Ennu Ninte Moideen

 

Rain. Sound of thunder. Mellow background music. Slow motion. These seem to be the tools of choice of today's filmmakers. These were the first scenes of the 2015 Malayalam movie Ennu Ninte Moideen. I slept through most of the movie. But critics and viewers are calling it the best made Love story of the last decade of Malayalam movies. What really sets this movie apart is that it is based on a true-life incident. Most of the story depicted actually took place in Kerala during 1950s to 1970s (I think). The lead pair depict real life characters from different religions who fall in love the 'traditional' way, via pen and paper love letters. But are forced by society to stay apart for more than two decades. Sadly, there is no happy ending for them. Some say that the best love stories are the ones where they are unable to live together.

Honestly, this is an honest, well made movie. Made from the heart. Melodrama. It depicts life and society in Kerala just after Indian independence. The lead pair is excellent. The visuals are awesome. The music is perfect, and different. And all the characters depicted are believable and relatable.

But there is not much content. More than half of the movie is in slow-motion. Played at normal speed, the movie would be over in one hour. But the director decides to carry us slowly across 20 years, and there is slow motion of rain, river, water, sand, …This was about the time I began dozing off to sleep.

This could be Prithviraj's best role (choice of movie) till date, but I personally like his work from 'Ayalum Njanum Thammil' best. And who would have thought that R J Sarah from Bangalore Days could play such a polar opposite character ? The casting of this movie is perfect, thank goodness they did not include any of those sidekick actors.

On hindsight, it is remarkable how far the little state of Kerala has changed. Today, a couple from different religions would face very little problems if they decided to live together. Much of society has gotten over the 'stigma' of 'love marriage'. I see a lot of couples from diverse religions getting married, sharing pics on social media. Today's youngsters would have no idea how difficult things were 50 years ago.