Malayalam film ‘Puvu’ examines the ideas of love and loss

Still from ‘East’. Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

EastA film by cinematographer Anish Babu Abbas takes the audience with characters on a road trip. This is also a metaphor journey, where the life of the hero falls in the full cycle.

As he drives through picturesque scenarios-green fields, bridges, forests and trees-fed vista, ignoring his life. From the snatch of conversation with his mother and wife in the car, the audience gets a glimpse as a life, who leads life well.

“Life is in its 50s, at the age when someone takes stock of someone’s life and looks at it softly. There is a sense of love, loss and freedom, ”Aneesh Babu Abbas says, who directed the film along with Binoy George. East Anish is the first direction. He is also the director of photography and has written the story.

Told at a dull speed, real and fictionally moves towards the story and the audience is slowly moved into the world of life. Although it pives it, the film shines spotlight on powerful women in her life.

Still from ‘East’. Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

love and loss

During the road trip, life suggests that they (mother, wife and themselves) play a game. Each one is asked to make a wish and others are obliged to help it complete. While her mother wants to see a peaceful sunset, it shows that she craves for some time after lifting her and taking the responsibilities of running a business, her wife says that she wants to wear a T -shirt and shorts, perhaps suggests a desire of freedom from obstacles considered for women; Life itself expresses the desire to meet his first love, which later becomes an additional passenger in the car. The appearance of the daughter of life is applied through the phone call she does through the journey.

Still from ‘East’. Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

“While it is a person whose experiences are being depicted, it is women in their lives who take up the centrosage,” Anish says, who started his career as a cinematographer. He has also assisted other cinematographers in Malayalam such as Sunny Joseph, Sabu James and Mani Prasad.

He has done independent cinematography for Indrans-Starrer Lona, Ana Meel OtakamAnd out of range To mention something,

The audience feels that the film has a feminist ideology at its core. Mother raised life to be able to cook a good food for herself. That quintage is not even a strict man, who always reveals everything. When he loses his way in a railway station, he breaks down and it is his wife who finds her and “saves her”. It is in his daughter that he accepts a secret desire and is his ex -girlfriend who first prevents her from smoking.

Title (Puvu), Anish explains, human life is blown on the ground in a day flown with a flower. The 82 -minute film was the first world premiere in January 2024. It won the Best Film and Best Actor Award at Nepal Cultural International Film Festival in 2025, the Kerala Film Critics Award 2023 for Best Supporting Actress (KPAC Leela) and the 15th JC Daniel Foundation Award for the second Best Film.

It has also won the Best Travel and Discovery Feature Award at Manhem Arts and Film Festival, Germany (2023), Hergada Youth Film Festival in 2024, Best of the Best Feature Tale Competition in Egypt and Titan International Film Festival in 2025, Sydney.

The film was produced by Anish and Santoshkumar (Pink Visual Space); The screenplay is performed by Johnson V. Dewasi. Edited by Rushin Ahmed, the background score is by NINOY Varghese. KPAC Leela has painted brunette, mother of life; Sandhya, his wife, is depicted by Srithi Vipin; Shanti Rao played her love Ruchi Nazia Hasan and Meenakshi Anoop played the role of her daughter Yama. Manjula KV played the role of life.

The film is on its festival.