National Award-winning Malayalee director-actress Geetu Mohandas’ second film, The Elder One (Moothon), premiered to a huge response at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).
A moving story of love, disappointment, sexual identity and denial of dignity to the downtrodden, Moothon has been shot in the beautiful Lakshadweep islands and Kamathipura in Mumbai.
The film is essentially a physical and mental journey of 14-year-old Mulla (played by fresher Sanjana Dipu) from the tranquil Lakshadweep islands to Mumbai, in search of her long-lost elder brother Akbar. What happens next is that she gets caught into the street gang violence there and quickly learns the survival skills.
In the lead role of Akbar, Malayalam cinema superstar Nivin Pauly brilliantly navigates the world of his character whose homosexual encounter with a mute young man coming to Lakshadweep for an arranged marriage changes his life forever.
Speaking after the premiere of the film, Geetu Mohandas, whose first film, Liar’s Dice, also premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2013, said her movies are essentially about search.
“But I am wondering what I am searching. Maybe I will find the answer in my next film. This film, too, started with the idea of search in the little island and just took off. It was selected as part of the Sundance lab. They believed in me and the script…One thing led to another and that’s it.’’
The young director said that she is drawn to telling stories of the downtrodden who are a mere statistic for the governments and society. Moothon is the story of those people.
Interestingly, its dialogue makes it both Malayalee and Bollywood film. “The language is part of the movie’s script. It was not intentional that I wanted it in Malayalam and in Hindi. But since the characters had to come to Mumbai, it just happened to be in Hindi,’’ said Mohandas.
The director said that she couldn’t think of a better person than Anurag Kashyap for writing the dialogues. “I was scared to approach him, but I am really glad that he liked the script and said ‘I will do it’ and then he came on board as a producer.’’
About choosing Nivin Pauly in the lead role, she said, “Nivin is my neighbour and I keep bumping into him in my elevator. But apart from that, I wanted somebody who is very unassuming for this character’s role. I wanted someone who is believable. I wanted someone who has a certain sense of innocence. Nivin was an easy choice. The fact that he is a superstar helps.’’
However, it is young Sanjana Dipu, who steals the limelight in the film as 14-year-old Mulla.
“We found Sanjana most apt for the role of Mulla. She doesn’t look her age. We put her through workshops. We missed her at TIFF as she is busy with her studies in college,’’ said Mohandas.
Speaking about her experiences of shooting in Mumbai’s Kamathipura red-light area, she said that it is a “hostile place”. “But we went with a minimum crew and shot with a very small crew by placing actors at proper locations, people didn’t notice us first. But after a point, they became very welcoming. It was an amazing experience to shoot in Kamathipura.’’
Mohandas said that she has been overwhelmed by the response from the audiences at TIFF.
“We have got such a great response in Toronto. When I wrote the script, I had no audience in mind. But over the period of shooting, we got a lot of traction. It is now a pan-India movie.’’
Moothon is the opening film at the 24 Mumbai Film Festival before hitting theatres on 17 October.
It was one of the five Indian films at the 10-day Toronto International Film Festival which ended on Sunday, with the film Jojo Rabbit winning the People’s Choice Award.