Mahdi Ahmed

I have already posted a piece about Mariyam Azza’s performance, but after watching the latter half of Kan’bulo with music fully laid in, I couldn’t stay without posting again. While I could easily speak volumes about what director Hussain Munavvaru and composer Ahmed Imthiyaz (Inthi) have achieved in terms of emotional tonality, I find myself compelled to pause and reflect on something else — Azza’s performance in the titular role.

As a screenwriter, you often imagine the rhythms of a scene, the dialogue beats, the unspoken pauses. You hope that when it finally reaches the actor, they will not just recite what’s written, but breathe truth into it. What Azza has accomplished here is beyond that hope — it’s craft turned into pure emotional experience.

Kan’bulo is not a role built on grand speeches. It’s a role constructed on emotional honesty. Azza moves through one devastating moment after another, not as someone acting grief, fear, or resilience, but as someone inhabiting it. Her range and depth are astonishing — she can shift from innocence to devastation to quiet resilience in the span of a breath.

What impressed me most, however, was what she accomplished in silence. A glance downward, a stillness of breath, the weight of unspoken words — these were not voids, they were meaningful silences that spoke louder than any dialogue I could have written. This is where great actors separate themselves: in the negative space, in what they choose not to say, they reveal entire universes.

Azza’s performance is one of those rare instances where the actor’s commitment elevates the screenplay. Watching her, I realized that much of the emotional truth of Kan’bulo was not in the lines I had written but in the way she decided to live between them.

This is not just a performance. It’s a revelation of what cinema can do when an actor completely trusts the material, the director, and, most importantly, her own instincts. Mariyam Azza has carried Kan’bulo on her shoulders, and she has done so with brilliance, courage, and grace.

Kan’bulo is set to release on 31 August 2025.