By Prof. H. Srikanth (via Facebook)
In a country where mainstream discourse often views all refugees and illegal migrants as the root cause of our sufferings—painting them as drug peddlers and terrorists—we rarely come across movies that portray a refugee or illegal migrant family as fellow human beings.
The movie Tourist Family tells the story of Dharma Das, a Sri Lankan Tamil, and his family—his wife and two sons—who illegally enter Tamil Nadu in search of a better life. They are caught but released by a kind police inspector who sees them as harmless. With the help of a relative, an Indian Tamil, the family reaches Chennai and settles in a rented house in a colony. The relative advises them to hide their Sri Lankan identity and pretend to be a Malayali family that came in search of work.
The rest of the story is about how the family adapts to their new surroundings, finds work, befriends the locals, and becomes an inseparable part of the colony.
The entire narrative is told in a humorous and touching manner. There’s hardly a villain in the movie. We fall in love with all the main characters—kind-hearted Das, his endearing wife, their two sons, and their uncle. We also grow fond of other characters—the compassionate police officer, the aloof neighbor, a wealthy man who hires Das as a driver, and a misunderstood young man seen as a drunkard and disliked by the neighbors.
Tension builds when a bomb blast occurs, and the police suspect the Sri Lankan family’s involvement. To find out what happens next, you’ll have to watch the movie on Hotstar.
The film is directed by a debutant, who also wrote the story. You might not recognize most of the actors, but that hardly matters. Originally made in Tamil, it is also available in Hindi with English subtitles. The movie pulls you into its world—you’ll laugh often and shed tears occasionally. It restores your faith in humanity.
Opinions are of the author’s.
