The Misshapen Abode: Chosen Families and Misplaced Masculinities
Long Form Review
In the small town of Kumbalangi, there stands a house. Far away from all else and surrounded by water on all sides, it stands bare-bricked. It is home to the four brothers, Franky, Bobby, Bonny and Saji. The death of their father, whose dream was to build a house, leads to the family falling apart and the house remaining incomplete. The dismantled family grows apart, disenchanted with their lives.
When Franky (Mathew Thomas), the youngest of them, hesitantly returns from his residential school to the house, he notices that it has become further stripped of any hope and love; with Bobby (Shane Nigam) and Saji (Soubin Shahir) constantly fighting each other and Bonny (Sreenath Bhasi) moving out. Each continues living, blaming the other for the state of their lives. All this eventually starts to change, when Bobby falls in love with Baby (Anna ben) and they plan to get married. To help convince Baby’s family, Bobby asks Saji for help.
Parallelly, we are introduced to Baby’s brother-in-law, Shammy (Fahadh Faasil). In his own words, Shammy considers himself “the perfect man”. Perfect moustache, perfect clothes and perfect routine. He believes that he is the man of the house on whom three powerless women depend. His desire to control and dictate everyone and everything around him, is camouflaged by a constant smile making him unusually scary and patently creepy.
Shammy opposes the marriage between Bobby and Baby. While he insults the brothers for their socio-economic backwardness, his distaste for them rises out of the fact that these were not “perfect men”. To convince Shammy of their worth, the brothers try to change their lives which leads them down the path of self-exploration.
The writing and direction are deceptively brilliant as the narrative subtly starts focusing on masculinity. The film juxtaposes society’s idea of the perfect man against the brothers’ imperfections. Shammy, on one hand, is the responsible bread earner who is the head of the household. The brothers, on the other hand, are lazy, irresponsible men who need to transform themselves into this ideal of a “perfect man” to be accepted by the society.
With false ideals as destinations, the brothers feel lost. This conflict brings them together, digs up long lost camaraderie and helps them realize that they belong. They belong together. They belong in the bare-bricked house on an island at the edge of Kumbalangi, which welcomes people dumped and discarded by the society. And the house doesn’t feel incomplete anymore.
The multi-layered narrative of the film illustrates the writer’s (Syam Pushkaran) sleight of hand in charging the story with dominant cultural and political undertones. It openly criticizes the popular media for celebrating toxic masculinity by references to the film “Arjun Reddy” and the brand advert of “Raymond: The perfect man”. The female characters are empowered and have strong voices which guide the story’s direction. The cinematography (by Shyju Khalid) captures the beautiful locales of Kumbalangi in Kerala. This, combined with the unforgettable background music (by Sushin Shyam), brings the setting to life. Memorable performances from all characters simply add to the complexity of the film.
Kumbalangi nights is a story of a family in utter chaos; its members in a state of entropy, unable to form bonds. It depicts the stagnation caused by human frailties of ego, hatred and violence. It broods in the loneliness of its characters and flies in the exaltation of their belongingness, all while it strongly criticizes the society’s mandate of the perfect man.