North 24 Kaatham

Anil Radhakrishnan Menon's 2013 Malayalam film is about the journey an obsessive software engineer is forced into. Harikrishnan is fixated on cleanliness, avoids contact with people and schedules everything; travelling to Trivandrum for a conference, he is stranded by a general strike. He ends up at a small railway station with two strangers, a retired politician and a woman who has to reach the city. The three have to travel together and Hari's rules collapse one by one. The film does not present this as a story of cure; it avoids making the compulsion ridiculous and notes that the change is small. Images of rural Kerala and the people met along the way make up its texture. Fahadh Faasil plays the part with restraint. Who it's for: viewers who like Malayalam road films and character drama. Who it's not for: anyone expecting a quick story; the film moves slowly.