“Tholvi FC,” translating literally to Losers FC, conveys its storyline through the title itself. It’s a story about a family of four living in a house named Victory Villa, but all of them are failing at life miserably. The film brings together a lot of threads containing different stories with a singular theme: the underdogs winning the game in the end. “Tholvi FC” is a lot of things; it’s a dysfunctional family drama, a story about an engineer turned entrepreneur with a dream that he refuses to give up despite humiliation and hardships, and it’s also the story of an aspiring yet failing sportsman. There are also themes of female empowerment and the dangers of allowing children too much screen time without supervision. The themes sound heavy, but the film takes a very light approach, and that makes the film a bit bland.
Right at the film’s beginning, we understand that this is a typical Brown household where the mother, Shoshamma, played by Asha Madathil, is fed up with her household duties. She wakes up with the first alarm caused by her younger son Thambi, the aspiring footballer. Played by the director George Kora (“Thirike,” “Njandukalude Nattil Oridavela”) himself, Thambi appears as a goofy guy who doesn’t mean bad but isn’t really great at what he does; that is to teach a bunch of kids football.
Shoshamma’s second alarm is her husband, Kuruvilla, played by the brilliant Johny Antony. He’s a typical husband in a middle-class Indian household. He does nothing by himself and expects his wife to spoon-feed him everything, which she does, to a point. He decks up in formal attire only to sit at home and try his hand at cryptocurrency, where he loses, of course. Then, there’s the oldest son, Oommen, played by Sharaf U Dheen, who is an engineer turned entrepreneur finding it difficult to get an investor for his startup, Chai Nation. At last, there’s Shoshamma herself, who constantly sends drafts of her thriller novel to a publisher and gets rejected continuously.
The film establishes its base quite early. The audience knows what they are in for. There is currently a rise in the kind of dramas where they deal with everyday issues that are pretty serious in nature, yet their treatments are different and somewhat unrealistic. These films give a utopian view of society, focusing more on how things should be rather than on how things actually are. “Tholvi FC” falls in this subgenre of dysfunctional family dramas where, despite being dysfunctional, the family members are strangely warm and supportive of each other. The family issues here are only hinted at and not explored, making them not leave a lasting impact on the viewers’ minds.
Troubles arise at Victory Villa but are solved without much genuine hassle. The makers made it a point never to let the tone of the film get too serious, even when there is an incident involving a pedophile catfishing a child. Things keep happening with different characters, but the tension never fully builds up. It becomes very evident from the beginning that things will fall into place no matter what, and that takes the edge away from the film.
Also, the film tries to incorporate a lot of themes together. The establishment of the theme of female empowerment seems a little too textbookish as we get Mariam’s character as a role model feminist. She’s progressive; her idea of a happy family involves both the spouses working and caring for each other, and she is not at all bothered by her divorce history. She appears as a character who has been included solely to set an example regarding how the minds of young girls should be shaped if they want to achieve something in life. Due to such an approach, her character turns out to be one-dimensional, without having any real depth to it.
The one arc that stands out in the story is the arc of Kuruvilla, the father. From the time he is thrown out of his house till the time he comes back, he genuinely becomes a new man. His struggles seem real, and his character development is worth rooting for. From a man who never did any real job in his whole life to someone earning a paycheck from his son and coming back home with it to his wife is something both wholesome and heartwarming. He seems to be the only character in the film who does not feel bland and has an arc that’s very detailed and well-defined.
However, despite these flaws in the film’s plot, it never becomes a boring watch. For some strange reason, it keeps the audience hooked throughout the predictable storyline. A majority of the credit has to be given to the cinematography and editing of the film, done by Shyamaprakash S and Krishna, respectively. The background score by Sibi Mathew Alex works well for the film, and so do the songs composed by Vishnu Varma, Karthik Krishnan, and Sijin Thomas. The music of the film also ensures that the ambiance is always kept mellow and warm, no matter what is shown on the screen.
Overall, “Tholvi FC” works well for a one-time watch if you want a heartwarming tale where everything is looked at through a rose-tinted glass. It will leave you with a warm feeling that might not last too long but is kind of worth it because of the vibe it brings!
![Nancy [2018]: ‘MAMI’ Review – A troubled Girl finding herself](https://www.highonfilms.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Nancy_film_2018_MAMI_review_2.jpg)
