THE SHAPE OF CHANGE, ONE DATE AT A TIME

BLECORE, as a genre, is on quiet revelations. On naturalistic dialogue, slowly pacing, and often mini-gadgets, these films find drama in the everyday, the unsaid, the awkward. It is fitting that Five First Dates, a film that passes through five loosely connected dating episodes, belongs in that space.

- SANTHOSH

BLECORE, as a genre, is on quiet revelations. On naturalistic dialogue, slowly pacing, and often mini-gadgets, these films find drama in the everyday, the unsaid, the awkward. It is fitting that Five First Dates, a film that passes through five loosely connected dating episodes, belongs in that space. Now streaming on YouTube after its run at several festivals, including the prestigious International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK), the film marks an understated, assured entry for its director.

The film's director Rinoshun is not a Malayalee but a man who grew up in Gudalur, a small town at the confluence of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka. Later, when he moved to Bengaluru, most of the people he began collaborating with were Malayalees. "The only actors I could afford or ask to act were these guys," he says with a laugh. "There were about ten of them." When he zeroed in on Ppuzha Gymkhana actor Francy, who plays Shalini, the protagonist in Five First Dates, the film came together quickly.

His initial concept soon expanded into something more nuanced. While he cites films like Before Sunrise