Moothon-bags awards at New York Film Festival

Nivin Pauly has bagged best actor award at the New York Film Festival (NYFF). He won the award for the movie Moothon directed by Geetu Mohandas. Sanjana Dipu won the best child award for the role in this movie. Moothon also bags the award for Best Film Category.  The movie was nominated in four categories- Best Film, Best Actor, Best Director and Best Child Actor. Moothon won three out of four categories and making way to NYIIFF 2020. It was a huge hit in the year 2019. Many have shared congratulatory message on twitter for Moothon team for this huge success thereby making it a proud moment for Malayalam film fraternity.

Moothon is a bilingual movie which is in Hindi and Malayalam which was co-produced by Anurag Kashyap, who has written the Hindi dialogues for the movie.   The movie is about a 14 year old who travels to Mumbai from Lakshwadeep to find his elder brother, gets trapped in a brothel, Kamathipura.  The movie was a welcome change for the industry. Nivin has changed drastically and in the skin of the character he played. We have seen a different side of him in Premam and Love action drama. Moothon is about, people who fear that they would get ostracised or corrupted by the society, have different identities. The movie is made in dim lights; rarely do we see the faces of the characters fully illuminated. It looks as if they are trying to hide from something and the universe is trying to place them in the right place. Moothon is a simple story which takes us through some harsh realities of the world. It has rightly displayed the hellish lives people live in. When the mystery of his departure is found out, the main character played by Nivin and the supporting actors have showcased the best in them.

For the people whom fate has dealt in a bad way, there is no melodrama in the movie. Most of the conflicts are self- inflicted. The two protagonists hurt themselves in two different ways and for different reasons. The movie has not really explored the relation shared by the boy and Akhbar which was left afloat and didn’t go deeper. Nivin Pauly has transformed himself from a romantic boy that he often plays to a completely different role in Moothon. He undoubtedly one of the most sorted out actor in the industry. Sujith Shankar who usually pays the role of villain, plays the role of vulnerable transgender whose relationship with Moothon is obvious.

Shashank Arora, who plays the role of nasty and unpredictable crony of Akhbar looks quite evil. Sobhita Dhulipala showcase her character despite the limited screen time.  Moothon can be added to the movie list that reflects harsh cruelties of life like Salaam Bombay, Slumdog Millionaire and Sathya.

Geetu Mohandas has been quite successful in placing the characters to each artist, by pulling everyone out of their comfort zones and making them sink into each character. Her eye for details like the idea of putting dim lights and showing lesser illuminated faces is trademark of great director.

A few days back Run Kalyani too was featured in NYIFF 2020. The event was held virtually from July 24 to August 2, screened feature and non- featured cinemas in different languages.