Producer: Mohamed Abdulla (Muhamma) / Dheke Dhekeves Productions
Director: Niuma Mohamed
Editing: Abdulla Muaz
Rating: 0.5/5
When Yaaraa Productions, reputed for its Dhivehi video songs, came up with a feature film called “Fanaa” [Perish] I laughed at how immature “The Family of Dhivehi Film Industry” is when it comes to real productions. But when Nahula, who is supposedly the Christopher Nolan of Maldives, released Veeraana [Ruin] I really appreciated its concept. Nahula credited Muhamma for the seemingly new concept brought to the Maldives film industry, which otherwise has always been saturated with romance. Now that Muhamma himself has released a movie, what differences does it hold?
“Niuma” is no small thing to review. As most people, who still go to Olympus to watch every movie are well aware, a new Dhivehi movie is a major event, preceded by hype, an over-the-top announcement, and finally days, weeks, or months of anticipation from a pretty loyal ‘fan base’. Niuma is certainly no exception – in fact, it may be one of the few movies that received so much public attention lately.
“Niuma” was expected to break grounds, revolutionise the already diminishing Dhivehi film industry, correct mistakes that have been accumulated for decades and decide the fate of some actors. Since the announcement that Niuma would be directing “Niuma,” news surrounding the movie has been a veritable whirlwind of activity: rumours, half-truths, hate, love, etc.
When I entered Olympus, sat on the B-23 seat and opened my book for the review of “Niuma,” I was all aflutter. The promotional song and television advertisements I had been seeing of some kind of Veeraana-esque Muhamma movie were frankly weird enough to cause a kind of low hum movie lust. So the question turns to whether or not “Niuma” can live up to the intense hype and save Niuma from ending her career. Can it deliver on the promises made by its producer and director in several interviews?
Maldives Holidays
Storyline
Nihan (Eupe) and his girlfriend Ainth (Sheela) talk about their marriage plans at the beach in daylight, presumably during the afternoon hours, and both walk away to a cafe for a cup of coffee. The scene cuts through and starts another scene shot at night, apparently after 8 or 9pm as the sky is pitch black, where they both reach the cafe. A blunder such as this is not alien to Dhivehi movies, but a movie so promising repeating the same mistake would make anyone who noticed it lose interest in the movie.
SPOILER ALERT!
The rather vague storyline of “Niuma” is not new to the Dhivehi movie industry. In fact, the original storyline does not have much difference to Veeraana’s. The story revolves around a girl, Niuma (Niuma) who is abused by her father, Nizar (Nimal), and brother, Nizam (Manik). Ainth marries Nihan, discovers the family’s darkest secret, and encourages Nihan to stand up against his father and brother. Meanwhile, Nihan’s friend, Shiyaz (Muaz), falls in love with Niuma and lights up hope for her. Niuma becomes pregnant with her father’s child and both of them travel to India for abortion. Niuma returns to the island but Shiyaz leaves her due to a misunderstanding. A single phrase by Niuma’s mother, Wafiyya (Aiminath Rasheeda), inspires Niuma to kill her father. In the end, she kills her father with an iron rod and surrenders to the police.
SPOILER ALERT ENDS!
Those who thought “Niuma” would do away with the rhetoric words and phrases used in Dhivehi movies that you might never even heard of in day-to-day conversations are really out of luck. The movie, like so many others, uses flowery words, which at the first time would seem so nice. But you get tired of hearing “mi dharifulhu” [this child] all the time instead of something like “aharen” [me] or “ma” [me]. With no suspense maintained at all throughout the movie, in some scenes, the actors appear to be reading dialogues line by line.
Nizar comes out of the mosque and enters his shop where he orders the shopkeeper to arrange some items on the racks. A few scenes follow and a song, more like a song set, greet the audience. A traditional ‘maafathi’ song mixed with a romantic song of Ainth and Nihan and another of Niuma. Songs included in “Niuma” are disordered and do no good to impress the audience.
Technicalities and acting
No Dhivehi movie released this year is even up to acceptable standards technically and “Niuma” is no exception – it takes those embarrassing technical aspects of Dhivehi movies to a level that even the middle-aged Maldivian film audience complained about the washed out colours, colour tone, etc.
Muaz, who did the editing, should consider going back to the drawing board and learn a bit more about professional video editing. The colours look crisp in some scenes; oversaturated in others while some scenes get all purple. Throughout the movie, some scenes begin in average light condition, gets so dark that the actors seem like they are part of the background and gets too bright that they kind of ‘sparkle’ as Edward Cullen in Twilight series of movies.
Even with all the shortcomings in the movie, nothing much can be said about the acting; all the actors show an average, if not satisfactory performance. Niuma’s acting is perhaps one of the best of its kind shown lately in a Dhivehi movie. Muaz, who is still a newbie when it comes to feature films, also does his part quite well and Manik’s acting is satisfactory too.
Wrap-up
It is tough to feel really excited about Dheke Dhekeves Productions’ “Niuma” after watching it. I had high hopes coming into this review that the movie would be more than a coat of paint on aging aspects of the Maldives film industry – that we were going to see substantial changes in the attitude and direction of the industry. While there are very few and insignificant changes here and there, what I am ultimately left with is, at its core, more of the same.
A good marketing strategy like grand premier ceremonies and wise stunts like shaving the actress’ head is what it all takes to convince people to buy tickets, but it is not going to leave the audience awe-inspired or with an is-this-really-a-Dhivehi-movie expression.
Instead of meeting the rising trend in Hollywood movies among the youth, Muhamma and Niuma have taken something more like baby steps toward improvement. The production team including the Director seem convinced that they have a better idea about what the audience want and how a movie should be in 2010, but I cannot say I agree. To call “Niuma” the best Dheke Dhekeves Productions’ movie would not be an understatement, but unfortunately, for Maldives film industry and the fan base, their best is not nearly good enough.
