How Old Are You

Nirupama Rajeev, Manju Warrier, a 36-year-old UD clerk in the Revenue Department, lives a life that feels orderly but lacks a spark. Her husband, Rajeev Narayanan, who works at Akashavani, dreams of moving to Ireland, yet Nirupama discovers that many Irish employers overlook her applications. Her days are ordinary, her routine predictable, and she yearns for a jolt that could wake up the quieter corners of her world.

One day, an invitation lands in her hands: the President of India requests a conversation after a question posed by her daughter at school. The encounter, however, goes awry when Nirupama faints in front of the President Siddhartha Basu, turning the moment into a public fiasco. The fallout quickly spills onto social media, and Nirupama finds herself at the center of ridicule, her family under a cloud of doubt and judgment. The sting of online criticism complicates her balance at home, where whispers about her capabilities gnaw at her confidence. To complicate matters, a policy of priorities clashes with her personal duties when she later sees her husband and daughter preparing to leave for Ireland.

In the midst of this, a chance encounter with Susan David, Kaniha, a successful former classmate, rekindles memories of the woman Nirupama once believed she could be. Susan’s confidence and drive become a mirror—an invitation to reexamine her own potential. When Nirupama explains the President encounter to social media and public opinion, she begins to reclaim her voice, even as she wrestles with the sense that she has failed to meet her daughter’s expectations and that her husband’s suspicions about her priorities threaten the delicate balance of their family life. The image she holds of herself starts to shift, aided in part by her habit of tending a pesticide-free vegetable garden on the roof, a simple act that keeps her connected to a grounded, practical sense of self.

A turning point arrives when Nirupama meets an elderly woman on a daily bus ride. They never learn each other’s names, yet the old woman’s illness draws Nirupama to bring her own harvest—vegetables grown with care—to the neighbor’s home. The gesture is noticed by the woman’s employer, a well-off businessman who is impressed by the freshness and quality. He asks Nirupama to supply vegetables for his daughter’s wedding in four months, an assignment that forces her to mobilize her community. She rallies her neighbors to cultivate rooftops across the neighborhood, converting a cluster of homes into a thriving cooperative garden. This grassroots movement becomes a beacon of possibility, showing that collective effort can yield beauty and opportunity in the most ordinary of spaces.

Meanwhile, Nirupama’s daughter calls from Ireland, challenging her to drop everything and join. Nirupama hesitates; she has promises to keep, including fulfilling the wedding order that has already begun to ripple through the block. Her husband’s frustration deepens, casting doubts about whether she can hold her family’s needs together with her own evolving ambitions. Yet she learns to balance desire with responsibility, accepting that some dreams require patient cultivation rather than quick surrender.

The momentum builds when Susan David encourages Nirupama to present at a seminar attended by influential officials, including a State Minister and a Collector. The topic—biofarming and the prioritization of organic rooftop gardens within housing projects—strikes a chord with policymakers who begin to see Nirupama as a visionary capable of guiding a broader change in Kerala. Her ideas win traction, and she rises from a local organizer to a national advocate for sustainable farming, with officials naming her as a leading force behind a far-reaching initiative.

As the plan gains official support, Nirupama is invited to discuss the broader vision with the President once again. This time, the meeting feels different, charged with momentum and possibility. The conversation centers on expanding Nirupama’s biofarming concept nationwide, translating her rooftop experiments into a scalable, government-backed program. The second encounter confirms what her journey has hinted at—that a woman’s dream can evolve from personal ache to public impact.

In the end, Nirupama faces the pivotal question her daughter once asked, now reframed in a national context. The moment crystallizes in a memorable line that her daughter once posed to the President: > Who decides the expiry date of a woman’s dreams? The answer, echoed by Nirupama’s own transformation, is that dreams are not capped by age or circumstance; they are nurtured, tested, and expanded through courage, community, and steady commitment.

Throughout, the film blends intimate family dynamics with a broader social experiment—showing how one woman’s perseverance can ripple outward, turning a quiet rooftop garden into a movement that reshapes the landscape of opportunity. The portrait remains clear and hopeful: with support, ingenuity, and a willingness to redefine success, Nirupama moves from a life of quiet discontent to a steady, sprightly presence who helps others grow alongside her. Her journey affirms that change, while gradual, can be profound, and that the power to rewrite a life’s trajectory often starts with a single, grounded seed.

Last Updated: October 09, 2025 at 16:07