Tourist Family

A family is trying to flee Sri Lanka and lands up in Rameshwaram, only to get noticed by the cops. They are picked up in a police van. The mood is sombre. But what follows is a really funny five-minute sequence that sets the tone for the entire film. It can be argued that Dharmadas (Sasikumar) is this movie’s hero, but the script does not have a single protagonist; rather, it’s this entire family of four that forms the fulcrum of the script. Director Abishan Jeevinth’s Tourist Family is all about boundaries and ways to break them. A Sri Lankan family with fake documentation has arrived in a Chennai colony, which has, among other people, a grumpy man who rarely socialises, a drunkard who keeps getting yelled at, and a girl wanting to move abroad but changing her mind. That all these characters live together and are close-knit makes things interesting. Remember director Radha Mohan’s Mozhi? The first half of Tourist Family reminds one of that 2007 Tamil film, just in terms of feeling and flavour.

There’s a scene well into Abishan Jeevinth’s Tourist Family when the reticent Gunasekhar (Ilango Kumaravel) who shies away from speaking to anyone decides to open up to Vasanthi (an utterly lovely Simran) about how he met his Mangayarkarasi (Sreeja Ravi, who is a puddle of warmth) and why they are all alone. He mentions love, and eloping, and you sense him blushing, despite the age. Elsewhere, a teacher who does not smile easily hides a ready-to-bloom smile at school thinking of the student Mulli (firecracker Kamalesh) who got him to drop him off with absolute nonchalance. At home, tensions rise over a father and son sparring. And then, Nithushan (Mithun Jai Shankar aces this part) shows his folks something and the family struggles to control their laughter. The way this scene plays out is gold.

Our world is very cynical. Everything around us screams cynicism, especially in the social media era where everyone is judged, and everything is scrutinised. Probably why our minds love to forget all of that and watch good things happen to good people on the big screen. Even if it might seem ‘cringe’ or ‘boomer-ish’, these films still put a smile on our faces simply because for those couple of hours, we want to feel everything is right and good in this world. It is on this belief that filmmakers like Rajkumar Hirani and Radha Mohan plied their wares over the past two decades. Now, in director Abishan Jeevinth’s debut film, Tourist Family, we find enough evidence to believe that he is a worthy addition to this list of optimists who make the world go round when the cynics believe the world has stopped.

Tired of watching guns, gore and blood splashing all over the big screen? Are you obsessed with films featuring hardcore action and violence and looking for a breather? Have you ever thought about wanting to watch a no-fuss film that reminds you to look for goodness in people? If a film can put a smile on your face this weekend and offer you some respite, it is director Abishan Jeevinth’s ‘Tourist Family’. Dharmadas (Sasikumar), the epitome of ever-helping Mr Goody Two-Shoes, and his wife Vasanthi (Simran), along with their two children Nithushan (Mithun Jai Sankar) and Mulli (Kamalesh) are Sri Lankan natives who illegally hop on a boat to enter India. They end up in Dhanushkodi, only to be caught by the police. But, the innocence and sharp presence of mind of Mulli help them escape.

IN ABISHAN JEEVINTH’S debut feature, a Tamil-speaking family from Sri Lanka lands on the shores of Rameshwaram. We don’t see it, but we get the sounds of their torrential journey through opening credits and even later in the film—a rocking boat, tense waters and the fear of losing oneself to the mighty ocean. But we also get the funny side of it. The youngest kid says he doesn’t know how to swim, and the father reassures him. He is quick to retort, “But you don’t know how to swim either!” The aptly titled Tourist Family is not satire but a light take on heavy problems like geopolitics, economic and migrant crisis. Abishan’s film balances the weight of the emotion of shared camaraderie with a feathery slice of life humour.