“This is the first time I am coming up with an original screenplay. My previous works have all been inspired or adapted from some film or the other. This is an entirely original story,” says Indraganti Mohan Krishna while wrapping up his latest film Anthaka Mundhu Aa Taruvatha and adds that he will not be thinking of a love story for a long time after this project as he had said what he wanted to in this story.
This is not one of the regular love stories one sees on screen. It involves a lot of dialogue, discussion, analysis and can probably be called a romantic drama.
The director, to bring about a certain amount of novelty, had taken newcomers. He obviously didn’t want them to carry any baggage or an immediate image. He chose Eesha and Sumant Ashwin and put them in an intensive 3-4 month workshop. But what is so special about the content? “It is a kind of autobiographical, based on what happened to me or someone I know or what I perceived would have happened if I had said something or had taken some decision. This is genuine romance where people just don’t go to bed or dance around trees. They talk about their life and building relationships. Love isn’t magical and it is not the adjustments and compromises people talk about, he adds.”
Mohan Krishna specifies that his film is targeted at 20 something groups and addresses their fears and doubts. There is this tendency where they wish they knew what the problems were going to be so that they can fix them. He says he’s been seeing and hearing of films these days in which girls are shown as turning materialistic, how they make boys spend on them and wants to show it isn’t entirely true. He quips, “I want to show not all of them are all like that. There is an assumption that all girls are after money; they might not want to jump into a relationship easily due to some insecurity. Women are working and making choices. There is a lot of discussion on intimacy. I didn’t want elders to come in the climax and get preachy; I wanted these people to deal with it in a mature manner.”
The director thinks that no institution guarantees security to people; they are just frameworks. The title is derived this way — the first part of the film deals with the initial stages of romance where everything is rosy i.e ‘Anthaka Mundhu’ and ‘Aa Tharuvatha’ is about how they work on building love and how that all you have hidden, that includes your flaws, come out . He says, “I want to go beyond relationships; the movie resolves a lot of issues as we go through but basically love can’t be resolved in a narrative. You cannot skim over them expecting it to be solved. Parents play an important role. Love is like an adventure sport. You don’t know when you will fall and get up but in spite of knowing its pitfalls we can never stop falling in love.”
How did he think of Madhubala for the role? The director says there is a curious resemblance between Madhu and Eesha. Madhu has vulnerability. She told him very clearly that she wanted to work with a National Award winner and willingly gave her dates, and also a brilliant performance.
There is an assumption that women might not want to jump into a relationship. Women are working and making choices
