Tourist Home Review

It is always a tedious job to create a movie that lasts 110 minutes in a single shot; that too when it attempts to tell ten unrelated and different stories in a single go. `Tourist home' by Shebi manages to make this unthinkable feat real. Though with its share of little drawbacks, the movie definitely engages you and some stories in it really affect you. And so, the makers definitely must be applauded.

Tourist home written by ten different writers have the stories that happen in ten different rooms of an old lodge, situated near medical college hospital in the capital city. Each of the rooms in this tourist home are occupied by different people, who have got their own reasons to take a room there. One of the rooms is the regular abode of a group who has made it the avenue for illegal card games. While an old man is staying back with his sick grandchild tensely waiting for the lab reports, two youngsters are hiding in another room with little repentance about the grave things they have been to recently.

A police man in uniform is in a room to satisfy his lust with a lady who arrives with her child while another lady is trying to make money for the treatment of her husband, resorting to dissolute ways. In yet another room you can find a girl who has find a way to correct her immoral father. An astrologist has made a room his office to meet his regular clients. One young man is finding ways to get over his anxiety syndrome before attending an interview while another lady has taken a room to undergo abortion, as she is carrying  his husband's friend's progeny. The camera moves over each of the room to reveal the intrinsic and interesting happenings that make this movie special. And in the two hours that passes, a lot of unprecedented events happen that changes the lives of each of the people finding a temporary home.

The director in Shebi seems to have done his homework well, though addiction to the technique has taken the toll of the effectiveness of the narratives. Some of the stories are really engaging, while some stories are half baked and fells out of the box. Anyhow the director  has managed to pull off the curtains giving optimum ending for each of the tales. The technical sides are top notch with Feroz Khan doing some exceptional work behind the camera. So is the art director who has managed to create a realistic look to the sets for `tourist home'.

The performances by the cast are uneven with the likes of Nedumudi Venu, Manianpillai Raju, Madhupal, Edavela Babu , Sreejith Ravi, Sreelatha and Kalabhavan Mani doing some fine job. Some lesser known actors in the ensemble cast overdo a bit, lessening the quality of some of the  tales. The BG scores by Roni Raphel are top class which creates the right ambience to the film.

In the final analysis, this `Tourist Home' will be a right prescription for all the lovers of experimental cinema. And for the rest, the movie may appeal in bits and parts.

Rating - 6.5/10