Love Jihad: Siddique ‘pitted’ against Suraj in a story on inter-community romance

Director Bash Mohammed recently released the poster of Love Jihad, which, like his debut venture Lukka Chuppi, is also a “slice-of-life movie” about the parental heartache over the budding romance of their children. The film has Siddique and Suraj Venjaramoodu in the lead roles, with actress Meera Nandan doing an important cameo.
Speaking about the title, which makes one do a double take, the director clarifies, “Jihad simply means struggle and any love affair has a struggle or friction, particularly when it is between two different communities.Also, I chose the word because the film is completely shot in Dubai. It just takes a light-hearted, sarcastic look at how we are so caught up with caste, colour, gender and so on. And if audiences come to watch it as a humorous film, they can leave smiling, because it is just a family entertainer.”
The film, co-written by Bash and Sreekumar Arackal, looks at two middle-class Hindu and Muslim Malayali families — one from Ernakulam and the other from Kozhikode — who are now based in Dubai. Newcomer Amritha plays Siddique and Lena’s daughter, who falls in love with the son, portrayed by Josekutty Jacob, of their neighbours, Suraj and Gayathri Arun.
“Our matrimonial ads make me laugh, with how particular we are about finding a match for our children within the caste parameters. I can’t make a big change, but as a filmmaker, I have just shown in a funny way how things transpire when the parents from the two communities clash over their children’s affair. The film makes us think about why we are like this, almost like we are still stuck with archaic ideas,” says Bash, adding that he did not want to get political about the subject.
Prakash Velayudhan is the DoP. Music is by Shaan Rahman to lyrics by Harinarayanan.