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Zakeer
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Alif Movie Review
- 3/10/2015 8:28:20 PM
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Lena, Zeenath, Joy MathewDirection: Mohammed KoyaGenre: DramaDuration: 2 hours
Synopsis: Set in a remote village in Malabar, the film portrays the struggles of a young Muslim woman and her family who is ostracised by society for questioning a religious speech
Review: Mohammed Koya's Alif is powerful and poignant at the same time, probably the most compelling woman centric film made in the recent times. Rather than watching a movie, you feel like seeing a real story unfold before you, sans romanticisation and unwanted elements.
The film debuted in festival circuits but is very much a mainstream film (think Padham Onnu Oru Vilapam). Fathima (Lena) and her two children have been deserted by her good for nothing husband and the family is supported by the meagre earnings of her mother Aatha (Zeenath). Despite their poverty the family live in dignity and maintain a progressive outlook in the conservative and extremely patriarchal village where religion and local religious leaders have the final say in everything. Things take a turn for the worse when a desperate Fathima questions a speech by a local preacher, whose interpretation of the koran is conveniently biased towards serving solely the man's pleasures. But a woman questioning religion is unthinkable, and the family is ostracised mercilessly, with even the children denied entry into the local madrasa. The already struggling Fathima reaches breaking point, but at one point, decides that life comes before religion,
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