Spoilers ahead…
The film is confined to a house and the surrounding rubber plantation, which adds to the sense of claustrophobia of being locked in with a toxic patriarch.
What kind of father gives his one-year-old son some whiskey? Itty (Alencier Ley Lopez) is that kind of father. When this revelation comes out, it’s not clear if it’s a boast or an admission of contempt for other human beings – but it doesn’t matter. This incident is just one of many that are strewn across Maju’s Appan, to show that Itty is basically a horrible man. He is paralysed from the waist down, and he lives with his long-suffering wife (Pauly Valsan), his long-suffering son (Sunny Wayne) and long-suffering daughter-in-law (Ananya). Itty’s grandson is probably the luckiest of the lot, as he is too young to realise the oral and emotional abuse being heaped on the family by Itty. Early on, the little boy pees in his bed, and Itty does, too. Itty’s wife asks Rosy – that’s the daughter-in-law – to attend to the child at once. About Itty, she’s content to leave him wallowing in his own urine.
You can read the rest of the review here:
https://www.galatta.com/malayalam/movie/review/appan/
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Baradwaj Rangan 
brangan
November 1, 2022
The film has its issues — but lovers of dysfunctional-family dramas (like me) might want to give this a shot.
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rsylviana
November 1, 2022
@BR – I like the genre too but has this film handled it like a comedy-drama or just melodrama ?
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brangan
November 1, 2022
rsylviana: There are moments of comedy (earlier on) and very hard-hitting drama. But it is not a melodrama.
And I liked that people are not “explained” beyond a few basic traits…
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