Written and directed by Abishan Jeevinth’s Tourist Family is an appallingly improper film. The budgetary constraints are evident everywhere, including the opening when a family of four splashes its way illegally from Sri Lanka to Tamil Nadu.
The journey is not shown on screen, only heard. A boat costs money. And to shoot in the ocean seems way beyond the financial resources of this modest production.
The discernible deprivation of financial freedom is the least of the problems here. The facile flippant manner in which illegal migration is normalized, even eulogized, is not only unacceptable but condemnable.
We understand that this family of four, the Dharamdas family from Sri Lanka is sweet and deserving of a safe family. But by this logic, every illegal immigrant with a sweetheart is eligible for entry.
How does this even work as a premise for a lighthearted comedy? The family of the patriarch (M. Sasikumar), wife (Simran) and two sons played by Mithun Jai Sankar and Kamlesh (the younger son is a cocky character played by a terrible actor) con their way into Tamil Nadu by tapping into the emotions of a goodhearted cop Bhairavan (Ramesh Thilak).
All this is done in the tone of backhanded banter as if unauthorized entry is a laugh-inducing device. Once Das and his family enter Tamil Nadu, the screenwriter ensures they make themselves useful to neighbours (including an elderly couple whom Das and wife befriend and shamelessly use as means to normalize their illegal status) so that the authorities who trail down their visa-less status, are suitably villainized.
The sloppy writing never goes beyond a loud back-thumping for the film’s “liberal” outlook towards illegal entrants. In order to pump up the plot’s meagre means, episodes like televised soaps are conceived to give the film’s stowaway family a sham agency.
It all seems highly improper, especially when the elder son Nithu (Mithun Jai Sankar) clashes with his father in the way all fathers and sons do in family dramas.
Strangely, the women in the film hardly get to speak. The first time we get to hear the mother of the family Vasanthi (Simran) is when nearly fifteen minutes of their new life on Tamilian shores are over.
There is another female character of the neighbour’s daughter. She never speaks, just hangs around with Das and his family as proof that refugees and locals may co-exist.
The life of illegal immigrants never seemed so easy and comfortable. Tourist Family gives a touristic spin to illegal migration. It makes homelessness seem like a pretext to start from scratch and build relationships in a community that welcomes outsiders.
All this may seem highly liberal. But the narrative methodology is all wrong. The performances, the songs and the drama all seem stagey and stilted. This is a film that should apologize to audiences for reaching improperly into sentiments that have no place at the immigration counter.
