Sudani From Nigeria Review: A heartwarming tale of love and compassion!

Sudani From Nigeria Review: A heartwarming tale of love and compassion!

Soubin Shahir, who turned a director last year, is making his debut as a lead actor with Sudani From Nigeria. Along with him is the African actor Samuel Abiola Robinson. The strange title itself piqued the curiosity of the audience and the promos were highly promising. Let’s see how the movie has turned out to be.

Sudani From Nigeria tells the story of two individuals – Majeed and Samuel Robinson, fondly called as Sudu by the locals in Malappuram. African players participating in the sevens football tournament is a very common sight in the Malabar areas. Our protagonist Majeed is the manager of a local sevens football club. His team also has a few African players – all of them are called Sudanis, doesn’t matter if they come from Nigeria or Ghana. Samuel is their star player.

An unfortunate set of events lands Samuel a.k.a Sudu in Majeed’s home. There we are introduced to two angelic woman – Majeed’s mother and her neighbor, played by Savitiri Sreedharan and Sarasa Balussery respectively. From that point, the movie is taken forward by the two ladies who show us the innocence and goodness of small-town people.

Majeed and Samuel stand at two spectrums. Majeed is the typical Malappuram guy who loves football more than anything else, but for Samuel, football is a way to make money for his family who lead a miserable life back home. Both Soubin and Samuel have breathed life to these well-sketched characters. Soubin has given his career best act in the movie. As Majeed, he has once again shown the range he possesses as an actor.

Zakariya, the director, has successfully broken almost all the stereotypes associated with a Malappuram story. But a remarkable thing is that he has done it very subtly without deviating from the core plot. As they say, a director’s job is half done once he gets the casting right. Here, Zakariya has got it spot-on. The two female leads are the life of this movie. He has managed to extract the right emotions from them, without going overboard even once.

Shyju Khalid’s cinematography is the next best thing. There are some movies where the visuals standout and then there are movies where we don’t even think about the visuals or the framings. Sudani comes under in the second category. Shyju Kalid’s camera simply follows the events and never tends to fall over the line. Continuing his stellar work from Mayaanadhi, composer Rex Vijayan has captured the Malabari essence with his music. Special applause to Sameer Thahir for backing this movie that boasts of no big stars or the so-called commercial elements.

Overall, Sudani is a fine piece of cinema that deserves a watch from theatres. It speaks about love and hence is sure to win over your hearts.