★★★★½ (Masterful, though still awaiting more stories of adult sons as caregivers and non-Western variations outside the trauma lens).
The mother-son relationship is perhaps the most charged, ambivalent, and foundational dynamic in storytelling. Unlike the father-son conflict (often about legacy, law, and rebellion) or mother-daughter bond (often about mirroring, envy, and becoming), the mother-son dyad operates in a unique register: kerala kadakkal mom son better