Nivin Pauly in Bethlehem Kudumba Unit
| Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
The trailers of Bethlehem Kudumba Unit show glimpses of the Nivin Pauly of the older films, the lighter ones, the most obvious one being Ohm Shanti Oshaana. That smile is still impish, though he is older. If Malayalam cinema were to have a sweetheart who is a man, at the time, it would have been Nivin. He still is, if the response to the film’s promotion at a city college is anything to go by. Like Nazariya Nazim, after OSO.“Now that you mention it, yes, Bethlehem Kudumba Unit has an OSO vibe,” says the actor, over the phone. The similarity is that both are age gap love stories, a romance between an older man Nivin as Justin and a younger woman, Ashley played by Mamitha Baiju.“It is also a film told from the female perspective; a young woman falling in love with a slightly older man. Such stories are few these days; they are usually told from the male perspective unlike this movie. And like all of Girish’s films, female characters are always powerful, as in Premalu or Thaneer Mathan Dinangal.” He describes his role in the film, “Justin is one of those guys we might have all seen in settings which are not urban. He is the guy in the neighbourhood who is an all-in-all, helps everybody and is happy and content where he is.” One of the reasons he accepted the role was the relatability of the character.“The setting is something that I know, like the kind I grew up in. And I have grown up seeing chettans like Justin, interacting with them and being around guys like him. I have hung out with them, doing a lot of stuff like at church or chipping during functions…it was all very familiar! I was around people like this till I was in Class 12.”
