Love stories often leave you wondering whether they lived happily after having surmounted obstacles, parental, social or otherwise. Is the culmination as good as the stormy courting? Is marriage as exciting as stolen glances and yearning for secret rendezvous? Did the union result in a harmonious household as you’re left to imagine? Mani Ratnam explored this pretty successfully in ‘Alai Payudhey’. ‘Ennu Ninte Moideen’ makes you wonder if the prolonged yearning for togetherness was what made the relationship so exciting!
The tagline ‘based on a real story’ is always alluring be it about an achiever, a gangster or a love story. The fascination for such tales being retold on-screen generously garnished with drama is inexplicably irresistible especially if you’ve heard and read about the characters and happenings being reprised. R.S. Vimal seems to have chanced upon the love story of Kanchanamala and Moideen and apparently fascination turned into obsession. Nearly ten years back he made an award winning documentary based on Kanchanamala’s reminiscences about her late beloved. He was convinced it had the makings of an epic love story in celluloid. The added advantage was that most Keralites were familiar with the doomed love story which was also serialised in the popular magazine ‘Vanitha’. Kanchana apparently requested Vimal to cast Prithviraj since he bore a striking resemblance to Moideen. Parvathi Menon, I think was selected purely because she’s one amongst a gaggle of gifted actresses in contemporary Malayalam cinema. Vimal took his own time penning the script because it’s not easy adding convincing drama to a tale however well documented. Being his directorial debut, the film was long in the making and there were apprehensions about the burgeoning budget. In his excitement, Vimal ended up shooting five hours of film. Careful pruning brought the running time down to a little less than three hours. The question now was whether the public would share Vimal’s empathy for a woman who still yearns for and mourns for her beloved.
Frankly if it had not been a well documented and widely endorsed tale it would have been unconvincing leave alone unbelievable. Fact is indeed stranger than fiction. The protagonists are portrayed with rare sensitivity. You can see that Vimal studiously avoids adding filmi flourishes however tempting. There’s enough drama anyway. Yes, Prithviraj gets a star’s introduction, scoring a vital goal in a crucial football match and Parvathi is shown fighting for equal rights in a hostel where the quality of food served depends on economic status. It’s a story of childhood friendship unobtrusively blossoming into love with the advent of teenage. Born in two aristocratic families that feign secularism, the attraction is unplanned and unwary of religious and social repercussions. The fathers are thick friends till letters of undying love written by Moideen to Kanchana are discovered. While the former is banished from his house, the latter’s education is aborted and she is imprisoned in her own house for close to a quarter of a century. Out of habit you wait for the hero to storm into his lover’s abode, fight the sturdy domestic help and carry her away. Here the protagonists worry about the woes that would befall their families. They do make reluctant efforts to elope but are thwarted by unforeseen developments. They continue communicating through a code language only they can decipher. There’s a foreboding of the love remaining unrequited throughout and the film ends with the hero swallowed by turbulent waters trying to save some students.
The acting is simply brilliant. While Prithviraj’s glances of adoration when he looks at his lover lights up the screen, Parvathi, you can see, identifies with the pain of parting and personifies it painstakingly. The rest of the cast simply shine, especially the actor who plays Moideen’s father. Jomon’s camera caresses the rain-drenched hamlet with as much care as the close-ups of the protagonists. It’s not easy simulating and shooting in incessant rain. The background score by Gopi Sunder complements the mood of each sequence. I must say the subtitles were of immense help.
Malayalam cinema is like seeking fresh mountain air to cleanse polluted lungs. It’s therapeutic.
There’s something soothing in most of their films be it the serene, verdant scenery, the soulful, melodious songs or the general balanced behaviour of the characters. The writing is well thought out and the lines spoken, pithy. ‘ Ennu Ninte Moideen’, according to my distributor friend Vinay is a huge hit.
There are plans to remake it in Tamil which I don’t think is very wise. I only hope a Kannada producer doesn’t rush and buy the remake rights simply because the film is a big grosser, promising to make a version that’ll suit local sensibilities!
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