Bethlehem Kudumba Unit

‘Illey Illa’, the first song in Bethlehem Kudumba Unit, has a line that translates to “your novenas have finally come true”. The word was unfamiliar to me—I later found it’s a Catholic term for prayers offered for nine successive days, or weeks. It’s one little detail among dozens in the series of vignettes that make up the musical sequence: a busload of passengers held up by a short film shoot; a bowler running out a wandering non-striker, resulting in a brawl; father and son cooking pork curry; a young woman, friendless in a new town, watching her farewell video on her phone at bedtime; a grown man proudly clutching stuffed toys won from a claw machine.

Of all the things Justin (Nivin Pauly) and Ashley (Mamitha Baiju), the protagonists of Bethlehem Kudumba Unit, bond over, music is perhaps what triggers the initial spark. He dusts off an old cassette player, and she brings in her box of cherished old audio cassettes, which she refused to leave behind when her strict mother asked her to while shifting houses. She is surprised that he has heard of the alternative rock band ‘Breeders’, her favourite. It changes her serious, old-man image of him. When Ashley lands in this neighbourhood with her family, reluctant to leave her small home in the village, she is a little circumspect and even melancholic, as one of the characters puts it. Soon, she gels in, as if she has found her tribe. Girish AD does something similar with the audience. He places us firmly amid this bunch of closely-knit characters, all with relatable qualities, quirks and failings, making us feel as if we are among a group of our own friends. It also feels as if everyone here, except Ashley and her family have known each other all their lives, for such is the easy camaraderie and the sharpness of the repartees.

Set aside all temptations to speak about small town Angamaly as a character in Bethlehem Kudumba Unit, because even a guitar has a full character arc in Gireesh AD’s effortlessly charming film. The first scene of the film is Ashley (Mamitha Baiju) getting ready to say goodbye to her group of close friends as we hear chatter about her moving to a college in Ernakulam. They click selfies, hug each other all teary eyed and as a farewell gift, her friends gift her a new guitar. It takes an hour more, but it’s when we see the wallpaper on Ashley’s screen that we’re told about a band named Room 17 and of how she was its lead guitarist. When her new neighbour Justin (Nivin Pauly) identifies the band that features on this wallpaper, it immediately brings Ashley closer to Justin, someone she thinks off as the only person around her who’s even heard of that band.

A bizarre exotica circles India’s southern state of Keralam, encompassing its people, cinema, food, and heritage. Outside the state (excluding Bangalore, of course), it almost feels like a soft form of reverse racism. Sure, Keralam has the stats to back up the reputation: better education, sanitation, and a genuinely decent quality of life. Malayalam cinema has long ridden that wave, shaping this glowing image (the famous Kerala Model in many areas of public life) while turning out some of the best films in the country, a list Bethlehem Kudumba Unit seamlessly joins.

There’s beauty in simplicity, and director Girish AD swears by this. He cherry-picks simple, relatable stories and grounds them firmly with reasonable conflicts and well-etched characters. It’s essentially why his works breathe beyond superficial entertainment. With Bethlehem Kudumba Unit (BKU), the director repeats the same success formula and, as expected, reaps the same charm. Why fix what isn’t broken? In our cinema, it’s not uncommon to see actors with a big age gap playing romantic leads. But even in films that acknowledge this age gap, they don’t mention the difference. But here’s a film that wears this tricky detail on its sleeve. When Ashley (Mamitha Baiju) falls in love with her neighbour Justin (Nivin Pauly), who is around 12-13 years older, the film treats it very uncinematically. There’s awkwardness, apprehension, and of course, affection.

எர்ணாகுளத்தில் வசிக்கும் ஜஸ்டினின் (நிவின் பாலி) வீட்டுக்கு அருகே தன் குடும்பத்துடன் புதிதாகக் குடிவருகிறார் ஆஷ்லி (மமிதா பைஜு). அங்கே கேட்ரிங் தொழில் செய்துவரும் ஜஸ்டினை ஊரே மதிக்கிறது. அவருடைய சகோதரன் ஜோயல் (சங்கீத் பிரதாப்), ஒருபுறம் குறும்படம் எடுப்பதாக அலப்பறைகள் கொடுத்துவர, ஜஸ்டின் பொறுப்புடன் ஊருக்கு உதவுகிறார். கொஞ்சம் கொஞ்சமாக ஆஷ்லிக்கு ஜஸ்டினைப் பிடித்துப் போகிறது. இருவருக்கும் இடையே இருக்கும் 12-13 ஆண்டுகள் வயது வித்தியாசம் முதலில் ஜஸ்டினை யோசிக்க வைக்க, அவர்களின் காதலை ஊர் எப்படிப் பார்க்கிறது, ஜஸ்டின் என்ன முடிவெடுத்தார் என்பதை நல்லுணர்வுமிக்க காமெடி படமாகக் கொடுத்திருக்கிறார் `பிரேமலு’ புகழ் இயக்குநர் கிரிஷ் ஏ.டி.