Annabelle Sethupathi Review – An honest attempt at a kids-friendly film but needed more charm!

Bharath Vijayakumar

Films for kids can broadly fall under two categories. There are films that kids enjoy and adults can have some fun as well. Then there are films that are solely for kids. Annabelle Sethupathi probably wanted to be a film solely for kids and to be fair, it is an honest attempt and tries to do away with all the adult stuff. It is also probably unfair for an adult to be writing about a film that is aimed at kids.

The premise is the typical fairy tale doomed romance and good coming back to triumph the evil. The best thing about Annabelle Sethupathi is that it never ventures into the serious zone. Even the villain isn’t scary (not about what he does but how he carries himself) and the flashback portions have that ‘bed time fables’ kind of a feel. But what the film needed was a certain colour. Well, it is colourful to look at. But the characters needed to be more fun. What we have in the film are actors trying to be comical and letting their hair down. But are the characters memorable? I am not talking about characters leaving an impact but even while watching the film, this is not a film where you are enchanted by a particular character and are eagerly waiting for the character to turn up on screen, every time he/she goes missing. Among the actors, Tapsee and Yogi Babu make an impression. It is good to see someone like Tapsee having some fun in a film like this. Vijay Sethupathi appears in his usual laidback style but this is a film that actually needed the actor to be having some fun.

Bottomline:

Annabelle Sethupathi is that rare kids-friendly film in Tamil that does away with gore and double entendres. This is a welcome attempt but the characters/actors needed more charm and colour for the film to be an enjoyable ride.

Rating: 2.75/5