''Ennu Ninte Moideen'' () is a 2015

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of ...

-language

biographical A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or curric ...

romantic drama film Romance films involve romantic love stories recorded in visual media for broadcast in theatres or on television that focus on passion (emotion), passion, emotion, and the affectionate romantic involvement of the main characters. Typically their ...

written and directed by R. S. Vimal, based on the real-life story of Kanchanamala and B. P. Moideen, which took place in the 1960s in

Mukkam Mukkam is a major municipal town in the Kozhikode district, in the state of Kerala, India. Mukkam is located about 27 km east of Kozhikode city on the banks of Iruvanjippuzha River, one of the major tributaries of the Chaliyar River. It ...

Kozhikode Kozhikode (), also known as Calicut, is a city along the Malabar Coast in the state of Kerala in India. Known as the City of Spices, Kozhikode is listed among the City of Literature, UNESCO's Cities of Literature. It is the nineteenth large ...

Prithviraj Sukumaran Prithviraj Sukumaran (Help:IPA/Malayalam, /pr̩t̪ʰʋiɾaːd͡ʒ/; born 16 October 1982) is an Indian actor, producer, director, and playback singer who primarily works in Malayalam cinema, in addition to Tamil cinema, Tamil, Bollywood, Hin ...

and

Parvathy Thiruvothu Parvathy Thiruvothu Kottuvatta (born 7 April 1988), known mononymously as Parvathy, is an Indian actress who predominantly works in Malayalam and Tamil films. She is a recipient of several accolades including a National Film Award, two Kerala S ...

essay the title characters of Moideen and Kanchanamala while

Bala Bala may refer to: Films * ''Bala'' (1976 film), an English-language dance documentary * ''Bala'' (2002 film), a Tamil-language action film * ''Bala'' (2019 film), a Hindi-language black comedy Life forms *Bala shark (''Balantiocheilos melano ...

Tovino Thomas Tovino Thomas (born 21 January 1989) is an Indian actor and film producer who predominantly works in Malayalam cinema, Malayalam films. He made his debut in 2012 with the film ''Prabhuvinte Makkal''. His breakthrough roles were in the films '' ...

, Sai Kumar,

Sashi Kumar Sashi Kumar is an Indian journalist. He set up the Asian College of Journalism in Chennai, which was administered by the Media Development Foundation which he had founded. Early life and education Kumar was born at Karupadanna near Kodung ...

and Lena appear in supporting roles. Music was composed by M. Jayachandran and

Ramesh Narayan Ramesh Narayan (born 3 November 1959) is an Indian Hindustani classical music, classical vocalist, composer and music producer who works predominantly in Malayalam cinema. Ramesh began his initial training in Carnatic music and later mastered t ...

, while background score was composed by Gopi Sunder. The cinematography was by Jomon T. John. Upon release, it received a positive critical response and was a commercial success, becoming one of the highest-grossing Malayalam films of all time, grossing over 56 crore at the box office. It is widely regarded as one of the best movies of the Malayalam New Wave movement.

Plot

Set in the 1960s and 70's in

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

, the film tells the tragic love story of Moideen who belongs to a renowned

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

family and Kanchanamala who is the daughter of an aristocratic Hindu

Thiyya The Ezhavas, () also known as ''Thiyya'' or ''Tiyyar'' () in the Malabar region, and Chovar () in the south, are a community with origins in the region of India presently known as Kerala, where in the 2010s they constituted about 23% of the po ...

landlord. Since inter-religious marriages were considered a taboo then, the couple had to part ways as their families objected to their love affair. Moideen shifted ground to being a socio-political activist and Kanchanamala lived in her house under strict restrictions for 22 years. Both communicated through letters and a language they had developed. Eventually Kanchanmala was caught and beaten mercilessly by her conservative relatives. Balyambra Pottattu Unni Moideen Sahib, Moideen's father, stabs him since Moideen does not agree to part ways with Kanchanamala but he miraculously escapes. Moideen reveals to the judge and police that it was an accident and his father was not responsible. This confession transforms Balyambra Pottattu Unni Moideen Sahib's attitude towards his son; however, he dies immediately afterwards due to a heart attack. Eventually, Moideen and Kanchana decide to elope but when Moideen was returning after collecting their passports, the boat he was traveling on gets caught in a whirlpool. Although he managed to save his fellow boat-mates, he gets caught in the whirlpool and dies. His body is found 3 days later. Upon hearing about his death, Kanchana decides to commit suicide but is stopped by Moideen's mother. In the end, Kanchana leaves home to live in Moideen's house, as Moideen's unmarried widow.

