at the India Meteorological Department, and he lives happily with his wife Bindu and daughter. The family life of Raveendran hits a roadblock when Raveendran finds out that there is a constant visitor to his flat whenever he goes for work, and he starts to suspect his wife. The problems that happen in Raveendran’s life after he discovers this new person are what we see in Raveendra Nee Evide?

When you watch a movie like this, the one thought that won’t leave your head is how on earth a bunch of people who are constantly in touch with the reality of the film industry thought that such a story could connect with the current audience. The movie is trying to present the twists in the tale as something refreshing and dramatic. But if you just go and watch the trailer of the film, any Tom, Dick, and Harry can guess that everything here will be based on pointless doubts, much like those thematically crass serials. In such cases, where you have predictable stories, it is the making that will make things interesting for us. In the case of Raveendra Nee Evide, they are just shooting scenes without bothering about the craft aspects of filmmaking.

The movie has only a handful of locations, and it shuttles between those locations, trying to create comedy. The overall sloppiness is visible in almost every department of the movie. The introduction scene of Dhyan Sreenvasan has him watching Mohanlal’s entry scene from Aarattu on a mobile phone, and the mixing uses all the main speakers to create the vibe. (at least remove the mobile phone interface, no?) One of the promotional materials of this movie was a selfie video of Shankar Mahadevan talking about a song he has sung for this movie, and the placement of that song is done in a way that I think they have used all the leftover footage to create a collage song.

Anoop Menon is trying really hard to act like a stupid guy with the sensibility of a modern-day Thalathil Dineshan, and most of the time it’s not funny. Sheelu Abraham is the female lead of the movie, and that character is straight out of serials, and there are no major challenges in front of her, as the writing has already done the damage. Dhyan Sreenivasan’s character is kind of integral to the story for a very predictable distraction. But there is nothing much for him to perform here, and I feel that, rather than casting him for the sake of promotions, producers should ask for a share of the YouTube revenue of videos featuring him. Major Ravi’s screentime in the movie and the promotions are inversely proportional. The kind of hits Azees Nedumangad was part of in recent years have given him a promotion, and he now plays the well-educated friend of the hero. Siddique, Sajin Cherukayil, Senthil Krishna, Suresh Krishna, and a few more names are in the cast of this film.

During the promotional interviews of this movie, Sheelu Abraham had revealed that the losses made by the company by producing flop films help them in filing the tax, as most of their movies are loss-making ventures. Well, since she has used the money to make movies to improve her acting, and the acting has now reached a satisfactory level for serials, it would be nice if Abaam could consider the option of producing daily soaps to show their loss. That way, many people who love the medium of cinema can save their time, and the theaters won’t have to incur losses by playing a movie for just 10 people. Sheelu Abraham is now in a space where she can actually say the iconic Sreenivasan quote, “The movies I chose not to do are my contribution to cinema.” Go for it, ma’am!