Satire is a tricky genre to crack, as a little bit of untidiness or lack of clarity can make it easily look like a badly made comedy. Of late, most of the movies in Malayalam that try to pitch themselves as satire have struggled to develop the idea in a consistently engaging manner, and oftentimes, they end up opting for a preachy, feel-good ending, almost like they are unsure whether the audience would accept something whacky. Pariwar, a funeral comedy, is trying its best to infuse all the socio-political events in the current scenario to create humor. But rather than making you giggle at some of the dialogue humor, this family satire feels like a concept that remained at a conceptual level.
Bhaskara Pilla is an elderly man who is bedridden, and his health has worsened. His sons, Nakulan and Sahadevan, have come to the ancestral home after hearing this news. His other sons, Bheeman and Arjun, are already there taking care of him. With the death of Bhaskara Pilla imminent, the tussle for the property starts to happen between them, and what we see here is a series of funny things that happened during this period.
One of the comments I saw about this movie when its trailer was released was that the movie looks like a comedy version of Narayaneente Moonnanmakkal, as both films have sons with financial liabilities waiting for the death of their parents. The thing with Pariwar is that it has no clarity on what trajectory it wants to take. The characters, Nakulan and Sahadevan, are portrayed as caricatures, and we have scenes of them doing insensitive things, like doing all the necessary things to conduct the cremation of their father before he even dies. They have pushed those characters far too much, and when they suddenly humanize them in the final act of the movie, it feels extremely odd, and it is almost like they are playing it safe for a convenient ending.
Jagadish has played the part of Sahadevan in this movie. It is an eccentric character, and the tone of the performance is inclined towards humor. However, the veteran manages to give it a different feel compared to his vintage style of pulling off humorous characters. Alexander Prashanth, as Nakulan, gets to play the equally eccentric brother, and the pitch of the performances of both these actors was in the zone. Indrans gets to play a character that kind of used his vintage comical energy and the recent character actor zone. Meenaraj Palluruthi plays the part of the uncle of these characters, and it was a really funny character. Unni Nair plays the role of Bhaskara Pilla, while Thinkalazhcha Nishchayam fame Unnimaya Nalappadam was paired opposite Alexander Prashanth.
The directorial duo Ulsav Rajeev and Fahad Nandu are the writers of this movie, and like I already said, there is that clarity issue with the script. The characters it creates, and sometimes even the situations, do not really enhance the humor or complexity of the story. Filling the script from conflict to interval and from that point to the climax is not happening through events that flow freely. And there are multiple instances added just for the sake of comedy that feels unfunny and pointless. Since the movie is in that satirical space, the cinematography uses quirky angles in many areas to keep things slightly unrealistic. Bijibal’s music is fine, but the placement of certain songs, like the imaginary one featuring Pilla’s youngest son and his girlfriend, felt like a forcefully visualized one that had no creative charm.
It is a time when people are targetting movies for all the insane things happening in society, and if you are one of those who think cinema should have a message, I guess Pariwar might work for that category of audience. Because it has a lot of dialogue-humor, and at the end, it gives us a lecture about choosing humanity over greed for money. But if you are someone who believes in the theory that conveying a message is the duty of post offices or mobile service providers, Pariwar is a desperate satire that offers sporadic giggles and nothing more.
Rather than making you giggle at some of the dialogue humor, this family satire feels like a concept that remained at a conceptual level.
Green: Recommended Content
Orange: The In-Between Ones
Red: Not Recommended