Cast

as Balyambra Pottattu Moideen *

as Kottatil Kanchanamala *

as Kottatil Sethu Madhavan, Kanchana's brother *

as Perumparambil Appu * Saikumar as Balyambra Pottattu Unni Moideen Sahib *

as Kottatil Madhavan * Lena as Pathumma *

Sudheer Karamana Sudheer Karamana (born 24 May 1971) is an Indian actor who appears mainly in Malayalam cinema. He is the son of actor Karamana Janardanan Nair. Personal life He is the eldest son to actor Karamana Janardanan Nair and Jaya, at Karamana, Thiruv ...

as Mukkam Bhasi *

Shivaji Guruvayoor Shivaji Guruvayoor (born 28 May 1961) is an Indian actor who works in Malayalam cinema. He started his film career with the film '' Arabikkatha''. He is known for his negative roles and character roles. Personal life He is married to Lilly and ...

as Kunjammavan *

Sudheesh Sudheesh (born 7 December 1972) is an Indian actor and director who predominantly works in Malayalam film industry. He won the Kerala State Film Award for Best Character Actor in 2021. Personal life Sudheesh is the only son of T. Sudhakaran ...

as Kottattil Ramachandran *

Kalaranjini Kalaranjini is an Indian actress who started her career in the early 1980s. Personal life Kalaranjini has two sisters, Kalpana (Malayalam actress), Kalpana and Urvashi (actress), Urvashi, both of whom are actors. Her two brothers, Kamal Roy ...

as Janaki *

Surabhi Lakshmi Surabhi C. M., also known as Surabhi Lakshmi is an Indian film, television, and stage actress who appears in Malayalam films and television. She won the National Film Award for Best Actress in 2016 for portraying the role of a struggling middle ...

as Maaniyamma, servant in Kanchana's house *

Indrans K. Surendran (born 16 March 1956), better known by his stage name Indrans, is an Indian actor and former costume designer, who appears in Malayalam films. He started his film career as a costume designer and actor in 1981 and got a breakthrough ...

as Nottan Vaidyar * Disney James as Krishnankuttym Prabhavathi's Husband *

Kozhikode Narayanan Nair Kozhikode Narayanan Nair is an Indian actor who appears in Malayalam films. He has acted in more than 300 films. He was a stage actor before entering Malayalam film industry. His first film was '' Aabhijathyam'' (1970), and he is also remembered ...

as Sathyanath, Appu's father * Majeed as Ullatil Sahib * George Tharakan K. J. as Sub-inspector Gafoor * Balaji Sharma as Mukkam Narayanan * Vijayan Karanthoor as Soofi haji * Krishna Namboothiri * Jayashankar Karimuttam * Aneesh G. Menon * Nandan Unni * Master Roshan as Kochappi *

Sija Rose Sija Rose is an Indian actress, who predominantly works in Malayalam and Tamil Cinema. She hosted the television reality show Lets Dance on Amrita TV in the year 2014. Sija participates in the reality show Star Challenge on Flowers TV. Sija pla ...

as Ameena * Devi Ajith as Moideen's aunt * Roslin as Appu's mother * Sneha Raj as Ramadevi * Charutha Baiju as Leela * Jaya Noushad as Singer in drama * Swathi Noushad as Indrani, Kanchana's sister * Shilpa Raj as Marina * Vaigha Rose * Deepika Mohan * Kozhikode Saradha * Kozhikode Ramadevi * Preetha Pradeep * Jija Surendran * Nila Noushad * Badri Krishna as Velayudhan

Production

The film is based on the real life love story of Moideen and Kanchanamala, which happened in the 1960s in the backdrops of river

Iruvanjippuzha Iruvazhanjippuzha, or Iruvanjipuzha, is a major tributary of River Chaliyar flowing in Kerala. It joins into Chaliyar at Koolimadu near Cheruvadi. Its major tributary is Chalippuzha, which joins with it about 3 km north of Thiruvambady town. Oth ...

