Engaeyum Eppothum

Recently I took a bus to Bangalore. The bus left Adyar at 10.30pm, picked up a few more in T.Nagar around 11pm and then reached this place called Silk Board in Bangalore by 4.15am. I was happy and shocked when I got off the bus. Happy because I reached Bangalore much early for the function that I was going to attend and shocked as I looked back on the journey time taken by the bus. I thought the bus driver was literally standing on the accelerator pedal all through the journey!!! Although this is a common phenomenon for buses that run between Chennai and Bangalore, its still an alarming fact that the operators dont have any control on speeding.

Engaeyum Eppothum, in some ways exposes us to one harsh reality - your life could be in the hands of a careless bus driver on the highway. You can always argue that what has to happen will definitely happen and if the bus driver is your chauffeur to hell/heaven its just a means. But what the hell.

As the movie opens, you witness a horrible accident between a private bus operator and SETC. As the scene unfolds, we are taken into the lives of different people who are travelling on both the buses. The lead characters are part of this bus journey and we learn more about their life when we go back a few months.

A girl(Ananya) from Trichy comes to interview for a job in Chennai, solicits help from a handsome looking stranger to help her get to the venue and also doubts his character all along their journey. I would have been convinced if the director actually chose a more interior town than Trichy to portray the girl's humble and innocent character. Trichy is quite cosmopolitan these days. Air Asia flies to Trichy directly from SE Asia!!! Anyways, through the journey, we obviously expect her to fall in love with the guy. The story is being told from the girl's perspective - a little different because I am always used to Parthiban's narration in a flashback. This was a welcome change. Almost 6 months later and love untold plus a failed desperate search to find the guy, she boards the private bus to Trichy from Chennai. The stranger who is in Trichy, boards the SETC bus to Chennai.

Jai and Anjali are in Trichy. Very middle class life - long working hours and earnings just enough to manage a decent living. Jai plays a very quiet character while Anjali is the extrovert - very strong and demanding. The director thought a lot about her character in this movie. Until the accident, every scene she is part of is a surprise package - we don't know why she is doing what she is doing and at the same time its quite hilarious. They board the SETC bus from Trichy to their hometown near Villupuram.

In between, we are also introduced to a few characters in the bus - a bunch of girls who are celebrating their tournament victory; a young college boy who happens to meet a beautiful girl also in the bus; a dad returning from Saudi to see his 5 yr old daughter who he hadnt seen since birth; a doting husband who actually comes to drop his wife but cannot leave her alone in the bus, so ends up taking the journey with her, and many other people who would be just like the one sitting near you in an inter-city bus. Conversations between the people sitting next to each other reminds us about random chats that you would have during a bus/train journey. In fact, the director makes it very realistic by not revealing passenger names.

This movie will not do well at the box-office. People will not like it, but I believe that it would send the message to a lot of people about highway incidents.