Tourist Family plot

Dharmadas (Sasikumar) along with his wife Vasanthy (Simran), and sons Nithushan (Mithun Jai Shankar) and Mulli (Kamalesh Jegan) flee from Sri Lanka and take refuge in Tamil Nadu with the hope to have a better life and eventually become Indian citizens. After trying to settle in a neighbourhood in Chennai, and all seemingly going well, a bomb attack that takes place in Rameshwaram gets connected to the family and the police is on a hunt.

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Tourist Family review

Life is absurd, in a way that sometimes it might show up with circumstances which may seem extraordinary that no amount of onscreen translation can match up to its originality. Life is also absurd in a way that it might have small solutions to big problems, or were they rather simple from the beginning that we humans tend to complicate with the norms of modern society? This could be taken as a way Abishan Jeevinth adopts to tell the story of a family of four who escape to a new country seeking a new and better life.

A teen girl gets to know her boyfriend is cheating on her with her friend; a man gets fired by his employer; a teenage boy shockingly witnesses his girlfriend getting married happily to another person; and prayer gathering for an old woman who passed away recently in the neighbourhood. All these scenarios are tearjerker and warrant for a moment of sympathy. And these are the exact moments when Tourist Family makes you almost shed a tear, and just about you begin to feel bad, Abishan makes an organic segway to a comical retreat, winning you over with applause and a smile. Tourist Family is that feather-weight film which makes a strong case for a larger issue without stressing on it too much, which only makes it further beautiful and humansing.

In a way, Tourist Family is a continuation to its teaser (a brilliant four-minute sequence, check out!) and begins from the moment the family arrive Tamil Nadu, gets caught by police, and left free by a cop who looks at heart over mind. There is a beautiful dwelling of humanly connections through the film, and this forms through the new neighbourhood Dharmadas and his family gets. In form of an old couple who eloped and got married; a man who may not pay his servants but gives dignity and equality by not classifying them with paper tea cups; a cop family; a Punjabi family who adopt life of the surrounding when needed, a school teacher who picks up and drops Mulli every day, to name a few. The ensemble casting works greatly to the benefit of the film, and so does the spot on protagonists who get their fair share to score big time. A stretch that involves between Dharmadas and Nithushan, speaks the unspoken bond that run between a father and son, the innocent laughter that Mulli brings about make Tourist Family soar higher with each passing scene.

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Tourist Family dwells a lot on humanity’s faith and by now, it is given that the film is all about the new family’s arrival to a place that is surrounded by foreigners and not so foreigners at the same time. The language remains the same, but the paperwork is different, and Abishan makes a strong case that humanity is far more than legalities. A great example would be a rather silent character that the director himself plays in the film, which beautifully layers towards the end; that how even a simple ‘saptiya’ can turn someone’s life bright and optimistic. Such nudges of writing prosper in Abishan’s film which even with its par staging makes a huge impact.

A huge applause goes out to the ensemble cast, led by Sasikumar who does the heavy-lifting along with Simran (who we missed seeing together in Petta ), Mithun and Kamalesh who exceedingly perform the roles assigned to them. The supporting actors in form of Yogi Babu, Ramesh Thilak, Ilango Kumaravel, MS Bhaskar and Bagavathi Perumal among the others, score in their respective scenes, that only impact positively overall.

Tourist Family verdict

Tourist Family is a simple, feel-good drama that takes a feather-weight approach to talk about worldly topics. Even as the ideas of displacement, migration and political undertones galore, Abishan and co. makes a strong case for that life can be of full small joys that can make even the big hurdles be defeated with simple humanity.