Rating – 4/5

Cast: Indrans, Sreenath Bhasi, Naslen Gafoor, Manju Pillai, Johnny Anthony

Watching #Home is like peeking into our own homes, and that’s exactly why the movie stays with us for a while. Two hours forty minutes may be a slightly longer run time, especially these days when people resort to 30 seconds of entertainment on Instagram reels. But the simplistic and emotional narrative covers up for this long time and I didn’t want the movie to end.

Just like his previous movies (Philp and the Monkey Pen, Jo and the Boy), Rojin Thomas’s #Home is yet another feel-good drama that we desperately need in these uncertain times. It had been quite a while since I enjoyed a good heartwarming story in Malayalam. 

Read: Best Malayalam Movies on Amazon Prime

#Home has five members in the family, the father who concedes to the emotional gap with his children, the mother who tries to hold the family together, the grandfather with deteriorating memory, and two sons who are typical GenZ templates. 

Oliver Twist has two sons, Anthony Oliver Twist, a movie director, and Charles Oliver Twist, a self-proclaimed successful vlogger. Charles makes up for several funny moments in the film. Anthony, whose first movie was a huge hit, is now facing a creative block. He’s unable to complete the script he has been working on and doesn’t seem to be serious about it either. He returns home, hoping to get over the creative block. What happens after that completes the story. 

Sreenath Bhasi is perfect as Anthony Oliver Twist like every time he has been good with funny and humorous roles. Naslen Gafoor as Charles is funny as hell. The way he delivers his dialogues is more than enough for us to crack into bursts of laughter. 

Anthony and Charles are those GenZ kids who take their parents for granted and fail to appreciate them for what they are. Like every GenZ kid, they are glued to their phones and have confined their world to that six-inch device. The device, without them, even knowing, disconnects them from reality. 

The real scene-stealer is Indrans, who effortlessly projects a middle-aged man unable to catch up with the changing technological dynamics. Indrans is representative of all those people of his generation who long for honest heartfelt communication with their offspring. He doesn’t expect too much and just wants to be looked at with respect and a sincere smile which hospital sons fail to give. The name of his character, Oliver Twist, and the story behind the name is yet another exciting element.

The movie is not just about families and emotions. The movie speaks up on several other topics like mental health, smartphone addiction, and so on. 

If observed closely, there is minute ambiguity regarding certain elements like- why Oliver is fixated on his elder son more? Why does a scientifically well-versed man like Oliver refrain from buying a smartphone all this while and struggle so much to master it? But these unanswered loopholes in no way affect the entire narrative.

Personally, #Home is one of the best films I have seen in recent times. It is one of those films that no one would regret watching. 

Image Courtesy: YouTube