Indian New Wave director R Gowtham goes full Paul Thomas Anderson in Berlinale’s Members of the Problematic Family — an ensemble alchemy that delivers an uncanny, raw examination of life and death, all intertwined with insanity and absurdism.
We have all thought about these philosophical ideas in the form of questions before. What defines a person? How does one see who a person truly is, inside and out? Do we really know what a person is? Do we really know what a person is actually going through? For some, these questions may be an all-day affair, while for others they are uncommon. Yet they have likely struck all of us, at least in a flash. But have we ever wondered if we ourselves are sane enough to ask these questions, let alone obtain answers for others?
A young man named Prabha has died mysteriously on the coast. At his funeral, family members gather one by one, each on their own terms. The atmosphere is far from peaceful, yet everyone is striving just to hold themselves together. From the mother and grandfather to cousins and a paternal uncle, the family projects its inner turmoil in all directions. There are curses, tears, and sudden rifts. Everyone is seated on the same rocky ground of anger. Through the chaos of fights and weeping, we are left to ponder the nature of Prabha’s binding power over this family, in life and now in death, and the very composition of his being — what was inside, and what was out.
R Gowtham’s film shouts absurdism from every corner, offering an extensive view of how intense a funeral can become when the core value of peace has been ripped from its foundations. Despite the multiple references to death that the director has embedded in hidden corners (the cemetery backdrop, portraits of deceased individuals in the house, curses wishing death upon family members), the film shares little ground with the frantic grief of the 2018 film Ee.Ma.Yau or the comic irony of the 2015 film Thithi. Here, the director brings an energetic focus to the moments of death and life surrounding an individual who may not have lived a straightforward existence. In fact, none of the family has. The director presents the family’s emotions in a carousel-like sequence, all at once — anger, grief, dysfunction, pride, incompatibility, strained patience, evil, guilt, and raw attachment. Each soars to an extreme, highlighting the profoundly unprepared complexity of human interactions and their most humane and inhumane phases. Viewed differently, Prabha becomes the catalyst for the release of unbalanced human emotions at unexpected times. He instigates trouble, as if a deeper ‘schizophrenic’ realm has been projected into human form. At certain points, a similar — though nowhere directly connected — vibe to M.V. Venkatram’s novel Kathugal (The Revolt of the Ears) softly seeps into Gowtham’s screenplay. It channels a raw, staggering outlook on human darkness, one that moves in parallel with the sophisticated decisions humans make.
On a deeper level, the film delivers a reflective punch, exposing human bias as it clashes with courtesy and supposed normality, thereby questioning the very foundation of what “normal” means. The film exposes the unfair human tendency to impose perceptions upon one another, where one often drafts a person’s identity solely from a subjective viewpoint. It critiques the unfair system of politicizing “morality” within rigid, self-defined terms of good and bad. Specifically, it highlights the silent, simmering tension among blood-related individuals bound by pressure to obey instructions that follow no fair rule. What shines through most intensely, however, is the flawless ensemble performance, which elevates the entire film to a new level. It is also very much time to credit actor Karuththadayan as the paternal uncle, previously seen as the heated father in the 2021 film Pebbles. His acting range and capabilities are a celebratory aspect of Indian cinema.
Indian New Wave director R Gowtham goes full Paul Thomas Anderson in the Berlinale Forum selection Members of the Problematic Family, marking an extravagant achievement in Indian cinematic history. Structured in four acts of equal power and scope, the film offers an extensive meditation on life, death, and the circles we inhabit. It reveals plans as mere facades, proposing that a soul persists beyond the deathbed, haunting the living through language, memory, emotion, and fragile hope — each soul adrift in its own bewildering realm.
Our team is on the ground at the 76th Berlin International Film Festival, running from February 12th to 22nd, 2026.
