Adaminte Makan Abu () is a 2011 Indian Malayalam-language social drama film written, directed and co-produced by Salim Ahamed. It stars Salim Kumar and Zarina Wahab, with Mukesh, Kalabhavan Mani, Suraj Venjarammoodu, and Nedumudi Venu in supporting roles. The cinematography was handled by Madhu Ambat. The film features songs composed by Ramesh Narayan and score by Isaac Thomas Kottukapally. The film tells the story of a poor attar (a kind of perfume) seller Abu (Kumar) whose only remaining wish in life is the Hajj pilgrimage, which he strives hard to fulfill.
Development on Adaminte Makan Abu began roughly a decade before it was released. It was shot digitally over one month, beginning on 7 November 2010. Thrissur and Kozhikode were the major filming locales. Adaminte Makan Abu was released in theatres on 24 June 2011. It received wide critical acclaim, with much praise for its story, direction, cast, cinematography, and score. The film won four National Film Awards: Best Film, Best Actor, Best Cinematography and Best Background Score, and four Kerala State Film Awards for Best Film, Best Actor, Best Screenplay and Best Background Music. It was sent as India's official entry for the Best Foreign Language Film for the Academy Awards in 2011 but was not nominated.
Plot Abu and Aishumma are an elderly Moplah Muslim couple living in Kerala's Malabar region. Their aspiration is to go for Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca, and they sacrifice to achieve this aim. He scrimps and saves to achieve his dream of going to Mecca. Their son Sattar has migrated to the Middle East (as a part of the Kerala Gulf boom) with his family and has virtually discarded his parents. Now in their late 70s, the couple save money so they can attend Hajj that year.
Abu sells attar (a perfume obtained from flowers), religious books and Unani medicines that nobody seems to want. Aishumma breeds cattle and chickens, helping her husband realise their shared dream. Abu feels as outdated and discarded by a fast-changing world as the traditional products that he sells.
A school teacher, Abu's friend, comes to his aid at his time of need. Hyder, a local teashop owner also empathises with Abu who in turn is frequently given genuine advice by a mysterious saint known simply as "Ustad". Good-natured people try to help Abu by offering to lend him the amount but, as this goes against the accepted Islamic practices, he refuses to take anything.
With advancing years, Abu's desperation grows. Finally, in frustration and distress, he sells his cow and an old jackfruit tree. Abu is helped by the manager of a travel agency to get flight tickets and other documents for his journey. A policeman initially tries to reject Abu's passport application, but once he gets his usual bribe he becomes quite helpful. The couple begins their preparations which include attending the Hajj preparation classes conducted by the travel agency, being vaccinated for meningococcal meningitis and buying new Ihram clothing. Abu pays off even the smallest of his old debts as part of the preparations and travels miles to seek forgiveness from Sulaiman, a previous neighbour with whom he once fought.
When the passports and the tickets are ready and a bus journey away in Kozhikode, the sawmill owner, while handing over the money for Abu's tree, says that its wood turned out to be rotten and useless. He insists that Abu take the money, however, since his cause is noble. Abu refuses it, saying that it wouldn't be halal and hence could anger ALLAH. When he is sure that he cannot fulfill his dream, Abu reaches another conclusion — that the tree too had life, and several lives must have died when he cut the tree in front of his house. Abu conjectures that maybe one of the reasons for his not being able to go on the journey. On the dawn of the Hajj, Abu tells his wife that they will go the next year; he plants a new jackfruit sapling and is seen going to the mosque to pray on the morning of Hajj.
Cast
Production
Development
Development on the film began roughly a decade before it was released. Adaminte Makan Abu marks the directorial debut of Salim Ahamed, who says that he had entertained the story in his mind for many years. Upon graduating from college in the early 2000s, Ahamed dreamed of joining the film industry but found it hard to break into and ended up a travel consultant. It was the stories he heard and the people he met during this time that sowed the seeds for Adaminte Makan Abu. The film's protagonists were inspired by a real-life couple. Ahamed says that he was at the Jeddah airport, trying to solve the problem of too much baggage (thanks to many gifts for family back home), when he met a couple coming back "after performing Umra". They had scrounged, lived simply, and saved their money in hopes of going on Hajj but "settled for Umra fearing they would never make it to the Hajj". He made friends with them and helped them with flight mishaps and hotel stays. "During this period, I learnt a great deal about their undying spirit, life and the virtues they possessed"."‘Adaminte Makan Abu' to be remade in Hindi". The Hindu. 25 November 2011. Retrieved 2 December 2011."Everybody is becoming a critic today: Nikhil Advani". The Times of India. 19 October 2011. Retrieved 11 November 2011.
