The story went viral in 2019 when Sreedharan mourned the death of his ummah (mother, Zubaida) through a Facebook post.
Zubaydah and her husband Haji Abdul Aziz had three children of their own, but they never treated their adopted children less well.
Films like A Holy Conspiracy, Gotro and Dostoji have represented friendship, love and selflessness on screen. It doesn’t happen very often that a South film without megastars and world-class VFX draws audiences to cinema halls in North India. But it happened last Friday when a small-budget Malayalam film was screened at Delhi’s Jawahar Bhavan and for some it was “the only story from Kerala”.
Directed by Siddique Paravoor, Ennu Swantham-Sreedharan is based on the real-life story of a Muslim couple from Kalikavu village in Malappuram district, Kerala, who raise three children – Sreedharan, Ramani and their Hindu domestic help Leela – after his sudden demise. Frost. Although Zubaydah and her husband Haji Abdul Aziz had three children of their own, they never treated their adopted children less well. Since then, he never forced them to follow Islam and allowed them to follow all Hindu rituals without any hindrance.
The 90-minute film was screened in theaters with English subtitles. Tears welled up in the eyes of many present inside the auditorium and Zubeida’s favorite child Asli Sreedharan was also present.
The story went viral in 2019 when Sreedharan mourned the death of his ummah (mother, Zubaida) through a Facebook post. It was then that people outside Kalikavu came to know about Zubeidaa’s love that flows beyond “blood”.
“When I shared the news of my umma (mother) passing away, some of you were skeptical… Having children of your own didn’t stop them from taking us in. He had three children. Even though they adopted us at a young age, they did not try to convert us to their religion. People say that an adoptive mother can never match her biological mother. But she was never an ‘adoptive mother’ for us, she was actually our mother.
When director Siddique Paravoor first heard about Zubeida through a social worker, he was deeply moved by her story. He also shared that he wanted to bring his story to the attention of a larger audience and let them know that there are people who live like this.
“People who put love and kindness above religion and prejudice,” he said.
The film was screened in the national capital in association with the Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust (SAHMAT) and Jansanskrit (a socio-cultural organisation).
Ennu Swantham-Sreedharan premiered on January 9 this year at Vanitha Theater in Edapalli, Kochi and was appreciated by senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, who called it a “heart-warming story”.