Guruvayoor Ambalanadayil [dir. Vipin Das]

I have come to love the chameleonic Basil Joseph (Sookshmadarshini, Ponman, Paltu Janwar) and, given his limitations, Prithviraj Sukumaran can be quite decent with the right part (like in Ayyappanum Koshiyum). But damn, the best way I can describe Guruvayoor Ambalanadayil (GA), the supposed family entertainer from 2024 is...toxic masculinity portrayed in the light of an amusing and harmless trait.

Prithviraj and Basil are Anandan and Vinu, would-be brothers-in-law (BILs) who have for some reason developed an intense bonding (apparently over phone conversations alone), so much so it appears Vinu's bride Anjali (Anaswara Rajan) is a mere afterthought in their interaction. Perhaps they are united by their self-entitled fragile-ego perspective: Vinu is still sulking over a broken affair he attributes to a selfish and fickle woman. He seems only interested to marry so he can be closer to the BIL; draw your conclusions from that. Anandan is separated (though not divorced) from his wife and young child. He appears unconcerned about reconciling till Basil goads him into bringing his 'Aniyathi' (sister-in-law) home. It then turns out that Vinu's ex and Anandan's current are the same woman. How this impacts their quasi-homoerotic mutual admiration society and how the matter is finally resolved forms the rest of the film.

What makes it so galling is that GA is structured as a farce. We are supposed to find the antics and attitudes of these overgrown men-children cute. Anandan's courtesies towards his wife Parvathy in the intended reconciliation come across as an act antithetical to his true nature - Nikhila Vimal in the part is mostly reduced to staring with a disgruntled expression. When things go awry Anandan totally immediately declares Parvathy a pariah, discarding all notions of trust and mutual respect in a marriage. It turns out that Vinu's treatment of his ex has not been honorable either. This woman has been wholly victimized by these two bullies. The third perpetrator is the film's script, which treats her as a mere prop with no agency of her own. Even worse, Anandan's sister seems wholly okay with this fact and has no problem marrying the man at least partially responsible for her SIL's troubled status. Instead of more incisively exploring this issue we get a welter of pointless sub-plots, including one with Yogi Babu as a man wanting revenge on Vinu for another past sin (which reinforces him as a habitual asshole).

The narrative has a so-called happy ending in which Vinu marries the girl he wants (or whose brother he covets), and gets off with just a token apology to the woman whose life he has probably doomed. GA may have achieved its ends at the box-office, but in terms of the quality of writing, this is certainly not one of Malayalam cinema's better moments.