With Amazon Prime Video releasing its latest Malayalam feature tomorrow (Thursday), let’s take a look at what to expect from this family comedy.
At it’s very core, this film is about a film being made – a film-ception, if you will (sorry, couldn’t resist the pun). A group of young film lovers who are trying to make a film that doesn’t test their religious sensibilities. Obviously this will have many challenges and the writer-director, Zakariya Mohammad tries to make the resulting clashes as relatable and humorous as possible.
The story of the film follows a young actor named Shereef (portrayed by Indrajith Sukumaran) who is prominent enough to act in his small community street plays. He jumps at the chance to work with like-minded individuals so as to create a “halal” film. Due to budgetary constraints, their script is shortened by amateur script writer Taufeeq (portrayed by Sharaf U Dheen) for a televised feature and brings on Joju George’s character as a director.
The only problem is Joju George doesn’t care for the constraints put on him by the producer and writer, and he wants to create a film worthy enough to be called art. On top of this Shereef wants his wife to portray his character’s wife on screen, so that he doesn’t have to fake his feelings. All of these things create minor, funny clashes and it all reaches a boiling point when their producer is forced to slash their budget due to unforeseen reasons.
This film, although supposed to be a comedy, will give an in depth idea about the behind-the-scenes clashes that take place between the director, scriptwriter, star-actor and/or the producer, and the issues they face while working on set or during production. Soubin Shahir’s portrayal of “the perfectionist sound director” in the trailer was comedic but this is how most over-enthusiastic artists work, bringing another level of relatability to this film.
‘Halal Love Story’ will premiere tomorrow on October 15th 2020, on Amazon Prime Video.