Prithviraj: Moideen is a hero

Ennu Ninte Moideen, inspired from the heart-wrenching real life love story of Moideen and Kanchanamala, has opened to a rousing welcome.

Prithviraj and Parvathy play Moideen and Kanchanamala respectively in debutant director R S Vimal's Ennu Ninte Moideen.

Amidst all the praise the film has garnered, leading man Prithviraj talks to Vijay George/Rediff.com about his journey as Moideen and the box office failure of his last release, Double Barrel.

Are you happy with the response for your latest release, Ennu Ninte Moideen?

Of course I am very happy. The response to the film has been overwhelming.

What was it like playing B P Moideen, who was a real life hero to the natives of Mukkam?

The main aspect here is that there are still many who personally knew Moideen. Kanchanedathi (Kanchanamala) is here among us too.

Then there are his friends and his brother. The challenge with respect to Moideen is that if you talk to fifty people about Moideen, you get fifty different versions of him, which tells you that he was a different person for different people.

To some he was a friend, to others he was a brother and he was a son to many but he was also a hero for everyone.

He was a crowd-puller in the sense that he could go to Mukkam junction with a microphone and could attract an impressive number of people, any time.

How true to the real story are the events shown in the film?

I would say that whatever that is shown in the film has actually happened.

Of course some of those events have been dramatized but nothing has been created. In fact it is said that this film is big but still it doesn't have the scale of the real Moideen's life.

According to you, how relevant is Moideen and Kanchanamala's love story?

I feel that the love story between Moideen and Kanchanamala has the nature of a world classic like Romeo-Juliet or Laila-Majnu. But since there was no Shakespeare to write about it, their love story was not known to the world until now.

Why is it that Kanchanamala's story has ended in the film with Moideen's death in Ennu Ninte Moideen, when she is still alive living the rest of her life as his wife?

See, if you have to show the real life story of Moideen and Kanchanamala you will have to make at least six films. Kanchanamala's life after Moideen's death itself can be made into a film. It's just that Vimal decided he is making a film on this particular phase in their life.

Was it a deliberate decision to narrate this story from Moideen's perspective?

Yes, the story has been said from Moideen's perspective.

Your last film, Double Barrel, turned out to be a disappointment. What went wrong?

The film didn't work. That's okay. I don't mind. All of us knew that we were trying something new. We hold true to our belief that we did try something new. But it did not work. A few liked it and many didn't.

Do you think the Malayali audience is not yet ready for such a wacky comedy?

I don't believe in blaming the audience. I would rather say it was an experiment that we did. But as of now it's a failed experiment. I am happy that I didn't put the burden of this experiment on another producer. I have to bear the losses myself and I'm fine about it.

What next?

I have completed Amar Akbar Anthony and Anarkali. Currently I am shooting for Paavada. I will start shooting for Jijo Antony's Darwinte Parinamam next.