Anyar

Cast: Biju Menon, Jyothirmayi, Lal
Language: Malayalam
Director: Lenin Rajendran
Producer: Mano Mathew
Lyrics: ONV Kurup and Kavalam
Music: Mohan Sithara
Year: 2003

Anyar is Lenin Rajendran's new film. The film focuses on the plight of a group of innocent people who are forced to live as strangers in their own land.

Razia (Jyothirmayi) born to a Muslim middle class family becomes a television journalist. She goes to Gujarat to attend the wedding of one of her friends. When the marriage function is going on, communal violence breaks out in different parts of the state and the family is forced to put off the marriage. A pall of gloom descends on the family and the bloodbath coupled with the predicament of her hosts becomes a traumatic experience for Razia. After getting held up in the house for many days, she visits the strife torn cities and the relief camps opened for the victims.

Touched by their woes, she captures the life in the refugee camps on film. On reaching home, she decides to make a documentary on the incidents, linking it with the reactions of the people in Kerala to the carnage.

Razia with her lover Sooraj (Biju Menon) starts touring places when a sudden hartal holds up their tour. They decide to continue their journey on the hartal day itself and the supporters of the hartal mercilessly hound them. They seek refuge in a tribal hamlet where they meet an elderly couple (Lal and Rati Agnihotri) who had migrated from Gujarat years ago following communal violence there.

Meantime, Razia slowly develops a dislike for the artistic concepts of her companion and they get estranged in due course. But they remain as friends. Though Razia completes the documentary, the channel refuses to air it, probably anticipating grave consequences, and this leads to dramatic twists in the narrative.

The director tries to depict the strong bondage between the elderly tribal couple and the superficial relation between the lovers. Though it focuses on communal violence, the film is a tale of love and amity. The scenes in the tribal hamlet were shot in Muthanga when the Adivasi Gothra Mahasabha was going ahead with its agitation in the wildlife sanctuary.

The script is the major drawback of the film. Unfortunately the director is not able to bring out what went wrong at Marad at the crucial moment and the film goes berserk. And a series of subplots like Raghavan and Kamala’s past in which it is revealed that Kamala was Zarina, a Muslim, takes the film away from its main agenda.Also in the cast are Lal, Nishant Sagar, Murali, Oduvil Unnikrishnan and Sharath Chandran.

Malyalam Film News

Tamil Film News

Hindi Film News