Abishan Jeevinth, drama, Elango Kumaravel, India, Kamalesh Jagan, M. Sasikumar, Mithun Jai Sankar, movies, Ramkumar Prasanna, reviews, Simran, Sreeja Ravi, Tourist Family, Yogalakshmi, Yogi Babu
May 17, 2025
by Carla Hay
in “Tourist Family” (Photo courtesy of Million Dollar Studios and MRP Entertainment)
Directed by Abishan Jeevinth
Tamil and Malayalam with subtitles
Culture Representation: Taking place in India and briefly in Sri Lanka, the dramatic film “Tourist Family” features an all-Asian cast of characters representing the working-class and middle-class.
Culture Clash: A family of four people from Sri Lanka relocate to India as undocumented immigrants and experience hardships and prejudices but also kindness and compassion.
Culture Audience: “Tourist Family” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and feel-good dramas about families and immigration.
“Tourist Family” is a bit unrealistic and the movie is too long. However, this good-natured drama (about a Sri Lankan family living as undocumented immigrants in India) has a positive message about kindness and second chances in life. In a world where excessive violence and hatred have become very common in movies, “Tourist Family” is a solid alternative if you’re looking for more wholesome entertainment.
Written and directed by Abishan Jeevinth, “Tourist Family” begins in Valvettithurai, Sri Lanka, where the family members (who are Sri Lankan Tamils) are preparing to leave and cross the border into India because of the Sri Lankan economic crisis. The family consists of mild-mannered patriarch Dharmadas, nicknamed Das (played by M. Sasikumar); his friendly homemaker wife Vasanthi Dharmadas (played by Simran); their son Nithushan Dharmadas (played by Mithun Jai Sankar), who’s about 16 or 17 years old); and the spouse’s other son Mulli Dharmadas (played by Kamalesh Jagan), who’s about 9 or 10 years old. Also in the family is Prakash (played by Yogi Babu), Vasanthi’s brother who has been living in India legally and gives the family advice on what to do during this illegal immigration.
After crossing the border into India, the family is questioned at a Rameswaram beach by a group of police constables, led by A. Bhairavan (played by Ramesh Thilak), who believes the family’s pre-rehearsed story that the family got lost. Mulli also tells a lie that a stray dog nearby is the family’s dog. This lie will come back to haunt the Dharmadas family.
Meanwhile, the family settles in Chennai, India, in an area where the neighbors are welcoming. Ironically, they rent a house from a police inspector named R. Raghavan (played by Bagavathi Perumal), who does not know the family members are undocumented immigrants. Prakash coaches the family members (who are pretending to be Malayalis) on how to hide their Sri Lankan accents and cultural customs.
Das is able to find part-time work as a temporary driver for a stern elderly neighbor named Richard (played by M. S. Bhaskar), who has a working relationship with Das that has its shares of ups and downs. Meanwhile, an aggressive assistant commissioner of police named Balwan Singh (played by Ramkumar Prasanna) starts hunting down illegal immigrants whom he suspects of being responsible for a recent bombing that injured several people in Rameswaram. The rest of “Tourist Family” shows what happens when all of these situations intertwine.
“Tourist Family” has solid acting and some soap opera-like subplots in this 128-minute movie. An elderly married couple named Mangaiyarkarasi (played by Sreeja Ravi) and Gunasekar (played by Elango Kumaravel) befriend the family and experience a massive change in their spousal relationship during this story. Nithushan becomes close to landlord Raghavan’s teenage daughter Kural (played by Yogalakshmi) after they confide in each other about their love-life problems: Nithushan is distraught because his girlfriend in Sri Lanka has gotten engaged to someone else, while Kural has recently found out that her boyfriend cheated on her.
“Tourist Family” has tearjerker moments and heart-warming moments. The police investigation of the bombing is where the movie tends to falter because it has moments that look too manufactured for a movie. Although the pacing could have been better, “Tourist Family” should satisfy people looking for an uplifting story about the power of communities who care about each other.
Million Dollar Studios and MRP Entertainment released “Tourist Family” in select U.S. cinemas on May 16, 2025. The movie was released in India on April 29, 2025.