Neelathamara
If someone who wants to realize a dream, prays before the Thevar's temple making an offering, then the blue lotus in the temple pond will blossom, giving a sign that the dream will materialize. That was the belief of Kuttimalu and hundreds of the villagers who regularly offered money before the Thevar to see the blooming of the blue lotus. Whenever they were in confusions, they came down to Thevar's temple to find a solution based on this Blue Lotus.
Surrounding these interesting myths and tales about true love and passion is the first remake of a Malayalam movie in Malayalam `Neelathamara', which is getting ready in the labs to grace the theatres in a month's time. M T Vasudevan Nair is once again restructuring the scripts of the hits of the eighties `Neelathamara' which featured Ravikumar, Ambika and Sathar, to suit to the changing times. MT is optimistic about the response of the people to a remake. "With advanced technology and new artists, the film will have its own merits," he feels. This time the movie will be directed by the best narrator of our times, Lal Jose in his impeccable style. Featuring a bunch of new comers in the key roles, the movie will have four strong female protagonists in the lead.
While debutante Archana will come up as Kunjimalu, the hapless girl around whom the tale is woven, Rima Kallingal plays the role of Sharath Kochammini and Samvrutha Sunil, that of the new bride who comes into the house. Sreedevi is Maalu amma Kailash will appear as Haridas, the protagonist of the movie while. Suresh Nair, who is Ambika's brother, plays the villain, the role that Sathar played in the original.
The story of the original movie revolved round happenings in a matter of six months. But for the remake, the film begins in 2009, turns to the happenings of 1979 before coming back to the present for an epilogue.
Director Lal Jose who is for the first time teaming up with M.T. is taking every measures to convert the movie into a master piece `I was fascinated by the script. It's a movie where love and lust have been addressed without prejudices, which obviously means that it came before the times when pseudo-morality became part of Malayalam cinema' observes Lal Jose. The movie was shot at various locations at Pattambi, Malamakkavu, Chamravattom, Kuttipuram and Thavanur.
Produced by Menaka Suresh under the banner of Revathi Kalamandir, the remake has two songs and two keertanas. Vidyasagar has tuned the songs penned by Vayalar Sarath Chandra Varma. Vijay Ulakanath has done the cinematography while Renajan Abraham is in charge of editing. The others in the various technical departments include Art by Gokul Das, Costumes by Kukku Parameswaran and makeup by Sreejith Guruvayoor. Playhouse will release the movie by the end of this November.