The thing with almost all Girish AD movies is that his story ideas are very thin, and if you try to make them a one-liner, they will all sound like the most generic concepts possible. What makes his movies special is the way he treats each scene with humor and purpose. Even though he has said it is his least favorite film, for me, Super Sharanya felt like his trickiest film as he was trying to explore a character using his signature style. Somewhere, I felt his latest film, Bethlehem Kudumba Unit, was a much refined version of something like Super Sharanya. It has the simplicity one would associate with a film from the director who made Premalu, and it also has all those layers to build an emotional connection with the central characters. With scenes flowing smoothly from one event to another, Bethlehem Kudumba Unit is a happy pill in movie form.
Ashley is our central character, a member of a dysfunctional family. The family moves to a new neighborhood in Angamaly, and there she develops a crush on her neighbor Justin, who is twelve or thirteen years older than her. How this romantic dynamic between the two evolves and what all drama eventually unfolds is what we see in Bethlehem Kudumba Unit.
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If you look at the story, it is basically a small coming-of-age kind of journey of Ashley from one phase to another. And it was somewhat refreshing to see a wholesome entertainer from the female lead’s perspective. I also feel the reason why this movie felt very pleasant was the way it liberated the character of Ashley. We see her as an introverted, unhappy person at the beginning, and the moment someone recognizes her taste and somebody decides to include her in their tribe, she becomes comfortable in a believable manner. And there is a certain level of maturity and lack of ego for that character to acknowledge their feelings. The reaction to Ashley’s character is actually giving a subtle depth to the character Justin as well.
On a filmmaking level, the writing has a good flow in creating scenes that add to the plot. They are adding comical elements to situations that have a purpose. The banter-humor inside each scene is hilarious, and the uniqueness of Girish AD, in my opinion, is that his judgment in reading the audience’s sense of humor is perfect. The most memorable sequence in the movie is the pre-interval patch, and the rhythm they had set for that scene on an edit level is very infectious. The way the writing transitions from a serious tone to a humorous one or how it maintains humor without losing the essence of the romance was beautiful to watch.
There are so many interesting match-cuts in the movie, along with very evident visual transitions that make the narrative very engaging and peppy. Even on a visual language level, one can see Ajmal Sabu trying some interesting stuff to establish the change in character equations. For instance, there is a scene in the movie where we see a very calm and empathetic exchange between Justin and Joel, and the framing changes drastically to establish that transition in their equation. Vishnu Vijay offers an album filled with a wide variety, and the packaging would remind you of Premalu. I loved the scores he used in phases where the romance in this movie peaked.
Nivin Pauly has now openly admitted that he is looking for characters that are in his zone, and when you look at the character of Justin Davis, it feels like one tailor-made for him. His signature style in delivering the rough and funny side of characters is getting utilized beautifully, and I loved those small portions where we get to see Justin’s vulnerability. Like I already said, the most memorable character in this movie was Ashley, and it really showcased a different side of Mamitha Baiju’s acting. The graph of that character is not a linear one, and the writing is not trying to showcase Ashley as some sort of naive, innocent girl. She voices out her opinion with clarity and maturity, and Mamitha performed all that very beautifully.
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Sangeeth Prathap is on a roll, and his performance as Joel with all those satirical references from “Hero” was hilarious to watch. Roshan Shanavas as Glikson was also a fun addition to the cast. Suresh Krishna’s new comical avatar is quite interesting. Among the other cast members, they have pretty much retained a lot of people from Premalu, like Shameer Khan, Meenakshi, etc., and among those, the performance I loved the most came from Shyam Mohan, and I feel what he has done in that fight sequence towards the end should be considered as an audition tape for a different kind of character. Vinay Forrt gets a part that we sort of associate with him because of his filmography, and still he managed to make that character unique.
When you look at the team and cast of Bethlehem Kudumba Unit, it is almost like Premalu minus Naslen. And in certain parts of the movie, especially in the second half, the writing borrows certain structural elements from Girish AD and Kiran Josey’s previous outing. But the setting for the conflict in this story is very different, and the humor is very consistent after that slightly melancholic start. Without doing anything extravagant, Bethlehem Kudumba Unit offers you a consistently funny romantic comedy with a pool of distinguishable characters. I think the reason the movie is getting repeat audiences is that while making you laugh out loud, it is also able to make us root for the central characters who are very real on screen.