Saintly is as saintly does.

 Enthada Saji (2023) is a devotional film, which means that my usual rule for devotional films applies: treat the movie as a movie, rather than as a religious tract.  I'm looking at storytelling rather than theology, in other words.  I will say that there's a lot more whimsy than I'm used to seeing in this kind of movie, though.

Sajimol (Nivetha Thomas) could use a miracle.  She was engaged years ago, but the engagement was broken off.  This means that the people in her village look down on her as a spinster, but the local marriage market treats her as a divorced woman, meaning she's unlikely to find a suitable groom.  She's a bit sensitive about the topic, and will occasionally chase away busybodies who make snide comments.  

Sajimol doesn't really do much anymore; she sleeps in and hangs around the house, annoying her long suffering parents.  She does visit the local chapel often, though, telling the icon of Saint Rocky (known elsewhere as Saint Roch.)  And then one day the saint (Kunchacko Boban) starts talking back.  They chat about Sajimol's life and about St. Rocky's duties as a saint.  After a few meetings, Sajimol asks Rocky to appear as himself, and he promises to do so if she attends Mass.

Sajimol has her miracle, but it's a very low key miracle.  Rocky may be a saint, but mostly he's her friend.  yes, he encourages her to go to Mass and read the Bible, but he also encourages her to clean up after herself, to find a job, and to help people when she can.  And she does!  She starts a small business selling painted bottles, and she assists Rocky with answering prayers, directly helping people with her human resources rather than waiting for miracles.  Suddenly her parents are a lot happier, as well.  Time for a complication.

Roy (Jayasurya) is Sajimol's childhood friend and first crush, back in town on business.  He's quite active in the church choir, and after working together on the upcoming Easter pageant Sajomol and Roy become quite close.  With Rocky's help Sajimol manages to confess her feelings, and the two become engaged.  There's still a problem, as Roy's father (Prem Prakash) wants a bride who will bring a larger dowry, but Rocky promises that it will all work out, and that he will be there to help.

And then Rocky's statue is stolen from the chapel.  after a bit of fuss the church decides to just get a new one, but the new statue doesn't talk to Sajimol.  She's lost her miracle, but worse, she's lost her friend.  So the movie shifts from low key devotional to low key mystery, as Sajimol and some of the people she's helped search for the icon, along with the dog she quietly adopted at the beginning of the movie.  Will they succeed?  Well, obviously.  But valuable life lessons will be learned in the process.

Enthada Saji is surprisingly laid back for a devotional movie.  It's clearly informed by religion, with Sajimol finding clues to the missing saint in scraps of scripture she finds lying around her room and the chapel, but the whole thing plays out like a quirky bit of magic realism.  It's a gentle movie, the leads are charming, and the underlying message is to be nice to people, including yourself.