MOOTHON 'Everyone likes a good fairytale'

These words are spoken by Moosa (Dileesh Pothen) to Mulla (Sanjana Dipu) and in a sense, they capture the core of Moothon, a fairytale gone terribly, twistedly wrong.

Orphaned, bullied at school and harassed by teachers, Mulla decides to go in search of her big brother, her moothon Akbar. Her brother is a legend in the village, a legend marred by mystery and some controversy. Was he lost at sea? Did he come ashore at Mumbai? No one knows. And so Mulla sets out like every wide-eyed prince in every fairytale ever to find that lost brother. He steals a boat and sails from the idyllic sweep of white beaches that form Lakshadweep and runs straight into a storm that washes him aboard a navy vessel and thence, into Mumbai.

Nivin Pauly is excellent in his role, essaying both the bulky and menacing Bhai and the tender and vulnerable Akbar in flashbacks. Bhai is the monster in this movie, the fabled creature stalking through the neon-lit lanes of Kamathipura. Aamir (played by an effervescent Roshan Mathew) manages to convey deep emotion with his eyes and gentle flickers of his fingers they have incredible chemistry that is sexual without being explicit, a tender romance that is sublime and captivating.

Children are the lens through which Geetu Mohandas shows us the world as they see it. It's not a pretty world. Children grow up fast. Each adult in the movie is struggling, looking for an outlet, sometimes sexual and sometimes violent, the receiving end being those most vulnerable in society: children like Mulla. Sanjana Dipu's stunning debut makes for an eminently watchable film through which she captivates the audience with her charm and maturity in acting.

The first half is edited a bit too precipitously which makes it look like there were gaps in the storyline but this is made up for with Rajeev Ravi's excellent frames. Natural light and stark shadows are used to great effect.

We know the story will end in tragedy yet the sensitive depiction and tender romance will stay with the audience even after the movie is over.

And therein lies the true tragedy of Moothon. The magic is not enough. It provides happiness but not for long. The magic of love, of bonds so strong they cannot be broken, is only present in Lakshadweep, where the two main characters are at home. It is where Mulla sees the mermaid and where Akbar, the day after he falls in love, finds his boat filled with flying fish in a gesture of divine generosity. Mumbai is too violent and cruel to sustain them and so they fall.