Pookkaalam Movie Review: A Colourful Family Entertainer That Reminds Us Of Human Imperfection

Director: Ganesh Raj

Cast: Vijayaraghavan, KPAC Leela, Basil Joseph, Vineeth Sreenivasan, Arun Kurian, Annu Antony

When we look at old people, we often see them as individuals who have finished living their lives. Very rarely do we look beyond their wrinkles, rickety hands or their daily load of medicines. But when director Ganesh Raj (who made his debut with the campus rom-com Aanandam) opens the film about a ninety-year-old couple with a flashback sequence of them rejoicing their first child’s birth, it becomes apparent that he has something different in store for us. 

Ittoop (a brilliant Vijayaraghavan, who plays a character 20 years older than his actual age) and Kochuthresia (KPAC Leela), who are in their nineties, lead a life filled with love and warmth; their love language being routinely waking each other up in the morning, helping one another get ready and eating rice dumplings every day for the past eighty years. There is some joy and love they find in this monotony, and this happiness also extends to their large family of four children and grandchildren. However, Ittoop’s world turns upside down when he finds a 50-year-old love letter addressed to his wife. 

On the day of his granddaughter Elsy’s (Annu Antony) engagement, he informs his family that he wants a divorce. Initially, everyone laughs it off. But they soon realise that he is being serious. And when Kochithresia hears it, even before we get to see her expression, we see the rice dumpling fall on the ground and scatter, just like their marriage. 

From this point onwards, with divorce proceedings in full swing and a wedding on the verge of being cancelled, the film takes you on an emotional ride. But Ganesh treats Pookkaalam like a chaotic comedy about a small-town family dealing with a curve ball. With Basil Joseph playing a dimwitted lawyer and Vineeth Sreenivasan playing his best friend, who doubles up as a judge, there is no dearth of laughs.

The film also lines up a set of quirky characters — twins who marry twins, a person named Guinness, a self-proclaimed inventor trying to create a rice dumpling machine and more. When they all come together as a family, there is much room for misadventures. The film often pauses to remind us that not everything is as perfect as it seems. The family has a forgotten past and undiscussed secrets —  a cold war is apparent between a father-in-law and son-in-law and an aunt is conveniently forgotten. 

The frames are chirpy and vivid, filled with hues of golden brown, pink, green and yellow, and sometimes a mix of all these. This gives a mellow tone to even a few sad scenarios, emphasising that happiness is always around the corner. Yet the best effect of this technique is felt when all these colours are removed. When Ittoop decides to separate from Kochuthresia, he stays in a completely white room. Besides his sullen face, the melancholy in the atmosphere is made to be felt due to the sudden shift in colours. 

There are also several subtle yet impactful takes on patriarchy in the film. For example, when someone suggests a married man to find another woman, it's considered fun, but when the tables are turned, it’s looked at as a grave mistake. The camera is mostly kept at a distance, capturing the couple’s emotions only through apparent actions and expressions. And only in a few scenes, do we get to look at them from each other’s point of view. But this is also because as much as the film is about the old couple, it is also about how their family and the society look at them and how their perspectives change over time. 

Even if its title suggests otherwise, Pookkaalam is not essentially about spring, but rather about how spring is just around the corner. So, in the film, you experience sadness which is often always followed by happiness. Time heals wounds; and the film portends its ending with its opening quote “If winter comes, can spring be far behind.”