New Delhi, June 22 -- When I first watched Tourist Family, I thought it one of the lovelier films I've seen, but also declared it too-positive-for-me. "Not enough to write about," I told a friend. Perhaps I was wrong, for Tourist Family has refused to leave my head since.

In writer-director Abishan Jeevinth's debut film, the titular family are immigrant Sri Lankans who find their way to India by sea-illegally. Citing the country's economic crisis as the reason, Dharmadas (Sasikumar) and Vasanthi (Simran) flee Jaffna with their two sons, Nithushan (Mithun Jai Sankar) and Mulli (Kamalesh Jagan). Vasanthi's brother Prakash (Yogi Babu), once an illegal refugee himself, helps them out, from their entry in Rameshwaram to a settlement colony in...