Perilloor Premier League Series Review: A laugh riot that marries the absurd with the weird

While nostalgia is mostly experienced with a sense of warmth, it also has a dash of comical charm. When we tap into the collective Malayalam consciousness, we often come up with visuals of lush greenery, men in lungis and sandalwood paste on their foreheads, and women bundling their hair and talking to people. We remember sifting through the pages of Soothranum Sheruvum and Bobanum Moliyum and tuning in to watch Panchavadi Palam or Ponmuttayidunna Tharavu on television. Disney+Hotstar's latest Malayalam series, Perilloor Premier League, caters to this consciousness and has a wonderful whimsical appeal. It has quirky characters, but never for a moment do we judge them for it. They exist as they are, and the best takeaway from entering this world is the unending laughs.

Direction: Praveen Chandran

Cast: Nikhila Vimal, Sunny Wayne, Vijayaraghavan, Aju Varghese

Streamer: Disney+Hotstar

Perilloor Premier League doesn't offer a novel charm to the audience, but it doesn't have to either. In addition to its subtle semblance with a few of the aforementioned films, PPL shares a close connection with the 2015 film Kunjiramayanam. It is no surprise that Deepu Pradeep has penned both. It isn't too much of a stretch to imagine Kunjiramayanam's Desam and Perilloor as neighbouring Panchayaths.

The highlight of Perilloor Premier League is how the series chronicles the events of the entire village rather than the focus being on a particular character. In this narrative, it is the characters that drive the story forward. As a result, even the subtle conversations and the minute expressions of the characters fit seamlessly into the overall narrative- The story introduces us to the village of Perilloor through the character of Malavika Purushothaman (an excellent Nikhila Vimal). Interestingly enough, despite being the pivot of the story, the series never demands her presence for the sake of it. The way she is at the centre of her own story, in the periphery of the series narrative, and manages to keep things light despite the potential for melancholy is a fascinating character arc.

The writing fledges out one character after another who feels straight from a comic book. The world-building is so nuanced that we even remember the walls of the various houses the camera fleets in and out of. Another aspect that stays in our minds is the weirdness of each character. If one randomly catches a lizard even while kissing a girlfriend, there is a running gag of an illiterate politician running for office and a girl's fantasy of being proposed to under the Magnolia tree. Even minor details like a political party named RIP, a coconut tree named Tokyo Mitra or the characters themselves having nicknames like psycho Balan, Keman Soman, or Dilkush, Perilloor Premier League get the quirks and eccentricities on point. It is interesting how weirder the narrative gets, the series becomes more believable. Guess that is the charm of getting a laugh riot right...

When watching comics, the ones with the vibe of a cartoon and not what has happened with the influx of superhero films, it would be futile to expect the episodes to end with a cliffhanger. Perilloor Premier League impresses with the makers' decision to not work in a cliffhanger just to extend the episodes. Instead, it is the humour and the innocence that drives the narrative forward. But it doesn't mean everything is hunky dory in Perilloor Premier League. Not all jokes hit the right spot. Why do we still mock a dark-skinned character for their skin tone? Why... especially when everything was going so well... Why?

The world of Perilloor has a distinct quality, and it is best exhibited in the dialect of its inhabitants. They speak various regional dialects from Kerala, emphasising a holistic view of the state rather than specifying it to a particular region.

Despite the overwhelming sense of nostalgia baiting that happens in our films and series, there is always space for a kind of nostalgia that is reminiscent of the innocence that once was there in our lives. The weird citizens of Perilloor take us back to that memory of chaos and the clumsiness that was celebrated rather than chided. Sometimes... just sometimes, it is nice to bring back the child residing in our hearts... a child that loved to laugh without a worry in the world. Sometimes.