The Elder One

A teen boy idolizes his older brother, who was a star in a Moslem ritual dance. However, his brother has left mysteriously for Bombay, and, chafing under his guardian, steals a boat and escapes the island, with only a phone number to make contact.

Getting into Bombay, he falls into a society that is darker than depicted in Lion, There is the orphanage with child abuse, human traffickers, prostitutes, and eunuchs. Along the way, themes of homosexuality, gender identity and gender expression are also explored.

Much as I wanted to like the film, I have reservations. Like Lion, the boy does not speak the language of the city he ends up in, and subtitling loses that distinction. There is a long flashback sequence explaining why the elder brother left home, but not why he did not choose a better path for his exit. Finally, the coincidences that are needed to make the film work are unbelievable.

No words to say stunned by nivin pauly bold attempt by the team too

Moothon (The Elder One) Ten minutes in, i was low-key invested in this lost kid's impending doom. Two hours later? That knot in your gut hasn't loosened. This ain't your feel-good flick nor your escapist fare; this is a straight-up shattering that leaves you silent. It's vying for top spot this year, right up there with Ram's "Peranbu" (Mamuka's a legend, go check my review) and keep an eye out for the weird delicacy "Aamis" dropping on Nov 22nd.

But on the other hand, Shout-out to the indie/arthouse scene doing the left-field stuff with good titles coming from experimental filmmakers like Prantik Basu, Aditya Vikram Sengupta, Amit Dutta, Achal Mishra, Ronny Sen, Arun Karthick and many more with their own style and ethos. While Malayalam cinema has been flourishing with good experiments and filmmakers taking up many sensitive issues like LGBTQIA, feminism, radical or leftist themes etc. Ligy J. Pullappally's Sancharram to mediocre films like My Life Partner (2014), Jayan K. Cherian's bog-standard Ka Bodyscapes (2016). With mainstream actors like Jayasurya doing Njan Marykutty (2018), Prithviraj Sukumaran in Mumbai Police (2013) and Manju Warrier's recent Aami (2018), a really pathetic film, should've never been made. I loved Don Palathara's Shavam (2015) and Lijo Jose Pellissery's Ee. Ma. Yau. For the record, the cinematic trash (Jis Joy's "Bicycle Thieves", Sanal Kumar Sasidharan's "Sexy Durga," Vipin Vijay's "Chitrasutram"), straight to the digital dumpster, i really wish they take these cockroach films, and dispose it into the nearest cesspool. Point is, the graph of Malayalam cinema has it's share of brilliance to bin-worthy.

Coming to "Moothon" itself? A visceral experience, hard to articulate. Geethu Mohandas clearly poured everything into this. Nivin Pauly anchors it, though his romantic-hero fans might be thrown. The film Opens visually strong, then swerves hard. We're thrown into the story of a gender-nonconforming kid chasing a ghost of a brother, innocence clutched like a fragile butterfly. Bombay's underbelly becomes the backdrop. From then on, the film travels to the slums of Bombay with the kid and we meet Akbar (Nivin Pauly) whose intro is treated with the template of a mass superstar but with a melancholic score. He is a meth-head with buried humanity, a local goon teaching kids to fight, and making them butcher animals. Then the reveal drops, and it's a raw dive into lost souls, messed-up love, and sibling bonds in the concrete jungle. Bombay's slums? Claustrophobic hellholes populated by the beautifully broken. Flashbacks give us glimpses of Akbar's past: family, rituals, a hesitant sexuality that blossoms into a longing for someone he can't quite communicate with.

Director Geethu uses the location like a weapon, handles the taboo with a sharp edge. The climax? Intense. Akbar's unravelling, no easy outs, just a final, haunting shot that'll stick with you. Props to Geethu and the whole crew , they definitely deserve all the appreciation and the accolades. There's a realness here, no sugar-coating. I could break down "Moothon" more, but why? Go see if you can handle it.

Great acting and direction. Very dark but excellent making. Intense scenes and great camera work. Best of malayalam industry.

Very dark but a great watch it kept me on the edge of my seat really intense story