Kilometres and Kilometres - It's nothing official

 

Kilometres and Kilometres

Malayalam, 2020

Director - Jeo Baby

Stars - Tovino Thomas, India Jarvis, Siddhartha Siva

Mohan's Measure ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ 

Ms. Jarvis is fetching as a young American tourist who hires a driver to take her across India in a Royal Enfield Bullet.  The owner of the Bullet is played with equal charm, albeit a drunken one, by Tovino Thomas, who plays a good-natured Catholic lad who takes a vow to be moral about it.

The tension and temptation set the tone for the rom-com, which becomes a predictable, but family-friendly tale about the importance of friendship and relationships, and how these are the inimitable values defining the subcontinent.  This is contrasted with a stereotypical take on "American values," and how these offer little to the young woman's life, what to speak of all other Westerners.

Offering entertaining wit to the conversation is Mr. Siva as the excommunicated Malayali who offers assistance, philosophy, and friendship to the couple after their bags, passports, and most importantly, money, are stolen.  How the couple settle their respective issues and find love in the process is presented in a way that does no harm, but can offer little more than mild entertainment.