Shyamaprasad is known for his emotionally engaging movies that adeptly narrate the contours of mind. The director is all set to take a detour from his genre this time in his latest movie, ‘Ivide’ which has been tagged as a ‘crime drama’. The big budget flick, which will go on floors soon at Atlanta in United States, will have Prithviraj, Nivin Pauly and Bhavana in major roles.
The fast-paced visual and investigative drama is a novel experience, says the director. ‘Ivide’ deals with the rising serial killing of techies in States. Varun (Prithviraj) who is assigned to investigate the case gets caught in the vortex of events. Shyamaprasad says, “Though crime is the theme of the movie, it is not a superficial thriller. The investigation has an emotional quality which takes place mostly internally. With crime at the heart of the movie, the film unravels other emotions like love, ambition, disappointment.”
The director who has never shied away from introducing novel ideas through his movies adopted a new method while presenting ‘Ivide’ before the press. The three main actors enacted three scenes from the movie as part of the acting workshop which will go on till the shooting begins from November 10.
Shyamaprasad says rehearsal is the key feature of ‘Ivide’. He says, “Every movie starts from the scratch. Crafting it is a long process. Rehearsal makes it more easy and a memorable beginning.” The script of the movie is by Ajayan Venugopalan, the scenarist of ‘English’.
Prithviraj plays Varun Blake, an Atlanta-based celebrity cop. Varun Blake is born and brought up there. Bhavana plays his wife Roshni and the couple have a daughter Trisha. Nivin Pauly plays another major character Krish, the head of an IT company. Apart from the lead actors Aju Varghese and Y J Mahendra, other important roles are performed by American actors.
Prithviraj who had joined hands with the director in the award-winning movie ‘Akale’ says doing Shyamaprasad movie is a different experience. The actor says, “It was in ‘Akale’, I learned the significance of space in a frame.” Prithvi says apart from the rehearsal, the real preparation is between himself and the script.
“The rehearsal is a daunting task for me though it helps me in relating with the characters and the actors who don the role. For me the character grows into skin after reading the script. I am a person who reads the script many times, so it is between me and the paper, the real preparation takes place.”
Nivin who has done a noticeable role in the director’s ‘English’, says he is excited to do another movie with him. “While doing ‘English’, Shyam sir used to repeatedly tell me, ‘be the character.’ It requires deep imagination to etch Shyamaprasad characters.”
The titles of many Shyamaprasad movies have stark similarity. Some of the earlier outings were titled ‘Akale’, ‘Arike’. Now as the new project is titled ‘Ivide’, the director says, “It is a deliberate attempt to use some good Malayalam words. The movie is about some people caught in a particular space sharing their story. Since the movie is told from their perspective, it is named ‘Ivide’.”
The entire crew of the movie are US-based. Even the camera, DOP, costume, makeup are all handled by US-based professional technicians. The director who says that the large Malayali diaspora living around the world inspired him to take a movie with an international crew. He says, “For the brilliant crew, their only knowledge of Indian cinema was Bollywood. But they were enthusiastic to associate with the project.”
The director of photography is Eric Dickinson, and sound is handled by Reed Lowell. Costumes are by Elena Zelman, make up by Valeria De Felice. The US actors include Michael H Cole, Ric Reitz, Scot Poythress, Michael Beasly, Mathew Krueger, Phil Morales, Susan Williams, Natalie Yenehan, Chrissy Chambers and Kelly Frances Hager.
The preparations for the movie was going on for the past one-and-a-half years, says the director. Earlier it was decided that the 45 day shoot of the movie will take place at New Jersey. But because of heavy winter that will hit the place soon, Atlanta will be the new locale.
The movie has three songs. The details of the music section including the composer and singers are yet to be decided.
‘Ivide’ is produced by Dr S Sajikumar under the banner of Dharmik Films.