‘Illey Illa’, the first song in Bethlehem Kudumba Unit, has a line that translates to “your novenas have finally come true”. The word was unfamiliar to me—I later found it’s a Catholic term for prayers offered for nine successive days, or weeks. It’s one little detail among dozens in the series of vignettes that make up the musical sequence: a busload of passengers held up by a short film shoot; a bowler running out a wandering non-striker, resulting in a brawl; father and son cooking pork curry; a young woman, friendless in a new town, watching her farewell video on her phone at bedtime; a grown man proudly clutching stuffed toys won from a claw machine.
Girish A. D.’s Bethlehem Kudumba Unit might be the best Indian film this year, not because it’s the most ambitious or innovative, but because it’s so alive. There’s a density of ideas, the kind that can make the three and a half minutes of ‘Illey Illa’ feel like a world in microcosm. There’s always something happening onscreen, a blithe but unruly succession of wisecracks, asides, entreaties, deflections, challenges. It’s a simple enough romantic comedy on the surface, but its industry, its desire to really use the time it has with the viewer, turns it resonant.
From the moment we meet him, Justin (Nivin Pauly) is being told he’s too old to still be unmarried. He’s in his late 30s, a caterer, the wrong profession to avoid jibes about his marital status, given how many weddings and family functions it places him at. His friends offer unwanted advice; his mother gives him grief at home. His younger brother, Joel (Sangeeth Prathap), is carrying on with the star of his short film, Sayoojya (Parvathy Ayyappadas). Justin, though, is unattached, unapproachable—in his cousin's words, “the rock dynamite couldn't crack”.
It’s a great sleight of hand from Girsh and co-writer Kiran Josey that Justin is, to outside eyes, an amiable everydude, idly watching life pass by, but also a local hero. He’s certainly fascinating to college student Ashley (Mamitha Baiju), who moves across the street from him with her parents. She can’t seem to square how this bull of a man can also fix laptops and have great taste in music (he recognises her Breeders t-shirt, as laser-focused an example of indie cred signaling as I’ve seen an Indian film do). She’s into him immediately—there’s a scene in a movie theatre where she’s enjoying watching him watch Ajith, the first of many instances where she has to avert her eyes so she isn’t caught staring.
One of my favourite tendencies in recent Malayalam cinema is their penchant for making hangout films, ones that invite you to not worry about plot and purpose and just kick back with the characters. If Angamaly Diaries, Kumbalangi Nights, Girish’s own Premalu, and Alappuzha Gymkhana are all variations on the hangout film, Bethlehem Kudumba Unit is close to its ideal form: a large cast of engaging characters doing nothing in particular. A more uptight film might make dramatic hay out of Ashley’s dad’s drinking and gambling problems, or Justin’s catering service not being very good, or turn hapless, lovelorn Glickson (Roshan Shanavas) into an incel. None of these strands really resolve; they’re just there, another stitch in the patchwork of this small Kerala town.
As Ashley soon realises, Justin might act tough but is actually petrified of this confident young woman willing to make the first, second, third move. When she finally confronts him, it's simple and direct: I’m head over heels for you, I thought I’d get over it but didn’t, now it’s up to you. Mamitha Baiju, who broke through in Premalu, is wonderfully light, balancing out Nivin Pauly’s more deliberate Justin. She’s so naturalistic it feels like we can constantly read Ashley’s thoughts. I can’t think of another actor who manages so much with in-between expressions, indecisions, self-corrections, yet makes it all seem effortlessly charming.
The only subplot that gets significant screentime besides the central relationship is director Joel’s romance with his leading lady. It’s a funny strand, especially when he gets in trouble with her cousins, but there might be another reason it’s there. When inevitable complications arise for Justin and Ashley, his instinct—as the partner in the relationship who should know better, and also as someone still nursing a past loss—is to hesitate and hope things fix themselves. But there’s another forbidden romance he can try and resolve, so he throws himself into Joel’s problems, which have grown to include Sayoojya's menacing brother (Shyam Mohan), who—since nothing in this film is straightforward—happens to be a Chakyar Koothu artist who thinks short films are no better than pornos.
Bethlehem Kudumba Unit is too loose and laconic a film for there not to be frailties. From a dramatic standpoint, it waits a beat too long before exposing its central couple, making the subsequent fallout and countermeasures seem rushed. Could I have done without the fight towards the end? Maybe, but even this has a few good laughs. The same with the Goa musical number, no bearing on the story but the perfect sight gag of Justin’s friend trying to throw a muffler over his shoulder, failing twice because the wind’s against him, and finally succeeding by reversing the direction of the garment. A tiny detail, one which most viewers will probably miss, but indicative of the film's desire to use every frame.
How can one not be charmed by Joel's film being released in full on YouTube as a 15-minute short? “Soulmates—Oru Saathukudi Pranayam” is as much a labour of love as Bethlehem Kudumba Unit (and takes hilarious advantage of being released around the same time as Toxic). It’s fun to spot the cover-ups—like the hurried zoom on the beach when a passerby wanders into the frame—but it's hardly shambolic, proof that Joel's dedication to his project wasn't a complete waste. The short has 9 million views on YouTube, but the way people are discussing it on social media is an even bigger sign that they’ve taken these characters to heart. One denounces the “coordinated campaign at degrading Joel Davis's maiden short film”. Another calls him “the next Spielberg from Kerala”. There’s even a win for Glickson, who someone generously claims “carried the entire short film on his shoulders”. You can’t buy this kind of PR. Their novenas must have come true.
‘Bethlehem Kudumba Unit’ is in theatres.
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