Ennu Nintay Moideen Malayalam Movie Review

More than anything else, fate is the biggest antagonist in the life of the lead pair, says Sudheer Karamana's voice over in Ennu Nintay Moideen.
Moideen and Kaanchana from what we have read and heard about is a case of divine and true love. Kaanchana in a way is a living martyr who has sacrificed a good portion of her life to the man whom she loved more than anyone else. Ennu Nintay Moideen based on true incidents woven around the two characters dating back to the sixties is a honest and sincere attempt to portray the relationship between two evergreen lovers Moideen and Kanchana.
The story is set in Mukkam and is pretty the same thing shown in the documentary where Kaanchana and Moideen from different religion fell in love. The documentary says it is the story of Kaanchana who dedicated herself to the memory of Moideen.
At a time when the orthodox lifestyle was ruling the roost, a Muslim youth and a Hindu girl hailing from wealthy, respected and powerful families of that time fell in love and had to face the wrath of their family members who opposed their divine relationship tooth and nail. They desperately wanted to unite and waited for that day.
"Jalam Kondu Murivettaval" is the documentary directed by R.S.Vimal and Ennu Nintay Moideen is a cinematic version of what is narrated in the documentary by real Kaanchana Maala. Written and directed by Vimal himself, ENM is an intense movie that will touch you, makes you nostalgic if you have loved someone at some point of your life (I am sure you have) and takes you to that era of the past.
Those who have seen the documentary will know that apart from Kaanchana, Moideen's brother Rasheed comes up with his memories in the documentary and endorses the dedicated love of Kanchana for Moideen and the other way also. But in the movie, I could not find a reference of Rasheed anywhere. Correct me if I am wrong.
Director Vimal who himself has written the screenplay deserves all credit to make the real incident look less dramatic on screen. Dialogues had the needed feel at most of the places. The one at the stroke of halfway mark in the talk between Moideen and the girl's elder brother, confrontation between Moideen and his father on more than one occasion are ample proof of the quality in dialogues and screenplay.
Coming to the performances, no one needs to be specifically mentioned since the director was able to extract the best out of every actor who played a major part. Still it will be unfair if I don't pick some of my personal favourites in the movie whose performances which I was more impressed with.
Prithviraj as Moideen is right at the top of my list putting up a very matured and intense performance that definitely deserves a place among the top five performance of the actor. Parvathy played a perfect foil to Pritvi as Kaanchana.
Saikumar as Unni Moideen Haji and Lena as his wife are two other notable actors who were very impressive. Tovino Thomas too has a role that can be ranked as the best one of his short acting career. Sivaji Guruvayoor as Kaanchana's uncle had a memorable role to play while Bala too had a well written character at his disposal along with Sudheer Karamana.
Jomon.T.John's camera work perfectly blended with the film with some of the shots being topclass ones. Edits by Mahesh Narayanan was smooth. Another major contributing factor for the movie to provide the feel of each and every moment is Gopi Sundar's well orchestrated BGM. Songs tuned by M Jayachandran and Ramesh Narayanan were good ones and how they were pictured deserves special mention. Also the art department have done their job of taking us back to an era which is unfamiliar to most of us.
In a nutshell, a real magical love story gets a perfect depiction on screen. ENM is a truly remarkable piece of work from R.S Vimal and his talented team. My rating is four out of five.
Rating - 4 / 5