The shape of change, one date at a time

Mumblecore, as a genre, thrives on quiet revelations. Built on naturalistic dialogue, leisurely pacing, and often minimal budgets, these films find drama in the everyday, the unsaid, and the awkward. It is fitting that Five First Dates, a film that unfolds through five loosely linked dating episodes, belongs firmly in that space. Now streaming on YouTube after its run at several festivals, including the prestigious International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK), the feature marks an understated but assured entry for its director into the Malayalam indie landscape. The film's director Rinoshun is not a Malayalee but a Tamilian 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 people I could afford or ask to act for free were these guys,” he says with a laugh. “There were about four of them.” When he zeroed in on Alappuzha Gymkhana actor Noila Francy, who plays Shalini, the protagonist in Five First Dates, the film came together naturally.  

The initial concept soon expanded into something more nuanced. While he cites films like Frances Ha and the work of Richard Linklater as inspirations, Rinoshun was keen not to replicate them. “I do love Linklater’s films, but I didn’t want to make it like the Before series.” Shalini’s story is told entirely through her interactions with four different men and a woman. Each date takes place on a different night, except the final one, which happens in daylight and is meant to signal a shift. “Shalini really likes the night sky and enjoys being out at night, so for her to change, she has to let go of all that,” says Rinoshun. The film suggests a transformation, though it is not presented as a straightforward arc of personal growth. “It can be seen as sad, but it could also be seen as happy,” he adds. “It is a choice we make.”

Part of what makes Five First Dates effective is the honesty of its writing. Each segment contains silences and interruptions that feel lived-in. Rinoshun reveals that it was not achieved through strict scripting, but through a flexible, and collaborative process. “I can understand Malayalam, but I cannot write it,” Rinoshun explains. “The script was in English. I told the actors to translate it as they went along and added conversations here and there.” Much of Noila’s performance, he says, was self-directed. “Her gradual process was something she brought to the screen herself.”  The five episodes are not all shot in the same style either. The second date, set entirely in a car, unfolds in a continuous take, a deliberate choice. “You can either do it in one single take or add cuts with different angles. But all those cuts would feel unmotivated,” he says, citing Don Palathara’s Santhoshathinte Onnam Rahasyam (Joyful Mystery) as an influence. The third date episode features Rinoshun playing a filmmaker. “That part is mostly drawn from my life,” he admits. 

A quiet moment in the final date near a tree, where Shalini hears the roots drinking water, is based on a real experience he had with friends in Kolar. Shalini’s queerness is hinted at but never made into a plot point. There is no grand moment of coming out or confrontation. “I did not have a conscious plan for how she should grow through the dates, but rather how she picks up different things from each one,” he says. “From the first date she picks up the smoking habit, and from the filmmaker she learns more about movies.” Her final connection with a woman feels less like a twist and more like a natural evolution. “I would not necessarily call it growth because it is always a choice,” Rinoshun notes.

While many indie filmmakers begin by assisting others or attending film school, Rinoshun’s path was different. “YouTube was my film school,” he says. He had tried assisting, but it never quite worked out. Instead, he began making films on his own terms, starting with an unreleased English-language feature, followed by a lockdown film he shot mostly inside the confines of his apartment, and then a Tamil mystery-horror called Irandha Kaalam, which is awaiting release. Five First Dates, in that sense, is a quiet arrival, shaped by experience and marking the beginning of a voice attuned to silences, shifts, and small truths.