Vishal Menon reviews Bethlehem Kudumba Unit, director Girish AD\u2019s effortlessly charming age-gap romance starring Nivin Pauly and Mamitha Baiju as Justin and Ashley, two neighbours brought closer by a shared love of music. Vishal finds the film\u2019s magic in Girish to transform the most ordinary details into major emotional events \u2014 a guitar that quietly charts the progress of their relationship, a bag of empty alcohol bottles that reveals the anxieties within Ashley\u2019s home, and the release of a seat belt that lends an enchanting confession of love the scale of an epic cinematic moment. None of the film\u2019s more serious ideas are underlined. Ashley\u2019s maturity, her attraction to the older and dependable Justin, and Justin\u2019s own past are conveyed with a narrative softness that allows the audience to feel their significance rather than simply be told about it. Holding this delicate world together is the inexhaustible charm of Nivin and Mamitha. Mamitha delivers a performance built around feelings left unspoken, while Nivin\u2019s restraint makes even a sudden flash of shyness feel wonderfully revealing.<\/p>\n
The film is also disarmingly self-aware about the awkwardness of their age difference, turning it into the source of some of its most precious moments. Vishal notes that the film meanders slightly towards the end and that its central conflict may not feel substantial enough, a familiar concern with Gireesh\u2019s third acts. Yet this is a world so warm and craftily constructed that checking the time becomes an act of worry over how quickly it is passing. The THR Bottomline is that this is Gireesh AD\u2019s magical ordinariness in another delightful film \u2014 further proof that it may be time to call him Malayalam cinema\u2019s friendliest neighbourhood auteur.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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