The best thing about #Home is that it gives a veteran performer like Indrans an opportunity (in 2021) to act his heart out. #Home is everything you can expect given its title. Thematically, it heavily borrows from Sreenivasan's Kadha Parayumbol in its climactic moments but writer-director Rojin Thomas successfully infuses a huge dose of relatability to the proceedings before we get there. The (slightly excessive) melodrama in the end makes me reduce half a star in a film that gets its humor going pretty early on. Everyone on the film's poster (or otherwise) does well - conveying the right emotions with ease.
Rojin has written the lead character of Oliver Twist (Indrans, playing the man of the house) in a layered manner. Right when you think the focus goes away from the sexagenarian, Rojin carefully drifts it back on him. It also tries to convey a subtle message on mobile phone addiction without being outright preachy about it. As it's a 2h 40m movie, #Home spends enough and more time breathing life into each of its leads. The comedy is laugh-out-loud when it works and super-bland when it doesn't; that said, it's the former that we get more of. #Home looks like it was prepared to delight (and occasionally moisten the eyes of) family audiences during the Cor-Onam season when Keralites are mostly stuck at home.
The gripes I had with the film include a few problematic quips around mental health, how Antony's somewhat toxic behavior gets written off as "stress" and is conveniently forgiven, and that Kuttiyamma (Manju Pillai) gets reduced to the empathetic caretaker of all the men in the household. Also, why does Antony want his dad to be extra-ordinary for them to reconnect? Most dads are ordinary and they're still awesome for just being themselves. That aside, #Home certainly warrants a watch with the fam.
P. S - Dominic Toretto must be feeling proud!
Rojin has written the lead character of Oliver Twist (Indrans, playing the man of the house) in a layered manner. Right when you think the focus goes away from the sexagenarian, Rojin carefully drifts it back on him. It also tries to convey a subtle message on mobile phone addiction without being outright preachy about it. As it's a 2h 40m movie, #Home spends enough and more time breathing life into each of its leads. The comedy is laugh-out-loud when it works and super-bland when it doesn't; that said, it's the former that we get more of. #Home looks like it was prepared to delight (and occasionally moisten the eyes of) family audiences during the Cor-Onam season when Keralites are mostly stuck at home.
The gripes I had with the film include a few problematic quips around mental health, how Antony's somewhat toxic behavior gets written off as "stress" and is conveniently forgiven, and that Kuttiyamma (Manju Pillai) gets reduced to the empathetic caretaker of all the men in the household. Also, why does Antony want his dad to be extra-ordinary for them to reconnect? Most dads are ordinary and they're still awesome for just being themselves. That aside, #Home certainly warrants a watch with the fam.
P. S - Dominic Toretto must be feeling proud!