After a long wait, director Jayaraj’s 2006 film Adbutham has finally found a home at the recently launched OTT platform, Roots. The experimental feature, which has a runtime of 90 mins, is the fourth in the director’s ‘navarasa’ series after Shantham, Karunam, and Bhibatsam. Starring Suresh Gopi, Mamta Mohandas and KPAC Lalitha, among others, the film remained unreleased for a long time as Jayaraj couldn’t find any takers even though it briefly travelled the festival circuit.
The making of Adbutham deserves special mention as the whole process took two hours and fourteen minutes, a feat that fetched the film a place in the Limca Book of Records. Jayaraj had initially considered shooting it for 10 hours but finished it in the abovementioned timespan after a week-long rehearsal process with the actors and careful mapping of the camera movements and actors’ placement.
Inspired by the first case of euthanasia in Oregon, Adbutham revolves around Chandrashekara Warrier, a Malayali man living in the U.S, who, after a debilitating accident, approaches the court for physician-assisted suicide and is granted approval for the same. Adbutham follows the final hours in the life of Warrier.
Speaking about the film, Jayaraj said that the film was a milestone in his career. “Though I have done other experimental films too, I found the experience of shooting Adbutham to be the most thrilling. The fact that we were able to pull it off with one camera, in two hours and fourteen minutes, was so gratifying.”Aside from Adbutham, Jayaraj’s latest film, Backpackers, starring Kalidas Jayaram, was also released recently on Roots.