Yezhu Kadal Yezhu Malai

“The film is an experimental formal exercise that can be interpreted in all kinds of ways, and there's lots to like at a conceptual level. It makes you think. But it also appears overstuffed with ideas, and at an emotional level, it stays remote.”

“The problem with the film is that what seems incredibly interesting on paper feels like a slog as a film. This isn't a film built on incident or event — there's no traditional conflict driving it forward — so the scenes between Nivin and Soori (and the rat) on the train get tiring after a point.”

“Yezhu Kadal Yezhu Malai has the makings of a fascinating existential fable, but Ram's surreal experiment gets lost in its own muddled storytelling. The movie wants to convey a lot, high and deep, but what is communicated across is a lot of garbling.”

“Even with the backing of a whimsical idea, it is perplexing to see Ram try to ground his film in a moving train that, unfortunately, chugs around in circles. Yezhu Kadal Yezhu Malai drowns in its detours, and preachiness does not translate to compelling cinema.”

“Yezhu Kadal Yezhu Malai is a patience-testing attempt to gift audiences a film that talks about humanity. It is also a film that will remain an example in debates about the use of AI in filmmaking and how it can suck the life out of cinema.”

“Yezhu Kadal Yezhu Malai feels like no one involved in the movie, especially Ram, had a clue what they were doing. It isn't that the fantasy drama is bad in the conventional sense, but it's all over the place, and not in a good way.”

“An unnecessary fight sequence, a sudden twist featuring a young boy, and an ambiguous ending close what is Ram's weakest, most emotionally distant feature film yet. In the midst of all this, there's a compelling Ram film somewhere, but one wonders if the cost of searching for it is two hours of a mortal audience's time.”

“Yezhu Kadal Yezhu Malai is clearly a film made with a strong philosophical purpose with interesting thoughts about love, life and the value of every living creature. However, the lengthy dialogues make the journey slow, the repeated philosophical points reduce their impact, and the inconsistent AI visuals further affect the viewing experience. The concept has merit, but the execution makes this a film that demands considerable patience from its audience.”

“It's a densely packed film, loaded with philosophy about human nature and how we tend to repeat the same flaws across millennia without any real emotional evolution. Where the filmmaking pulls down the vision with uneven AI-generated visuals, the ideas more than make up for it, with the second half breathing deeper into the centuries-old love story and existential questions that only director Ram could articulate.”