‘Falimy’ movie review: An endearing, humourous tale of a dysfunctional family

It is in getting this mix between humour and emotion right that Nithish Sahadev’s debut directorial elevates itself above the average comedy-drama and turns it into a heartwarming tale

Somebody’s misfortune is someone else’s humour. In Falimy, the members of an entire family seem to stumble at each step they take. Everything that can possibly go wrong, does go wrong. And, it all becomes fodder for our laughter, everything from people getting stranded in the middle of nowhere to a sequence showing the last rites of a character and a case of mistaken identity that has tragic undertones to it. Yet, these characters are not mere tools to evoke humour, but the film pauses the laughter a bit to make us partake in the emotional toll that these events have on them.

It is in getting this mix right that Nithish Sahadev’s debut directorial Falimy elevates itself above the average comedy drama and turns into a heartwarming tale. One can, of course, find quite a few similarities with the recent family drama #Home, also based on a dysfunctional family, especially the characters of Chandran (Jagadeesh), a man who runs an old, unsuccessful printing press, and Rema (Manju Pillai), the mother of the family who struggles with the tantrums of the men of different ages. But, despite these similarities, one can sense some freshness in how the makers approach the rather straightforward plot.

Partly structured as a road movie, the plot revolves around the deep yearning of the 82-year old grandfather Janardhanan (Meenaraj) to visit Varanasi. His multiple attempts to travel alone, thwarted at every step by the family, becomes one of the handful of running jokes in Falimy. Anoop (Basil Joseph), his grandson, has his own personal frustrations, with his multiple failed attempts to get married being one of those. His job as a Malayalam dubbing artiste for Hindi television serials serves some hilarious moments.

Such moments are sprinkled all across the film, and become its driving force even at points where the narrative does not move forward much. Sandeep Pradeep, who plays the youngest member of the family, scores high on the humour department, but it is Basil Joseph who steals the show with a performance which taps the whole gamut of emotions.

Falimy digs deeper into the human experience when it further explores the character of Chandran, an irresponsible and failed man in the eyes of society and his family, but who has his own reasons for being the way he is. Jagadeesh, who has struck it rich in recent years with a variety of roles, lends the required gravitas to the character.

Nothing earth-shaking awaits the end of the journey with the family, but the journey itself leaves a satisfying aftertaste, with all the unexpected goof-ups turned into sepia-tinted memories, which really is the point of all journeys. Falimy uses humour effectively to paint a vivid picture of a dysfunctional family.

Falimy is currently in theatres