Language: Malayalam | Hindi.
Director: Geethu Mohandas.
Writer: Anurag Kashyap (Hindi) | Geethu Mohandas & Sreeja Sreedharan (Malayalam).
Cast: Nivin Pauly, Shashank Arora, Sanjana Dipu.
Genre: Action, Crime, Drama.
IMDb: Moothon (2019)
Streaming on Zee5
Mulla was bullied and commented on her looks for having a boyish attire, short hair and an attitude which was being shouldered by the masculine stories heard about her brother, Akbar who left years ago. When her life gets messy, she sets off to Mumbai in a boat to find her elder brother [Moothon], Akbar. Moothon starts here.
Moothon is a multilayered journey of searches. The quest to find someone who understands, for love, or even sail to one’s roots.
The camera crawls through the messy raw streets of anger, pain, frustrations, greed, and a hell lot of emotions. The chaos of Mumbai and the beauty of Lakshadweep is heeded through the eyes of Rajeev Ravi, the mastermind. He has a magic wand to put the audience feel like they are inside the story. Just like we’ve been sitting in a corner around and watching them. Still remember some exquisite shots where Mulla meets Mermaid deep down in the sea and fishes wishfully jumping to Akbar’s boat. The kind of magical realism that was finely powdered and sprinkled into the content. Astounding as usual from Rajeev Ravi. No words!
The combined Scripting of Geethu Mohandas and Anurag Kashyap is the backbone of the film with remarkable observations and detailing. Geethu tried to concentrate on characters and made out something from Nivin Pauly. The scenes like when Bhai remarks about how he imposed his younger self Akbar and being transformed into vicious Bhai of Kamathipura, the inner conflicts of holding Akbar deep down, Akbar’s smile on the mirror contrasts the dual tones of the same character. It’s the first time I witnessed the shades of a good actor in Nivin, by moving out of his comfort zone. Mulla was outstanding from head to toe. Ameer (Roshan Mathew) was charming and mute but “well-spoken” by his performance. The cast, each and everyone especially Sobhita Dhulipala, Shashank Arora delivered their maximum output physically and emotionally in each frame, which can be stated as solid performances. In an interview, Geethu said that “This is my class of commercial cinema and my cinema reflects my politics”. And she was well aware of the limited audience she could get when it comes out on a regional basis while making the movie. She never used any gimmicks to preserve her film making, ideas and ideals. Moothon is a brave attempt where neither the making nor performance is compromised. The ideas are not spoon-fed and communicated visually. In some instances, some shots and dialogues seem to uphold another story, which some times words may fail to express!
Chiefly the film speaks about the ones who never drifted towards the intentions of society, the ones who sadly end up being manipulated, corrupted and overthrown into the outcast arena. The ones who tried to create their world, and their identity.
Moothon deserves a mature audience who is willing to take a deep dive and patience to witness the Mermaid. Applauses! Bravo!
Verdict: 5/7 Stars.
Excellent.
TRIVIA
- The movie’s script was one of the five scripts chosen by Sundance Lab from applications received from all over the world. Earlier, it was titled as Inshallah. It also received the Global Filmmaking award at the Sundance Film Festival, the only one from Asia to receive the award.
- The first-ever Malayalam film to open the Mumbai Film Festival in it’s 21-year history.
