Even as COVID numbers still hovered around the 70k mark per day, the Centre released the guidelines for Unlock 5.0. One of the key points was the permission to reopen the theatres after close to 7 months from the 15th of October with 50% capacity. Whether that would allow the theatres to recover their operational costs & whether it would allay the fears of the general public to flock inside a confined space remains to be seen. However, we certainly had one last Thursday as Zakariya Mohammed's "Halal Love Story" was released on Amazon Prime. I certainly loved the trailer & looked forward to some fun moments after all his "Sudani from Nigeria" was impressive.
The movie unfolds with the news of the 9/11 attack on the WTC on TV & a talk about how the world was affected by the neo-imperialism of US. Within the first few minutes, the audience is introduced to the political & religious inclinations of the area. The Islamic cultural branch of the locality decides to make a crowdfunded telefilm that would abide by the rules of their faith & entrusts the task to Taufeeq (Sharafudeen) to come up with a suitable script. Once that gets approved by the committee, they start their search for a suitable cast & crew. So will they be able to craft a movie that would give them creative freedom but yet adhere to the sensibilities of their religious group???
Zakariya is an individual who needs no introduction after all his debut venture "Sudani from Nigeria" was loved by both the critics & the masses. In his latest release, he has come up with an interesting subject but fails to nail it effectively. It was way too simplistic with hardly any substantial events happening though the satire keeps us engaged with the situational humour & a reliable cast. On the technical side, pretty much everything was on the money be it Bijibal & Shahbaz Amin's music which was soothing to the ears or Ajay Menon's visuals.
Quite a few reliable artists were lined up for the project among which Grace Antony was the one who took centre with a solid performance. Equally impressive was Joju George, who seems to get better with each movie. As for the rest, Indrajith & Sharafudeen did their parts aptly along Nazar Karutheni. There were a couple of cameos as well among which Soubin brings the roof down with a hilarious act while Parvathy was natural as ever.
Verdict: There is no doubt that the movie has failed to match expectations considering the quality of the cast & crew and most importantly a novel theme. Even then , it would certainly keep majority of us engaged as most are unlikely to fret about the time spent watching it. In short, do check it out if interested in a feel good flick!!!
Rating: 2.5/5
Regards...Ben
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