Journey to the past
VIJAY GEORGE
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‘Aagathan’ is the story of a youngster’s journey through haunting memories of his childhood in Kashmir.
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on a quest: Dileep stars as Gautham Menon, an IT professional in the film.
At one corner of a small park inside Panampilly Nagar in Kochi, the shoot of director Kamal’s ‘Aagathan’ is under way. The scene being canned has Dileep handing out ice-cream cones to a few children. The director goes for the t
ake after the rehearsal and soon, the shot gets the thumbs-up from Kamal.
Serious theme
“It is a rather serious theme, quite different from the Gen Next kind of stories that I have been associated with of late or even from the humorous ones that Dileep is sometimes identified with,” says Kamal, during a break. ‘Aagathan’ is the second time that Kamal and Dileep are teaming up after working together in ‘Pachakkuthira.’ The film has been shot extensively in places such as Ootty, Kambam, Bangalore and Pollachi.
“My character is an IT professional named Gautham Menon,” says Dileep. “He spent his childhood in Kashmir as his father was employed in a bank there. However, all of Gautam’s family perish in a terrorist attack and years later when he comes to a farmhouse in Ootty and meets General Hareendra Varma (Sathyaraj), certain memories of life in Kashmir surface; memories that have haunted him all these years.”
Charmy, who was earlier seen in Vinayan’s ‘Kattuchembakam’ some years back and who went on to act in Tamil and Telugu, is the heroine. Tamil actor Sathyaraj comes to Malayalam for the first time and yesteryear heroine Zareena Wahab of ‘Madanolsavam’ and ‘Chamaram’ fame plays his wife in the film. Lal plays Major George, Varma’s colleague in the army.
The cast includes Lal, Biju Menon, Innocent, Shilpa Bala and Reena Bashir.
“Charmy plays Shreya, Hareendra Varma’s daughter, a management student in Bangalore. She meets Gautham during a journey and together they go to the farmhouse where her parents live. As Gautham and Varma talk, some incidents that happened in Kashmir are brought up. Varma, in fact, was working in Srinagar during the attack and the twist in the storyline happens from then on.
“There is an element of suspense in the story as well,” says Kamal as the film’s cinematographer, Ajay Vincent, adds: “For ‘Aagathan’ I have used a soft and pleasant style for the visuals.”
‘Aagathan’ is being produced by Via Media Entertainment and will hit the theatres in December. Lyrics by Kaithapram have been composed by Ouseppachan. Still photographer is Jayaprakash Payyannur.
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