After a long hiatus, environmentalist and filmmaker Suresh Heblikar has completed a film on mental illness, Mana Manthana, certified and ready for release.
The film has been produced by well-known psychiatrist and founder of Manasa Nursing Home, Shivamogga, Dr Ashok Pai.
The director's environmental concerns have also found expression through the film, he says. "I have tried to show how two people can live a love-filled life, without being materialistic."
Pai being producer meant the 'emotionally stirring' film focussed on mental illnesses, a subject the psychiatrist is passionate about. "He says mental illness is properly not looked into or investigated in a country like India. There's a lot of misunderstanding surrounding it. The film will address on such issues and psychoanalysis," he says.
It also explores subjects like tension and urban stress, which Heblikar is excited about. "Contemporary India fascinates me," says the maker of noteworthy films like Usha Kirana and Kadina Benki.
His last commercial outing, Agatha, a thriller drama came out as far back as 1995. But the long gap hasn't discouraged him from trying his hand in new departments of filmmaking. "Earlier, somebody else used to write the dialogues and I used to join in for the screenplay, and direct the film," he says. "This time, I could visualise the story, so I worked on the screenplay, dialogues and also the lyrics for two songs. Praveen Rao is the music director."
Heblikar presents newcomers Kiran Rajput and Arpita in the lead. "I play a physicist, and my son Akshay Heblikar plays a lecturer, a cameo role. Ramesh Bhat essays the hero's father brilliantly. K Sridhar and another newbie, Suman, are also part of Mana Manthana," he says.