‘Dhoomakethu’ movie review: A humorous time loop film which works in parts

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A scene from the film Dhoomakethu. | Photo Credit: Special arrangement

Any out of the world concept can lose its sheen when it becomes too commonplace and is overused. So it is with the time loop concept in cinema, the latest iteration of which is in Sudhi Maddison’s Dhoomakethu (comet). There is some irony in naming a film with a now commonplace concept with something as rare as a comet. Yet for a part of its runtime, the blend of this now familiar trope with humour seemed to work, until some of the hard work unravels due to weak writing of the background story.

Although the concept was explored long ago in independent cinema, it was with Bill Murray’s Groundhog Day (1993) that time loop became fodder for mainstream cinema. With the basic idea of a day in the life of the protagonist repeating, the concept has been reformatted in various ways in recent years in Indian cinema, from Maanaadu(2021) to Bhool Chuk Maaf(2025). In Dhoomakethu, Kuttan (Sajin Gopu) is caught in endless iterations of the day of his wedding with Sharmila (Nikhila Vimal).

Just the way in which a repeating blizzard of Groundhog day is replaced with a comet (Dhoomakethu) having a green streak in Dhoomakethu, it would seem that writers Sonny and Madhu are keen on sticking to the tried and tested route. But with Sajin in fine form and a rollicking Ganapathy for company, the repeating loops become a source for comedy, effectively using the slight variations in the events in each loop. Voyeuristic online channels and judgemental relatives all become targets of the film’s satire.

However, the challenge was always in how the writers would explain the time loop situation that Kuttan is caught in. The background story that they lean on for this purpose appears weak and commonplace that it drags down the film quite a bit, although the Azhakiya Ravanan spoof was an interesting touch. The film recovers and recaptures some of its earlier zany energy only in the closing stages, when the screen lights up with some well-choreographed explosion of fire and sound.

Sudhi Maddison, who debuted with Neymar (2023), appears to be at ease in giving a light treatment to weighty situations. Even a particular sequence, which would normally have got a darker treatment, evokes laughter every time it repeats just due to the way the film treats it. But a failure to sustain this for the entire length of the film somewhat works against it, especially in the meandering middle portions.

Dhoomakethu’s humorous treatment of the time loop concept works only to a certain extent, making the film an average fare.

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