We say "a star is born" without attaching a specific timeframe to the process. Turns out it can be as rapid as two weeks. It was, after all, a fortnight ago when the Tamil drama Vishwanath & Sons ushered Mamitha Baiju front and centre as the ultramodern medical student who brings a baby, then chaos into the upright hero's life; she shines brighter still in the Malayalam word-of-mouth hit Bethlehem Kudumba Unit. Although these films are separated geographically by several states and linguistically by two distinct tongues, they have one further element in common beyond Baiju: both dramatise that perilous attachment between an older man and a younger woman. We might wonder whether the Indian cinema now has any other means by which an actress can launch a career, yet what BKU demonstrates is that there are happier and more rewarding ways of depicting such attachments. Baiju's Ashley is a college student who, as we find her, is leaving old friends behind to relocate with her family to Angamaly, that small town with a disproportionately large cinematic footprint. If she's hoping for peace and quiet, she's all out of luck: the town is currently overrun with wedding celebrations, a neighbour's would-be Spielberg of a son is fractiously shooting an autobiographical short film, and there are some especially loud huffs and puffs coming from the direction of one Justin (Nivin Pauly), the grumpy local fixer and self-declared bachelor boy. The musically inclined Ashley is drawn to the latter after he reveals he once, in the Internet's early days, ripped tape recordings for the purposes of online file sharing. (She logs his phone number under his online alias of "MP3 King".) But she's barely twenty, and he's pushing forty: it's not so much complicated as awkward. The film, to its considerable credit, is very much aware of this.
In the grand scheme of what co-writer/director Girish A.D. lays out before us, that central relationship presents as no big thing. (Indeed, for much of the film, the characters are reliant on their neighbours failing to spot what's happening in their midst.) What cinemagoers seem to be responding to in BKU - and this seems a far bigger deal in the context of a mainstream Indian cinema that has of late been fanning the flames of factionalism - is its vibrant sense of community. (The title refers to the housing association Ashley's family have moved into.) Girish converts the characterful ensemble playing that has been a feature of recent Malayalam cinema into a rich tapestry of ordinary Indian life. Any one of the situations this camera alights on - the wedding, the chaotic short film shoot, the swelling schoolgirl crush - might have been the basis of an enjoyable film, given such attentive writing, playing and direction. This once, though, we're lucky; we get the lot. This, naturally, entails us spending some part of the first half puzzling out who's who and how everybody relates - but then fraught relationships form the film's core, and none prove more fraught than that between personal happiness and familial duty. (All those other links, bonds and connections are weaponised as potential trip hazards.) And sitting at the very centre of that core - at the movie's heart - is that May-September romance, the business of the summer holidays, which Girish and co-writer Kiran Josey approach seriously, without lapsing into the inevitabilities of those many star vehicles in which a manly man claims his virginal (or near-virginal) prize for being so manly. By contrast, this growing affection seems to startle both parties: I was surprised to be reminded of that barely seen, half-forgotten Josh Radnor vehicle Liberal Arts, with its antsy, anxious central pairing. Girish and Josey go one better, taking care to set Ashley and Justin in context; these aren't merely characters in a romcom but people in a society, faced with a finite pool of opportunities and the judgement of their peers and elders. BKU proves honest about all this, where Vishwanath & Sons came off as cringey and conflict-averse.
Both leads do smart work as folks who find themselves ever more bemused by their emotions and responses. (There's none of that claiming here, for starters: that would be too decisive.) This is a less showy role for Baiju than Vishwanath & Sons' sass merchant, but she comes back with a real girl, possessed of both high hopes and a beating, bruisable heart. Local superstar Pauly has fun playing the big man on campus - confidently single, a real man's man - but his best scenes here recast him as a fellow unsettled by the way Ashley undermines his prior certainties and ready routines. A terrific ensemble of new and less familiar faces flesh out the various subplots, and Girish weaves his A and B plots with the deftest of touches, culminating in what seems likely to count as one of the year's most satisfying endings: these writers know they have to earn their finale, to banish any residual audience scepticism, and they do. Should you require further evidence of the care and commitment involved in this particular creative process, the short film that Justin's younger brother Joel (Sangeeth Prathap) directs within the film has appeared online this week; it proves sharp-eyed and amusing indeed about the flaws and follies of first-time male filmmakers. Girish, in marked contrast to the greenhorn Joel, arms his players with sparkling dialogue, and with editor Akash Joseph Varghese bolsters his snappy montages with the fruits of an outstanding soundtrack album. BKU's second half takes a step back from the appealing naturalism of the first, playing broader and arguably even more crowdpleasing. Yet even as Joel's short film shoot triggers a minor turf war - a very funny idea in itself - Girish roots his setpieces in recognisable smalltown reality: boys enlisting their big brothers to beat people up, grown men razzing around the backstreets in humdrum Ford Fiestas. No film this summer has put a bigger smile on my face: these people come to feel like close family and friends. Even for those of us born thousands of miles away, Bethlehem Kudumba Unit starts to resemble home.
Bethlehem Kudumba Unit is now playing in selected cinemas.
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