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There is no depth in the interactions and conversations – worse, many lines end abruptly, and the next line swoops in too soon. Later, we get another such scenario – X meets Z (Heebah Patel) at the home of the man who will instruct him in the ways of Y’s religion, Z serves him tea, and splat, she’s in love. All we get, by way of explanation, is the old love-at-first-sight scenario – they meet on a train, he helps her, he sings a song, it rains, and splat, they are in love. I half-liked the couple of scenes where X and Y are forced to make use of their newfound religious learning – but we never feel the grand passion between X and Y that’s making them do the things they do. For a romance, there are few scenes of love.

But these films, which take on something new and interesting and then botch it all up, stick in the craw, like a bad taste you can’t wash off. We shrug off routinely bad films because there’s nothing in them that’s good. Thirumanam Enum Nikkah is infuriatingly bad. If you just want to make a feel-good film, why wade into such deep waters? What does X feel about his own religion? Does it matter to him at all that he will leave it behind if he converts? Is there guilt, owing to what his family will undergo after his conversion? There are no answers – and it appears, after a while, that the whole religion angle is just flavouring to spice up a bland meal. But the director is clueless about how to tie up these threads. And the attendant question: What if the jacket was really made of Rexine? Here – and this is the film’s USP – there is an attempt to immerse oneself in the other’s religion, something that’s part empathetic act, and part subversive thrill, like being a PETA member and slipping on a leather jacket. And this isn’t just another “religion angle,” with the lovers belonging to different religions but not really caring about it (though their parents certainly do) because their real religion is love. On the surface, this is just another story where man and woman (Y, played by Nazriya Nazim) fall in love and have to clear a number of obstacles before they breast the tape that says “happily ever after.” But because religion plays such a big part in the proceedings, this isn’t just another story. This is a film where people aren’t who they say they are, and their names play a big part in these charades.

Jai’s character, in Anees’s Thirumanam Enum Nikkah, chooses the tougher option – and I’d rather not tell you the name of this character.

It’s more difficult to stay alive and persevere, even if it means a drastic realignment of your life. How far will you go when you’re in love and the going gets tough? Throwing yourself off a cliff is easy – you’re dead.