and

village. Vimal first made the story into a

documentary film A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

and then developed it into a full-length feature film. In October 2014, Kanchanamala had accused Vimal of "tweaking their story", stating that several incidents had not been shown correctly in the film. Prithviraj was chosen to play Moideen upon the insistence of real-life Kanchanamala, as she felt that he had a resemblance to Moideen.

was signed to play Appuettan (Kanjanamala's cousin), who said that Prithviraj suggested him for the role. The film was launched at Mascot Hotel in

Thiruvananthapuram Thiruvananthapuram ( ), also known as Trivandrum, is the Capital city, capital city of the Indian state of Kerala. As of 2011, the Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation had a population of 957,730 over an area of 214.86 sq. km, making it the ...

on 9 July 2014. The shoot was supposed to begin in the first week of August 2014 but was postponed due to rain. Though set entirely in

, the film was not shot there; it was shot mostly in

Shoranur Shoranur is a town and municipality located on the banks of the Bharathapuzha River, in the Palakkad district of Kerala. The town is spread over an area of 32.28 km². Geography Shoranur is located at . It has an average elevation of 49 ...

and nearby areas.

Soundtrack

The background music for the film was composed by Gopi Sunder, who also composed a song. Other songs were composed by M. Jayachandran and

Rafeeq Ahamed Rafeeq Ahamed (born 17 December 1961) is an Indian poet, lyricist and novelist. He has won the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Poetry and is a six-time winner of the Kerala State Film Award for Best Lyrics. With more than 600 songs to his cr ...

penned the lyrics. A poem by renowned poet

Changampuzha Krishna Pillai Changampuzha Krishna Pillai (10 October 1911 – 17 June 1948) was a celebrated Malayalam poet from Kerala, India, known for his elegy '' Ramanan'' which was written in 1936 and sold over 100,000 copies. It is a long pastoral elegy, a play wri ...

was used in the film. The song "Mukkathe Penne" was composed within five minutes. Gopi Sunder says, "We were doing the background music when director requested us to create a background song for the movie. Mohammed Maqbool Mansoor, a singer who helps me with the Sufi notes, was there during that time. I hummed this tune to him for which he wrote lyrics. He crooned it and thus the song was born." For the song "Kathirunnu", M. Jayachandran won the

National Film Award for Best Music Direction The National Film Award for Best Music Direction (the Silver Lotus Award) is an honour presented annually at the National Film Awards by the National Film Development Corporation of India to a musician who has composed the best score for films ...

for the first time in his career.

Release

The film was released on September 19, 2015, in Kerala and outside Kerala on October 2, 2015. The television satellite rights of ''Ennu Ninte Moideen'' was purchased for an amount of 7 crore by

Asianet Asianet may refer to: JioStar channels * JioStar, is an Indian media conglomerate wholly owned by Disney India. ** Asianet, a Malayalam language general entertainment channel ** Asianet Plus, a Malayalam language general entertainment channel ** As ...

, which was the highest satellite purchasing amount for any Malayalam film.

Film festival screening

The film was among the seven films selected to be screened in the Malayalam Cinema Today section of the 20th edition of the

International Film Festival of Kerala The International Film Festival of Kerala (abbreviated as IFFK) is a film festival held annually in Thiruvananthapuram, the capital city of Kerala, India. This film festival started in 1996 and is hosted by the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy ...

(IFFK). However, director R. S. Vimal decided to withdraw the film from the festival as it was not included in the Competition Section.

Critical response

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It was founded as a weekly publication in 1878 by the Triplicane Six, becoming a daily in 1889. It is one of the India ...

'' wrote "the film presents a classic case of how a compelling real life incident can be adapted for the screen without compromising on the aesthetics of the medium."

Baradwaj Rangan Baradwaj Rangan () is an Indian film critic and writer. A chemical engineering graduate with no formal training in filmmaking or cinema writing, he has a diverse career in advertising, IT consulting, and cinema writing. He has authored two boo ...

wrote, " Even with flatly written characters and plodding narration, the film strikes a chord." Veeyen of ''Nowrunning.com'' rated 3/5 and opined that "a slow-burner that invites its viewers to soak themselves in a compelling romantic tale that is prudently drawn from real life. A pithy, well-acted and remarkably crafted film, this devastating narrative of love, comes across as a true celebration of the tender, expectant spirit that lies deep within it." Hailing the film as "probably the best love story to have graced the screens in the last decade in Malayalam Cinema," Rejath RG of ''

Kerala Kaumudi ''Kerala Kaumudi'' is a Malayalam language daily newspaper published from Kerala, India, headquartered in the state capital, Thiruvananthapuram. It was founded in 1911 by C. V. Kunhiraman as a periodical. His son K. Sukumaran later served as ...