The central character Abu was significantly inspired by a man named Aboottikka in Ahamed's home village who looked and behaved a lot like the central character. In Ahamed's own words, the old couple he had met at the Umrah pilgrimage became Aboottikka and that in turn turned out to be Adaminte Makan Abu.Y. Sunitha Chowdhary. (2 October 2011). "Interview With Salim Ahamed" . Cinegoer.com. Retrieved 8 December 2011. Ahamed said that he had written three basic plots during his college days. One was based in a local school in Kerala, one was a thriller, and the third was the story of Abu. He decided to film Adaminte Makan Abu since a number of people liked the story line; moreover, he wanted his first film to have a message and to be impressive. It took only a month for Ahamed to prepare the final script. The biggest challenge was to find a producer/financier. Nobody was prepared to finance a non-commercial film like this one, so he started saving up his television pay cheques – but they were not enough. Finally, he had to approach a friend and producer, Ashraf Bedi, to produce this film. Ashraf Bedi was one of the producer of the film "shamboo" in which salim ahamed was a script writer. Salim Ahamed used to discuss the story with Ashraf Bedi during the shooting of the film "shamboo". Ashraf bedi immediately agreed to produce the film jointly with Salim Ahamed as he was already familiar with the story.
Casting Both Ashraf Bedi And Salim Ahamed did considerable research before they finalised the cast and crew. They decided to take the risk of filming with a serious theme when they secured Salim Kumar in the lead, although the actor did not have the glamour of a conventional hero. They were confident that the risk would be minimal compared to the final result's worth. On the sets of the 2010 film Best Actor Ahamed met the actor to convince him to play the role. Ahamed says that Kumar was an obvious choice because of his popularity and his versatility. It was Kumar's outstanding performance (as a son who is forced to abandon his aged mother) in Bridge, one of the ten films in the Kerala Cafe anthology, that made Salim Ahamed choose the actor for the role. Kumar was initially reluctant to accept the role, since he was unsure about carrying the film as the star. Ahamed, however, was confident, and assured Kumar that the film would have the top technicians in the field: He brought in the cinematography veteran Madhu Ambat, and Issac Thomas Kottukapally to handle the music. Kumar, who is generally known for slapstick comedy roles, did not do any preparation for his role and accepted no payment for his participation. Zarina Wahab, who had made a comeback in Malayalam films with Calendar, plays the lead female role in the film. According to Ahamed, she was cast because she had the face of a Malabar Muslim.
Aside from Kumar and Wahab, the film also stars several other actors like Kalabhavan Mani, Mukesh, Suraj Venjarammoodu, Nedumudi Venu and Jaffer Idukki in key roles. Ahamed says that he wanted to work with the industry's best people from the beginning and that their liking for the subject made this (relatively) easy. Madhu Ambat was doing a Malayalam film after a gap of nearly 12 years.
Filming Pattanam Rasheed did makeup for all the actors. The artificial beard he used initially didn't match Kumar's skin tone so he imported a matching beard from Mumbai, spending his own money. Shooting began on 7 November 2010 and took place in Thrissur and Kozhikode in Kerala. Major sections were filmed from a house in Athani in Thrissur. The set was made by debuting art director Jyothish on a shoestring of .
The film was shot digitally using an Arriflex D-21 camera. Cinematographer Madhu Ambat recalls that he had planned to use 16 mm film to further reduce costs but used 35 mm film instead since he wanted many long shots, which he says were helpful in showing the feeling of loneliness. Ambat also experimented with lighting, and an unusual lighting pattern which closely matched the themes and motifs of the movie was chosen.
The total budget was around . To complete Adaminte Makan Abu, Ahamed had to spend every rupee raised from what he had saved up over the years working on scripts for television serials and assisting directors.Minu Ittyipe. (5 December 2011). "Kodak Moment". Outlook. Retrieved 2 December 2011. However the money saved was not sufficient to produce the film. Ahamed recalls that when not a soul was ready to finance or produce the film he approached his friend and producer Ashraf Bedi (co- producer of the movie "Shamboo" which Ahamed had scripted) who immediately agreed to produce the film jointly. It was from this stage the movie production picked up momentum, and principal production was completed in a mere 31 days. To enhance its technical quality, Academy Award-winning sound designer Resul Pookutty redesigned and remixed the sound before the official screening for the academy members in Los Angeles on 19 November. A group of first-class technicians also came forward to revamp the film without payment.. NDTV. 23 November 2011. Retrieved 2 December 2011.K. A. Antony. (Undated). "Adaminte Makan begins Oscar hunt" . Retrieved 2 December 2011. Graphics were handled by Fies Thoppil.
Themes The film conveys a universal theme along with many aspects of human relationship beyond caste and religion. It is noted for projecting human values and inter-group harmony. These motifs are particularly evident during the scenes in which the villagers coming for Abu's help include a Christian merchant (Johnson, played by Kalabhavan Mani) and a Hindu school teacher (played by Nedumudi Venu). With a simple plot, Adaminte Makan Abu also conveys the message of environmental conservation. Man's relationship with nature and his fellow creatures is represented by a jackfruit tree and a domestic cow, which Abu sells with a heavy heart for money to go on the pilgrimage. We see Abu cursing himself for cutting the tree, thereby destroying the habitat of innumerable living things.Jos Thomas. (1 December 2011). . The Hindu. Retrieved 8 December 2011.