Gen Z Crowd's Response to Narivetta Is Surprising

Former journalist and award-winning short-story writer Abin Joseph, who debuts as a scenarist with Narivetta, talks about the film's origins, its politics, and the debates it has triggered

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Ovino Thomas' latest release Narivetta serves as an important reminder of the Muthanga agitation, an incident that shocked the collective conscience of Kerala in 2003. With the film reigniting discussions about the plight of the Adivasi community and the system's continued apathy towards them, its writer Abin Joseph is a content man. Abin's primary objective was to make an "engaging film," and the subsequent discussions around it have been "value additions." He says, "More than anything, I wanted to make an engaging film, but it's heartening to see people across generations talking about it. We thought the film would mostly appeal to viewers above the age of 30, but surprisingly, even the Gen Z youth, who must be unaware of the history or background, are liking it."

A former journalist, Abin is also an award-winning short-story writer, whose accolades include the Kerala Sahithya Akademi Geetha Hiranyan Endowment and Yuva Puraskar by Sahitya Akademi. While it's usually a challenge to adapt to screenwriting, Abin says the transition was smoother than he expected. "Since I was always interested in writing for films, I used to read a lot of screenplays. That must have helped. I also believe finding a good story is as challenging as writing a good screenplay." Abin had been toying around with a few ideas before arriving at Narivetta. "This was in 2021. We pitched the basic storyline to Tovino, and once he said yes, I started developing the screenplay."