Punjabi House

Rafi and Mecartin's 1998 Malayalam film follows Unni, rescued as he is about to take his own life. The fisherman who saves him sells him to a Punjabi moneylender living in Kerala, and Unni has to pretend to be deaf and unable to speak. The comedy comes from keeping up the pretence. Unni hears everything in the house but cannot respond; misunderstandings pile on each other and the situation grows steadily more tangled. Dileep leads and the film was a large box office success in Malayalam cinema, remade into several languages. The supporting ensemble and the songs follow the comic formula of the period. Who it's for: those who like nineties Malayalam comedy. Who it's not for: viewers troubled by disability used as a pretence and as comic material; the film builds its entire narrative on it.