DIFFERENT WOODS FROM THE SAME TREE

ORTY-thousand feet up in the air and 11 hours to kill. There's something about catching up with missed films when suspended in space and time on a flight.

- NAMRATA JOSHI

The latest I came upon was Nithish Sahadev's 2023 Malayalam movie Falimy on my way to Marrakesh for the international film festival. It's a straightforward narrative about the complicated lives in a dysfunctional family and their convoluted journey to Kashi. Dramatic, with many unexpected twists on the road to Varanasi, the film could have easily become a cloying weepy, but Sahadev's light-hearted touch keeps it heartwarming.

What surprised me more than the film itself was the reaction of my fellow passenger who noticed me enjoying it. The gentleman from Canada had his curiosity piqued enough to take a peek at the film himself, said he found it relatable, and would be recommending it to his friends. He also declared it didn't feel like an Indian film and that the quirky ensemble and their crazy journey reminded him a bit of the 2006 Hollywood film Little Miss Sunshine.

It got us talking about Indian cinema, how it largely continues to get identified in the West—not just by the layperson, but cinephiles too—with the song-and-dance and melodrama of commercial Hindi films. The huge success of