Njan Prakashan

Prakashan has a nursing qualification and wants nothing to do with nursing. His entire plan is to get abroad, Germany for preference, and to arrange a marriage that will carry him there. Sathyan Anthikad directs from a screenplay by Sreenivasan, and the film neither punishes nor pardons him. It simply keeps showing, patiently, whose back each of his schemes lands on. Anthikad and Sreenivasan are one of the longest-running writer and director pairings in Malayalam cinema, and the register here is theirs: close observation of small-town life, satire that declines to name a villain. Fahadh Faasil plays Prakashan shameless enough to stay likeable. Sreenivasan appears in the cast as well. Released at the end of 2018, it became one of that year's bigger Malayalam box office successes. Who it's for: Anyone who likes gentle small-town satire that does not require you to admire its lead. Who it's not for: The pacing is loose and the plot circles rather than advances, which will frustrate viewers wanting a tightly built comedy.