Bethlehem Kudumba Unit (Malayalam)
When Nivin Pauly smiles at you from the big screen, you smile back. That’s just how it is; the actor’s charm is inescapable. Place that charm in a well-made film with generous sprinkles of romance, drama, action, and music, and you have Gireesh AD’s latest directorial, Bethlehem Kudumba Unit.
Nivin Pauly’s Justin is a 30-something ‘chronic bachelor’ who, besides running a catering company, repairs laptops, deals in real estate, produces his brother Joel’s (Sangeeth Prathap) short films, and more. Justin and family live in a Christian neighbourhood in Karukutty, where everyone knows everyone else and goes to the same church. It is to this neighbourhood that Mamitha Baiju’s Ashley and family move after they face financial difficulties at their hometown in Mundakkayam.
Ashley, a college girl, is at first intimidated and then enamoured by Justin, who lives right next door. The film doesn’t throw many surprises and/or take any road less taken. The romance track proceeds in quite the expected direction, the conflicts are predictable, and the resolution too is no surprise. Yet, the movie manages to entertain and gives us a few good laughs.
Co-written by Girish AD and Kiran Josey, Bethlehem Kudumba Unit has everything a film needs to drive people to the theatres this Onam season. The jokes land, Vishnu Vijay’s music fits right in, and the actors, no matter the length of their roles, gave good performances. Suresh Krishna as Baiju chettan, Shyam Mohan as Hari, Roshan Shanavas as Glikson, Vinay Forrt as Alex, and others deserve special mention.
Even the film’s sub plot involving an interfaith romance works quite well. A particular fight scene stands out for its choreography, and does not leave the audience flinching at the violence.
But despite all its great qualities, Bethlehem Kudumba Unit leaves you with a bitter aftertaste, simply by choosing to romanticise an age-gap relationship. The film is careful not to make way for allegations of explicit grooming. It is the woman who first develops feelings; it is she who suggests meet-ups and dates, and it is she who chooses for herself.
Yet, one cannot ignore the effort to paint as ‘cute’ the relationship between a college girl and a man almost as old as her uncle.
A girl, abruptly forced to leave her friends and hometown, turns to an older man next door for companionship in her new neighbourhood. The older neighbour merely complies with her wishes, if one were inclined to read it naively.
Disclaimer: This review was not paid for or commissioned by anyone associated with the film. Neither TNM nor any of its reviewers have any sort of business relationship with the film’s producers or any other members of its cast and crew.