Thrillers have been his forte. A K Sajan’s pen has churned out some of the finest slasher flicks in Malayalm and from the director of ‘Stop Violence’ and ‘Lanka’ now comes ‘Asuravithu’. But script writer-turned-director says his latest is no out-and out action thriller. “Though action is one of the main ingredients, ‘Asuravithu’ is more of a family drama, revolving around a mother and son. The mother has her hopes pinned upon the son, but all her dreams fall apart when he turns an outlaw,” says the director.
The film has Asif Ali in an image changing avatar playing the title role. “The film will mark Asif’s arrival as an action hero. The name of Asif’s character is Don Bosco, a pious young boy studying in a seminary for priesthood. His mother wants him to be nothing less than a saint. She wants her son to be religious and respectable and that’s the one reason she sends her only son to a seminary,” he says. But destiny drops him in the world of violence, much to the shock of his mother. From Don Bosco he becomes an underworld don and she is left traumatised.
At the same time, the film is no run-of-the-mill don tale. “The film is different from cliched don stories because of its family angle. Normally action films give little space to sentiments, but the first half of ‘Asuravithu’ is a full-blown family drama,” he says. Samvurtha Sunil is the lead lady of the film. A K Sajan says the title ‘Asuravithu’ bears no vicious affiliations. ‘Asuravithu’ is generally a term mothers used to call their sons with affection in the feudal past. So the title or the the hero is not negative.
He says though the film is a thematic continuation of ‘Stop Violence’, his debut directorial venture, the film is no sequel in the true sense. ‘Auravithu’ arrives after a long gap after ‘Lanka’, his second film starring Suresh Gopi and Mamta mohandas. A K Sajan says he is not a regular filmmaker and directs only when he has something unique and solid at hand. “I am basically a scenarist and as of now my hands are full. May be I will take five to six years to make my next movie,” he says. He agrees that the thematic boldness of his last film didn’t go well with the audience here. “The film was not in tune with our hypocritical moral system. It’s all the more difficult when you have popular stars in the cast,” he says.
Another interesting tidbit is that the film has Lena playing the role of Asif’s mother. “Here we are not used to seeing young actresses playing mothers. What made it possible was Lena’s confidence in her character. She had no problems sporting grey and playing the hero’s mother. Hats off to her courage I must say,” says the director. ‘Asuravithu’ is expected to hit theatres this month.