Sohanlal seems to be perpetually caught in nostalgia. On Tuesday, when a trilogy of his screenplays based on her stories was released on the occasion of the 81st birth anniversary of writer Madhavikutty, he went back to the time when he shot the film at the writer’s ancestral home.
“We were shooting Neermathalathinte Pookkal and we were working on the scene of her return to the ancestral home, after several years in Kolkata.
According to the script, when she was walking to the gates, it was raining. We had brought rain guns to shoot the scene, but since the pathway was wider than expected, we did not have enough guns to fill the rain across the entire space.
But unexpectedly, it rained there at that time and we were able to shoot without any glitches. We had many such surreal experiences during that shoot,” says Sohan.
Nostalgia is the common thread that runs through his film trilogy too.
Of these, Neermathalathinte Pookkal is based on the writings of Madhavikutty while a segment of the anthology movie Kadhaveedu , titled Neypayasam , is based on the short story of the same name by the late writer.
The other two are based on stories by M.T. Vasudevan Nair and Basheer.
The second film in the series became a full length feature film with Thilakan in the lead, called Orkuka Vallapozhum , based on a story by P. Bhaskaran.
Single volume
A compilation of the screenplays of the three films directed by Sohanlal was re-released as a single volume. Health Minister released the compilation by handing over a copy to actor Madhupal on the occasion.
During the event organised by Alliance Francaise in association with the Kerala Bhasha Institute, a 30-minute-long film adaptation of Neermathalathinte Pookkal , starring Praveena as the young writer, was also screened.
