Lalitham Sundaram could mean “simple and beautiful”
Lalitham Sundaram could mean “simple and beautiful” or “simple is beautiful” or “beautiful simplicity” or all the above. And for the first half of its journey, the film looks set to earn these adjectives, despite the familiarity of its premise. This is a story of troubled siblings gathering reluctantly after the death of a parent – we’ve been there, seen that in cinema (good and bad) across the world and in India. The test each time, it goes without saying, is the treatment. What keeps Lalitham Sundaram going up to a point is its slice-of-life tone, a sense of humour, the unobtrusive handling of a sprinkling of progressive elements that holds out a promise of out-of-the-box thinking, and the potential in the team-up of two of Malayalam cinema’s most charismatic actors: Manju Warrier (also the film’s producer) and Biju Menon. Manju, for instance, plays the happily married Annie Mary Das, a busy CEO with two children and a supportive, stay-at-home husband who is self-confident enough t