When ‘Chanakayan’ (1989) had the hero using television as a tool to avenge the villain, a political heavyweight, in a battle akin to that of David and Goliath, at least some had questioned its practicality in a state like Kerala. That time we were familiar only with Doordarshan, the national broadcaster.
A quarter century after TK Rajeev Kumar’s dream debut with Kamal Hassan, Kerala also witnessed the mushrooming of television channels which made or marred many politicians who were once omnipotent.
Now Rajeev is back with ‘Thalsamayam Oru Penkutty’ (Life of a Girl, Live!), a fresh theme which mixes television and real life. The film unveils the life of Manjula Ayyappan (Nithya Menon), a village belle from rural Thiruvananthapuram in front of Television cameras.
Real TV, headed by Ravi Kumar (Siddique), is launching its Malayalam edition with a novel reality show. It is not music, dance or comedy but on how a girl faces real life situations. Manjula is the first girl among the dozen who is selected for the 12-hour live show produced by Sareena (Shwetha Menon) which offers a flat worth Rs 1 crore as the prize.
“On many an occasion, some fresh and special subjects of ambitious nature would end up as mundane projects because of the peculiar set up of the industry. The pressures of the industry would force us to compromise in narrative and techniques. I had good and daring producers for films like ‘Chanakyan’ that had unconventional story, ‘Pavithram’ which showed Mohanlal not as a superstar, but as an actor, and ‘Kannezhuthi Pottum Thottu’ which had a female protagonist. Luckily for ‘Thalsamayam Oru Penkutty’ too I have good support from that part,” says Rajeev Kumar who is busy giving final touches to his pet project.
“The life of an ordinary person can be taken as the theme for a reality show in near future and we are foreseeing that. The TV camera will highlight some routine incidents in front of us which would normally be ignored by our eyes,” he adds.
The veteran director with fourteen films to his credit (four in Hindi) pins much hopes on the script (Sunny Joseph and Manuel George) and editing (B Ajith Kumar).
“The script is penned by freshers and they don’t have any inhibition to come out of the beaten track. Since the film clubs a television show and a film, the editor has to be a film editor and a video editor at the same time. Vinod Illampilly has used Sony F3 camera for this unique narrative”, he says.
Unni Mukundan, Babu Raj and Maniyan Pilla Raju also play prominent roles in the film which has six tracks set by Sharreth to the lyrics by Beeyar Prasad and Murgan Kattakkada. The film made with a budget close to Rs 2 crore, is expected to hit theatres on March 2.
