There is something about Nithya and Jimmy’s story that is so comforting that you could go home imagining relaxing instrumental music playing in the background as they simply walk through nice-looking streets together. Bhavana and Sharafudheen play the pair so beautifully in Ntikkakkakkoru Premandaarnnu (My brother had loved someone) that it is hard to believe Bhavana stayed away from Malayalam cinema for six years. It is as if she was always there, her presence exuding warmth, as you watch her take on the role and play it so effortlessly well.
The love story does not stick to just the two people in the relationship. It wraps everyone around them to its fold. Writer-director Adhil M Asharaf has placed a little girl in the narrative –Jimmy’s sister Mariya (played by Safiya Rafi) – who begins the narration of the story in what at first appears to be a slightly cheesy intro. But then, Safiya turns it into an adorable performance as a little girl very close to her very elder brother, loving ice creams and shakes, and unwilling to share any of it. She and her brother spend most of their time finding vintage cars for a business Jimmy wants to start.
In the present day, Nithya and Jimmy are in their 30s and meet each other after years, having gone their separate ways when they were teenagers in love. You are given their past in pieces with Jimmy narrating it in cosy, conversational tones to his little sister. “There was this girl in a red dress, giving me a beautiful smile,” he says. In casual Malayalam, it sounds even better.
Adhil’s characters are really smooth. None of them are unrealistically nice, brave, or daring. They let time ease things for them and make them better people, for it is not easy to deal with the relationship of an interfaith couple hailing from fairly conventional families. But you are spared the drama and loud declarations of love. You are given a very straightforward story. The only jarring element in these well-narrated sequences is the background music.
Watch: Trailer of the film
The writers – Vivek Bharathan and Sabaridas Thottingal joining Adhil in the scripting – play it smart by making the characters themselves blush with embarrassment and laugh aloud, looking at the cheesy letters they wrote in the past. The laughs and the recollection only make their story dearer to you. Bhavana and Sharafudheen are so good at these exchanges that you imagine they would have had lots of fun shooting it. The laughter is that real. Cinematographer Arun Rushdie captures these shots from near and close, letting a yellow light shine on Sharafudheen’s face when he finally makes a move of his own.
Ashokan, Anil Anto, and Shebin Benson along with a number of new and skilled women actors play Jimmy’s family which is pretty rooted in tradition. They are expectedly unaccepting of an interfaith love, especially when the two are too young and still students. Other obstacles, in the form of live events, come their way at different stages in life. Jimmy is on the cusp of a new relationship when he meets Nithya again. Anarkali Nazar plays the love interest – a nicely written character making very honest and understanding comments, which you terribly miss in scripts of love stories.
The narration does not fall only on Mariya. Other characters also take turns to give their two cents, but for very brief moments and without hindering the flow. Relationships – between parent and child, lovers, and friends – all play themselves into the script, letting you relate to one or more of them. No character is introduced and then forgotten in the background. The film seems like the perfect setting for an artist who was missed a lot, to return home to.
Welcome back, Bhavana.
Disclaimer: This review was not paid for or commissioned by anyone associated with the film. Neither TNM nor any of its reviewers have any sort of business relationship with the film's producers or any other members of its cast and crew.