'' described it as " a masterful piece of cinema that is sure to leave a long lasting impression in the hearts of moviegoers. R S Vimal has made a gem of a movie, an unforgettable love story of epic proportions." G. Ragesh of ''

Malayala Manorama '' Manorama'' is a morning newspaper in Malayalam published from Kottayam, Kerala, India by the Malayala Manorama Company Limited. Currently headed by Mammen Mathew, it was first published as a weekly on 14 March 1888, and currently has a rea ...

'' rated the film 3.5/5 and described "Apart from being an inquiry into the unknown realms of human emotions such as love, revenge and envy the film has a smooth narrative which offers a glimpse into the socio-political milieu of the time." Akhila Menon of ''Filmibeat.com'' gave a rating of 4/5 and wrote, "It is wonderful to watch the classic form of romance back on the screen, in its complete glory. A well-written script plays the backbone for the film" and "the only minus factor

f the film F, or f, is the sixth letter of the Latin alphabet and many modern alphabets influenced by it, including the modern English alphabet and the alphabets of all other modern western European languages. Its name in English is ''ef'' (pronounc ...

is, Kanchanamala gets over-shadowed by Moideen certain points." Sethumadhavan of ''

Bangalore Mirror ''Bangalore Mirror'' is an English-language daily published by The Times Group in Bangalore, India, as a compact newspaper. It is a deputed newspaper and is the second-largest circulating English daily in the city. In 2020, as part of its COVID ...

'' rated the film 4/5 and said, "Despite the story being so old, the screenplay is powerful enough to hook the audience and make one ignore a few loose ends. Whenever and wherever cinematic liberty has been taken, it does not come across as jarring." Shyamlee Ahmed of ''The American Bazaar'' noted that the "powerful story is a far cry from the modern day puppy love stories coming out of Bollywood" and that the film "will be here to stay in our hearts "ennum" (forever), for its effervescent one of a kind eternal love."

Box office

The film collected approximately 81 lakh on the first day of release and 1.25 crore in the second day, with

Malabar region The Malabar Coast () is the southwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. It generally refers to the western coastline of India stretching from Konkan to Kanyakumari. Geographically, it comprises one of the wettest regions of the subcontin ...

contributing a major share.Akhila Menon (21 September 2015)
"Ennu Ninte Moideen: First 2 Days Box Office Collections"
. ''Filmibeat.com''. Retrieved 21 September 2015. It collected 6.32 crore in 6 days and 10.5 crore when it completed 9 days from Kerala alone. The film collected 19 crores from 18 days from Kerala alone. On 14 October 2015, ''Filmibeat.com'' reported that the film's gross collection crossed 21.8 crore, making it the biggest hit in Prithviraj's career. Within a month of release, the film's collection from Kerala theatres alone was 27.2 crore."Kerala box office: 'Amar Akbar Antony', 'LL7K' make good collection; 'Pathemari' still enjoys housefull shows"
. ''

International Business Times The ''International Business Times'' is an American online newspaper that publishes five national editions in four languages. The publication, sometimes called ''IBTimes'' or ''IBT'', offers news, opinion and editorial commentary on business and ...

''. 19 October 2015. Retrieved 19 October 2015. It grossed about 32.67 crore and a net 25.56 crore from

in 42 days; the film's all

gross crossed 37.50 crore for the same. The film grossed $107,666 (₹ 71.79 lakh) within eight weeks of its theatrical run in the US and after the 12th weekend at the UK box office, ''Ennu Ninte Moideen'' is said to have collected a gross amount of Â£23,698 (₹ 23.40 lakh). The film collected an estimated 50 crore from Worldwide box office to become one of the highest grossing Malayalam films of all time, and the film ran over 150 days in theatres.

Awards and nominations

As of 28 March 2016, Ennu Ninte Moideen received 55 wins and 63 nominations.