Actor Anu Prabhakar Mukherjee’s next is Saaravajra -- a woman-oriented subject in which she plays the protagonist. The actor, who had taken a break to focus on her family, is now making a comeback with Aarna Saadya’s directorial. The latter was earlier known as Shwetha Shetty and made her directorial debut with a children’s film, 1098.
Saaravajra is based on the novel, Vajragalu, written by Sara Aboobacker, who had written it in the mid-1980s. The film is being made under the Sambramma Dream House banner and is produced by Devendra Reddy.
Anu Prabhakar completed the shooting in December 2019. Talking about her experience of playing Nafisa, who is shown aged 16 to 60 years in the film, she says, “Sara Aboobacker belongs to the Beary Muslim community, who hail from the Mangaluru-Kasargod stretch. All her books are more or less based on the characters she has seen in real life or heard about from relatives and friends belonging to the community. Saaravajra traces the life of Nafisa, and how she ends up getting entangled in talaq, and how her life turns topsy turvy for no fault of hers.” Anu feels that the subject presented a perfect comeback film for her.
“When my daughter turned one-year-old, I wanted to get back to acting, which has always been my passion, and I thought this was a meaningful subject.
The one line narrated by Aarna Saadya was very impressive, and it further solidified in my mind when I read the book,” the actor adds. According to Anu, the director has not deviated from the novel and has done a fantastic job.
“When you portray a novel that scans a person’s life on the silver screen, it needs to be precise. It was challenging for the team to handle a story that revolves around a sensitive subject,” she says, adding, “As an actor, I had to follow the shadow of Nafisa, who is soft-spoken, abused and is a person, whose liking is never taken into consideration.
Though her story is related to the Beary community, the characters and the film, in general, will resonate with every man and woman. The challenging part about playing this character was switching to different moods and age.” The entire film was shot in Ullal. It has music by V Manohar and cinematography by Paramesh and editor, Akshay P Rao The film is now in the post-production stages, and the director hopes to release Saarvajra in June, around Sara Aboobacker’s 84th birthday.