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Wednesday, September 11, 2024
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MALAYALAM HALAL LOVE STORY
EDITOR'S PICK
Rahim (Nazar Karutheny), and the school teacher Taufeeq (Sharaf U. Dheen).
The duo approaches an assistant director named Siraj (Joju George), though
Taufeeq decides to write the film to ensure the end product stays ‘halal'. For
the sake of chemistry and to maintain sanctity of relationships, Siraj and
Taufeeq decide to cast a real-life couple, Shereef (Indrajith Sukumaran) and
Suhra (Grace Anthony), as their film's lead pair.
Halal Love Story is a satire, but only just. The film does not dig deep while
commenting on either Islam or cinema, the two props that uphold the plot -- or
the conversation on marital gender politics it interestingly raises, only to
forsake. The initial portions of the story are laced with subtle humour on
expected lines, as Siraj and crew struggle to can the perfect shot with a bunch
of bumbling artistes.
The ‘film within a film' plot finds parallel subtexts in the individual stories
of a few among its cast and crew. These stories are used to depict how similar
as well as different life and art can be. But rather than talk of too many
characters, the narrative focusses on the married life of Shereef and Suhra
primarily, and how working in the film disrupts their emotional equation. For
the first time, Suhra sees many reasons why their marriage, perceived all along
by both as a perfectly happy one, is not necessarily so. Zakariya also gives
Siraj a story unto himself, as the director struggles to find an escape in his
work, from his personal pangs. These sub plots are finely woven into the
narrative, and never unduly stand out.
The film is simplistic in its storytelling, technical execution as well as the
comments it leaves. Early in the film, two characters discuss good cinema that
can reach out to children and one of them suggests Iranian films, particularly
Children Of Heaven. You spot a lot of the Iranian idiom in Zakariya's cinematic
style -- in the way he conveys deep emotions effectively, without losing grip of
a feel-good storytelling style.
Halal Love Story elicits effective performances from actors who have been
perfectly cast. The film might be a tad predictable, but it makes up for the
fact with storytelling that holds your attention all along.
Director Zakariya Mohammed opened up about his new film, the Malayalam comedy drama Halal Love Story, saying he developed a thread of an idea into a full story and then decided to make the film.Read More
"Halal Love Story" stars Indrajith Sukumaran, Jojo Geeorge, Grace Antonry, Parvathy Thiruvothu, Soubin Shahir and Sharaf U Dheen in pivotal roles. The film released digitslly on the October 15 on Amazon Prime Video.
