Thanneer Mathan Dinangal

Girish A. D.'s 2019 Malayalam film is set in the final year of a secondary school. Jaison is smitten with his classmate Keerthy and gets nowhere, and things get worse when he falls out with Ravi, the new teacher everyone likes, Keerthy above all. The film builds adolescent love and school hierarchy with unshowy realism; the everyday talk in a classroom, the power gap between teacher and pupil and the dynamics of a friendship group are its real material. Drawing its protagonist as neither likeable nor in the right is what separates it: Jaison is jealous, inept and at times genuinely behaves badly. Vineeth Sreenivasan's teacher is as uncomfortable as he is funny. It was one of the films that revived the youth comedy strain in Malayalam cinema. Who it's for: viewers who like realistic school comedy and Malayalam cinema. Who it's not for: anyone who wants to identify with the protagonist; the film keeps putting him in the wrong.