He screams only to relish the effect it would have on his wife, and points at himself to proclaim, “Shammi, the hero”. A barber by profession, he makes a living by curating the way men should look, and as he fixes his own moustache looking at the mirror, he promptly scrapes off the bindi on it: he refuses to brook the presence of female cosmetic ancillaries even on his reflection. The “little tough” Shammi, the sole patriarch of Baby’s household, does not believe “complete man” to be merely an advert tag, rather an absolute, incontestable idea that needs to be embraced. But the difference runs deeper than their superficial dissimilarities. The brothers, Bobby (Shane Nigam), Saji, Franky and Bonny (Sreenath Bhasi), with their largely dishevelled look, are a stark contrast to the impeccably dressed and moustache-obsessed Shammi (a terrific Fahadh Faasil). The two families differ on the kind, if not the type, of men they house. But the reason for disapproval, as is soon revealed, is recognised and quantified on the currency of male hubris and not economic inequality. A classic scenario of a boy and a girl (Bobby and Baby) falling in love serves as a conduit between the two families, and the turmoil that ensues conforms to the familiar narrative arc of one family disapproving of the other. On the surface, Kumbalangi Nights is a moving drama of two families rife with the upheavals of their interpersonal relationships. This reading, though seemingly far-fetched, is not entirely contrived or unconvincing as Narayanan’s latest film (streaming on Amazon Prime), contributes significantly in a timely reshaping, of not the way men are, but of the way they are portrayed on celluloid.