Christo Tomy’s Ullozhukku (Undercurrent), a brilliant debut fiction feature in Malayalam, is a Bollywood-Malayali wedding of the highest order, that is most auspicious. It’s an emotional thriller-drama starring the marvellous Parvathy Thiruvothu, as well as Urvashi, with a superb ensemble cast, that will release in theatres on June 21. Tomy earlier directed the powerful true crime documentary feature Curry and Cyanide: The Jolly Joseph Case, on Netflix, and two National Award-winning shorts, Kamuki (Sweetheart) and Kanyaka (Virgin).

Anju (Parvathy Thiruvothu) is newly married to Thomaskutty (Prasanth Murali), in green, small town Kerala, where people commute by boat; the marriage appears doomed from the start. There’s a pregnancy, a death, speculation about who the father is, a doting mother-in-law Leelamma (Urvashi), who develops mixed feelings towards her daughter-in-law--and all the while, a constant rain and flood that prevents the burial of the dead, with the oppressive waiting that reveals family secrets that implicate many. I’m struggling to give you an idea of the film while giving away the least of the storyline in this preview.