Tourist Family – Review
All tamil movie fans asked for was movies with some substance and a semblance of thoroughness. It took the Covid thaw for Malayalam movies to shine brightly and our low-medium budget producers to realize this – when story followed characters, success was not a gamble anymore. The day production houses figured scaling does not come from running after pocket-sized superstar for bankablity, they unearthed the way to draw in audience – the word-of-mouth that Tamil audiences never shy away from. It was Lubber Pandhu earlier, now it’s Tourist Family’s turn.
Tamil movies are hitting the note with digging gold with familiar stories and characters that go deeper with charged backstories and strong motivations.
Tourist Family reminded me of Spielberg’s ‘E.T’ – an alien (abandoned on Earth) brings new life, fun and meaning to the lives of the children that discover it. The kids come together to hide it from an unnamed Government entity, as they grow stronger together. In T.F, Das’s unwavering positivity is too strong for a small “colony” to rub off. They are walked back to a Madras where neighbors walked into each other’s home unannounced or acted nosy to the point of being an extended family.
Director Abishan Jeevinth adds drama by making literal alines out of the Sri Lankan Tamil family that lands in the midst of the Madras of today. I wonder how he. a Gen Z kid, got the idea. Sri Lankans, after the Rajiv Gandhi assassination, were considered rank untouchables and you feel a terrible unease instantly. Abishan’s penchant for keeping it light removes the Sri Lankan conflict from the equation and uses the recent inflation as the culprit.
Thanks to multiple sub-plots and sub-texts, you are moved to tears as you discover personal disappointments and tragedies that were begging for a cathartic outburst. Even when it is predictable and well-planted, the take on each character is done with conviction and care – this is where Tourist Family is your comfort watch.