Ennu Ninte Moideen

R. S. Vimal's 2015 Malayalam film rests on events that really happened in the town of Mukkam in Kerala. Moideen, son of a well-known Muslim family, and Kanchanamala, daughter of a Hindu landowner, fell in love in the 1960s; because interfaith marriage was not accepted they had to part. For twenty-two years Kanchanamala lived under restriction at home, and the two communicated by letter in a language they devised themselves. Moideen drowned in a boat accident on the Iruvazhinjipuzha river in July 1982, on his way back with a passport. Kanchanamala lived afterwards in Moideen's house as his unmarried widow. Before making the film, Vimal recorded a long documentary interview with her. Parvathy Thiruvothu's performance carries the ageing and the waiting. The film runs near three hours and some sections are over-decorated. Who it's for: viewers interested in Malayalam cinema, love stories drawn from real events and the social history of Kerala. Who it's not for: anyone who will find the melodrama and the length excessive, or avoiding content about drowning and domestic violence.