Guppy

Johnpaul George's first film is set in a coastal town in Kerala. The boy everyone calls Guppy earns money breeding and selling aquarium fish, with the aim of buying a wheelchair for his ill mother. An unexpected antagonism develops between him and Thejus, an engineer who arrives to build a bridge. What is interesting is that the film does not leave this as a simple disagreement between a child and an adult. Both are stubborn, both believe they are right, and the situation keeps hardening. The film does not tell the audience whose side to take. Tovino Thomas's engineer is among the first roles that drew attention in his career. The child actor Chethan Jayalal carries the film. The cinematography does not make the town touristic; there is railway line, marsh and narrow street. Who it's for: those who like small-scale drama set in Kerala. Who it's not for: viewers expecting a reassuring close; the final section goes somewhere much harder than expected.