Aanandam

Ganesh Raj's 2016 Malayalam film is about a college trip. A group of engineering students travel to Goa and Hampi, and four separate strands of relationship are built along the way, none of which produces great drama. The film rests on observation rather than conflict: conversations on the bus, guesses about who likes whom, small reckonings inside the group of friends, and everyone returning to their own life at the end of the journey. It is the director's first film and most of the young cast are in front of a camera for the first time, which gives the account its natural tone. It is one example of the plain realist strand that spread through Malayalam cinema in those years. The music and camerawork are kept light. Who it's for: viewers who like youth films and quiet storytelling. Who it's not for: anyone expecting plot; the film is a trip and little else.