Decoding Ezra’s Incredible Success

Horror movies are often a risk compared to other genres because they do not attract families with kids to theaters. Ezra doesn’t really deviate from the usual horror movie templates you see in other languages. There are not much jump scare moments that stay with you . There are few unanswered questions that linger in your mind after the movie too. Despite all these , the movie still works. The movie has connected with the audience and it is fast racing to one of the biggest blockbusters in Malayalam.

So what really worked in favor of Ezra. Let’s take a look:

Faithfulness to its genre: “You are watching a horror movie and that’s all you get here” is what Jay K says through Ezra. There are no gimmicks , no efforts to please any particular class of audience seperately. There are no distractions that hinder the flow of the movie. Jay K instead takes that time at several places to slowly build up the tension for a scene. A particular sequence where Prithviraj follows Priya Anand at night , notices a shadow on wall and slowly turns his head shows a director who knows his job.

Finesse in the Technical Department : Sujith Vassudev does easily the best job in the movie. He places the camera at the right places for all the shots. The camera zooms in , zooms out or shakes as the scenes demands. The dim light that the movie has throughout is a clever trick to suit the overall mood. What also gels well is Sushin’s background score.

Casting: There is not a single casting that has gone wrong even if it is Vijayaraghavan or Tovino who does small roles. Prithviraj and Priya Anand share great chemistry and are able to hold your breath in the scary scenes. Sudev Nair and Ann Sheetal are apt in the flashback. Sujith Shankar carries off a substantial role easily than you expected.

Marketing Strategies that paid great dividends: Now to the factors that helped outside the movie. Ezra is a great example in how important for a movie is its ‘promotions’. “Take your valentine to Ezra, chances are that she is going to hold you tight”- Their tagline for Valentine’s day indicates a creative promotion team behind the curtains. Movie’s teasers , trailer and promo song were all released at right times to raise the excitement among the people. The masterstroke though was Prithviraj’s idea to release Mammootty’s “The Great Father”‘s teaser in theaters where Ezra opened

Sensing that Malayalam Cinegoers needed a change: There are lot of great realistic movies in Malayalam off-late but that doesn’t mean the audience only want them. Pulimurugan last year and Ezra this year – the successes of both these movies proves that audience now prefer a “not bad” to “decent” movie in a different genre than a “great” movie in the same genre over and again.To sum up , Ezra is not really a landmark movie in the horror genre for Malayalam .But it puts forward something different in Malayalam after a long time and does it in a decent manner. If anything, it opens up prospects for more film makers to try out different genres.