The grand teaser launch of Tovino Thomas’ upcoming 3D fantasy adventure Ajayante Randam Moshanam (ARM) was held with much fanfare. Directed by debutant Jithin Laal, the epic has Tovino essaying three characters—Ajayan, Maniyan, and Kunjikelu.
The minute-long teaser begins with a little girl requesting her grandmother to recount the legend of Maniyan, which the latter refuses to do. The rest of the footage presents Maniyan as someone with a superheroic aura, with the accompanying spectacle and chaos caused by his appearance being testaments. It concludes with the grandmother telling her grandchild that Maniyan’s stories are unfit for telling at night.
Following the online launch of the teaser, the makers announced that it would accompany screenings of Fast X and Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol-3. Post the teaser launch, we spoke to director Jithin Laal to see what they intended with the first teaser and whether more teasers/trailers are in the offing. “The teaser was just that—a proper tease of what to expect. Aside from showing everyone a glimpse of Maniyan, we wanted to give audiences a sense of the bigger canvas and convey the vibe of an Amar Chitra Katha story. As for the glimpses of the other two characters of Tovino, we are reserving that for later.”
As of now, the ARM team hasn’t finalised any plans for releasing too many promos. They most likely would release a final trailer and a song before the film hits theatres by the year’s end. Jomon T John captured the film’s stellar visuals, and his involvement brings much appeal considering the acclaim he got for his previous films, most notably Ennu Ninte Moideen and Charlie.
Jithin adds that they wanted the film to have a particular colour palette, which took a lot of planning in the pre-production stage with pre-visualisation. Were they able to execute it well in the final outcome? “Actually, we managed to do far beyond what we originally visualised,” says Jithin.
Aside from Tovino, ARM features Krithi Shetty, Aishwariya Rajesh, Surabhi Lakshmi, Basil Joseph, Rohini, Harish Uthaman, Nisthar Sait, Jagadish, Pramod Shetty, Aju Varghese, and Sudheesh.
Scripted by Sujith Nambiar and edited by Shameer Muhammed, the film is produced by Dr Zachariah Thomas and Listin Stephen under UGM Productions and Magic Frames, respectively. Dhibu Ninan Thomas composed the music.
ARM will be released in Malayalam, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada. Asked about the response to the teaser, Jithin says it has been “very encouraging.” Jithin is elated by the numerous reaction videos—from Indian and Western film buffs— that popped up. “Seeing them made me gauge the level of reach the teaser got. Since we showed the teaser in 3D, the response in the theatre during the event was humungous; watching it in a full house was a surreal experience,” signs off Jithin.