Paradesi
'Pardesy' marks the reopening of Mohanlal in so called films of serious genres, after a long time. Here, he is associating with P.T.Kunju Mohammed who had made films of values which fetched awards in many festivals earlier. The film tells the story of hundreds of people who were left alien in their own land, due to lack of documents to prove themselves, and their identity. Mohanlal's character in the film as eighty-year old character Valiyakathu Moosa, son of a freedom fighter, is a representative of such people. To the Indian government he is a Pakistani, and to the Pakistani government he is an Indian.
Valiyakathu Moosa is one of hundreds of Malayalees who left to work in Karachi during the days of the British Raj, who after independence returned to India in the 1960s and settled in Malappuram. They do not have a passport or even an address in the land they were born in, due to their plight in Pakistan during the time of separation and independence. Many look upon them as Pakistani spies, and many a times had to face law to prove their identity. Moosa has a wife and children here who are Indian citizens, but Moosa himself is not considered a citizen of the country, due to some technical objections from the bureaucracy.
This third film written and directed by P.T. Kunju Mohammed, will have Mohanlal playing a totally different and very challenging role in many getups as Valiyakathu Moosa. Lakshmi Gopalswamy plays the role of wife of Moosa. Kavya Madhavan comes up in the role of a journalist investigating into life and livelihood of this sidelined section of society. The story unfolds through her attempts to find a way out of the problems that envisaged people like Moosa. The film also moves through many stages forth and back as flashbacks to present the story of Moosa. This is reflected in the costumes, settings and even in the songs of the film.
P.T. Kunju Mohammed known for his quality films like Magrib, is working out the lives of some of his surroundings after a detailed study on the plight of these citizens of nowhere, The film which has music by Ramesh Narayan and Shahsaad Aman will have three songs sung by M G Sreekumar, Vineeth Srinivasan, Chitra and Sujatha. The director says, ''This time I am trying to workout a film with ingredients which the masses will enjoy ''. Don Max has been called in to edit out the movie into crisper proportions. The Shooting of the film will be completed with a few days more, in the next schedule and will arrive as a Ramzan release.