Narrating an eternal love story
R.S. Vimal speaks about directing Ennu Ninte Moideen and how he fulfilled his passion for filmmaking
By : aravind k.s.
Update: 2015-09-19 00:46 GMT
Even from his days as a journalist in a popular Malayalam daily, R.S. Vimal’s dream was to become a scriptwriter. As the passion grew, he bid adieu to his journalism career and made documentaries, which paved the way for him to reach Tinsel town.
Vimal, who made a documentary on the eternal love story of B.P. Moideen and Kanchanamala, is making his debut as a film maker with Prithviraj-starrer Ennu Ninte Moideen.
It was during a friendly talk with B.P. Rasheed, in 2007 that Vimal came to know about Moideen. “I was doing a series of documentaries then. It was Rasheed who told me about his deceased brother Moideen and Moideen’s ‘unmarried widow’ Kanchanamala. The story fascinated me and I asked him whether I could do a documentary on them. When I reached Mukkam in Kozhikode, where Kanchanamma lives, I could feel the intensity of the love story... something we cannot experience from any so-called classic love stories,” says Vimal, who made the documentary Jalam Kondu Murivettaval on their life.
Vimal then decided to make it into a movie. “When I shared my idea with Rasheed, he said he would definitely support me and he expressed his desire to produce it. The pre-production of the movie began. But when we started scripting, we understood that this film needed a huge budget and thus we approached the current producers,” he says about the birth of Ennu Ninte Moideen which has Prithviraj and Parvathy in the lead roles.
Support from the producers was the main factor that made this film possible. “As the film is set in a period from 1960 to 1984, we had to invest much in makeup, art, costumes and visual effects to give it a realistic look. My producers Suresh, Binoy and Ragy came to the project only after they watched Jalam Kondu Murivettaval. So from the beginning itself, they were aware that this project required a huge amount of money. Now my film is all set to reach the audience,” he says.
The movie has been a big learning experience for Vimal. “The pre-production work was started in 2008. From that day onwards, I was working on the script and shot division. Even three years before the shoot, we had made a digital story board. I did all these things because it is a close-to-heart subject for me and in a way, this subject was the one that made me a filmmaker,” the director says.