Kochi, India – Writers Manu and Sonny seem to have stumbled upon a terrific premise for one of Malayalam’s first time-loop comedies with Dhoomakethu. Not only is the setting obviously Malayali, with much of the film taking place in a typical small-town home as it gets wedding-ready, but there’s also the theme of jealousy that feels peculiarly Malayali in this joyous setting. This includes sneaky caterers wondering out loud about how a man as old and unappealing as Kuttan (Sajin Gopu) can score a wife like Sharmila (Nikhila Vimal), and nosy neighbours reminding each other of Sharmila’s “colourful past.”
There aren’t characters who are particularly novel, but they do a great job of creating the nervous tension that feels obvious for such a wedding. What adds to this tension is how Kuttan feels stuck in the same loop, waking up on his wedding day after what appears to be a terrible nightmare. The timeline of the film is set across 16 such days and nights in which Kuttan tries to right his wrongs. With each new day, Kuttan inches closer towards the mysteries that need to be solved to escape this infinite loop. The scientific basis for this strange phenomenon is explained by introducing the idea of a comet that passes by every 3,000 years or so.
The film is repetitive by design and is meant to make you feel the claustrophobia of having no control over your day. Despite the monotony of the setting and the visuals, what makes the film tick are the obvious questions that go unanswered, time and time again. But for the film to escape its own monotony, these questions needed to have resulted in a set of ridiculously shocking answers. For instance, the vivid imagery of a set of masked men out to attack Kuttan gets built up in our heads into something right out of a film like Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut.
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But when their identities are finally revealed, they remain as faceless and pointless as they did with their masks on. This is among the many tragedies of the third act in Dhoomakethu which go against its own novelty. All the mysteries get resolved with mundane resolutions we’ve seen in a hundred films before this, and the repetitive structure of the film begins to gnaw at you. As Kuttan escapes the loop he’s stuck in, we take part in his jubilation, all set to escape memories of another forgettable movie.
