Halal Love Story Analysis

Halal Love Story (2020)

Directed by: Zakariya
Written by: Muhsin Parari, Zakariya
Streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

There are very few films that welcome us to reconsider our worldview. A lot of films are made with angst against a certain worldview, against conservatism or liberalism. This film is made with love, this film isn't against any worldview - it just made me realize that just because someone has a conservative worldview, or strong religious beliefs - it doesn't mean that they're regressive - we need not judge them or label them, we can agree to disagree on certain beliefs and move on. This film has a very endearing premise, a conservation Muslim organization wants to make a film - abiding by their religious norms, somewhat like how Iranian cinema is made. They only want to cast a married couple in real life, as a couple on screen and they don't want to capture any sorts of intimacy - even hugging. They struggle to find a couple both of whom, can act.

Zakariya's previous film 'Sudani from Nigeria' also is made with a lot of love and it's so inspiring to watch films which are so endearing and entertaining too - we have a notion that films about bad guys, grey characters are intriguing, and of course in both of these films we see layered, multi-dimensional characters - but these films inspire us to be more humane. It also explores the dynamics between the married couple very well, a love story doesn't necessarily have to be about the uncertainty of getting married, or getting into a relationship - it can also be about the uncertainty of happiness in a relationship - because in this case, they won't get divorced most likely and it's just a question of whether they'll be happy or not. This film being a meta film was a lot of fun to me, Soubin Shahir was hilarious as the sound recordist - it is an interesting take on how film sets operate. After an intense day of shoot, when there are heated arguments going on, the silence which they go through for the sound designer to record room tone - feels like an important minute of silence everyone should go through in their lives. This film does a lot of things, and yet it never feels heavy - all of them blend seamlessly into each other.