Sumathy Ram, director of "Viswathulasi", came into films by sheer accident.

For 15 years, this M.Phil in English literature had been living a contended housewife's life in Houston, US, hardly watching movies.

Even two years ago, when she decided to write a set of poems and wanted to set it to music, an entry into the film world was the last thing she wanted to do. She had sent the songs to legendary music composer M.S. Viswanathan who agreed to set the score for them as he was impressed by their strong content.

But as soon as she was back in the US with the songs, she had a strong urge to write a script.

"I could visualise everything, every sound, every ray of light, how my characters looked," Sumathy Ram recalls.

She sent the script to Nandita Das and the actress readily agreed to be Sumathy's lead female character named Thulasi.

"I could only see Nandita Das as my Thulasi. I didn't know her at all. It is only because of the strength of my script that she accepted the offer."

Sumathy had the freedom to decide on every aspect of the Tamil film as her husband Ramki had agreed to finance the venture. So she set about deciding on the cast herself and had a lot of help from Nandita Das in this. The story is about two lovers, Viswam and Thulasi, who were torn apart in their youth to meet in the autumn of their lives.

Sumathy wanted a good-looking man who would look like the son of a Malayali brahmin (Namboothiri) woman and a member of the Tamil landed gentry. She could only think of Mammootty as Viswam. She contacted Mammootty and gave him the script. A very fussy man about his roles, Mammootty was also impressed and he agreed.

To act as Siva, the third important character, the director wanted Prakash Raj. But he could not give dates. So she chose Manoj K. Jayan, who acts mainly as a villain in Tamil films, though he is a character actor in Malayalam. "I had not seen any film of his, only his pictures in magazines. But I knew he would be my Siva."

Sukumari, who is celebrating her golden jubilee year in films, is cast in the role of Viswam's Namboothiri mother, known as antharjanam. The others on the cast include Kalabhavan Mani, Delhi Ganesh and Kalairani. Veena exponent Rajesh Vaidya also appears in the film.

Most of the film was shot in a 200-year-old traditional house of Namboothiri landlords in Kerala at Ottappalam. The rest of the shooting was done at Kollangode in Kerala and Pollachi and Tranquebar in Tamil Nadu.

Prabhakar, who did Kamal Haasan's "Virumaandi", is the art director and B. Kannan the cinematographer.

Sumathy finished the shooting in just 60 days.

Sumathy has also been able to have MSV and music maestro Ilayaraja work together for "Viswathulasi". They have come together for the first time in several years. S.P. Balasubramaniam, Unnikrishnan, Srinivas, Kaarthik, Tipu, Vani Jayaram, Sujatha and Poornima have lent their voices to the songs.

"Viswathulasi" is not a typical commercial film, assures Sumathy.

"I have made a sensitive film without the usual formulas. I am happy to say I did not have to make any compromises as my husband was the producer."

The film will be released simultaneously in Tamil Nadu and Kerala Oct 15.