Guppy 2016

Guppy, a schoolboy and gifted artist, supports his disabled mother by breeding and selling ornamental fish, dreaming of one day buying her a motorized wheelchair. His world is a mix of playful mischief with friends and the quiet charm of Aamina, a village girl living with her grandparents. As the village buzzes with the government’s plan to erect a railway over-bridge, excitement and tension begin to mingle in the air.

The project arrives with its lead engineer, Thejus Varkey, riding a motorcycle from the Himalayas. Their very first encounter goes sour when Guppy offends him during tea service, setting off a cycle of resentment. A near accident becomes an opening for Guppy and his gang to press for money, and the rift widens when Thejus pressures the village officer to cut the payment for Guppy’s fish. The tension escalates after Thejus slaps Guppy, who retaliates with a stone that injures the engineer’s hand. A subsequent fire destroys the team’s tent, leaving Thejus to press on with the work alone.

In a bid to push the project forward, Thejus schedules canal inspections and cites illegal construction to demolish Guppy’s roadside stall and fish tanks, effectively wiping out the boy’s livelihood. Desperate, Guppy turns to a thug to hurt the engineer, but the violence takes a darker turn when Thejus is stabbed. The real attacker turns out to be Uppooppa, Aamina’s grandfather and the railway gate operator who faced losing his job once the bridge was built, a truth that shakes Guppy to his core as Uppooppa is hospitalized.

Recovery brings a sobering realization: Thejus understands his presence has crushed both Guppy’s family and Uppooppa’s. He concludes that the bridge project is both politically driven and technically unworkable, and he cancels it. In a bid for reconciliation, he forgives Uppooppa, pledges to help with [Aamina’s] education, and begins to rebuild Guppy’s fish tanks. Guppy, overwhelmed with relief and joy, hurries to tell his mother—only to discover she has died, her long-awaited motorized wheelchair still on its way.

In a late reveal, an elderly villager named Tinku shares Thejus’s tragic past: years earlier, while inaugurating the Omallur Bridge, Thejus lost his parents, his wife, and his young daughter Malu in a terrible accident. Riding became his solace, and every child he met reminded him of Malu, making the railway over-bridge project his one major endeavor since that moment.

The film closes on a contemplative note: Thejus moves forward, riding through the Himalayas with memories of Malu to ease his grief, while Guppy finds comfort in having been cared for, and in the knowledge that his mother’s wish—to never be left alone—has finally begun to come true.