Ganesh Raj is one happy camper. The young director’s getting a “dream debut” in Mollywood with Aanandam. A happy-go-lucky road movie, starring a bunch of newbie 18 and 19-year olds, the film finally reaches theatres today, after its breezy trailer, catchy songs and promo videos sent anticipation into overdrive. Actor-singer-filmmaker Vineeth Sreenivasan makes his debut as a producer with the film.
Ganesh, an engineering graduate, gained a foothold in the industry as an assistant director on Vineeth’s films, beginning with Thattathin Marayathu. He has also worked with Anjali Menon on Bangalore Days . “Growing up, I was never a film or even television buff. In college I made a short film - The Rumour - and not a very good one at that, but it did pique my interest in the process of filmmaking. Then, I made another one, Where Do You Live, which got positive feedback at college level film fêtes and I decided that filmmaking was what I wanted to do in life. I got the calling in 2011. Vineeth ettan saw something in my films and he invited me to be a part of his journey in cinema. He’s since become my guru, mentor-in-chief, bro...,” says Ganesh.
In fact, it was while working on Thattathin... back in 2012 that Ganesh says he got the “spark” for Aanandam [in between he shot the popular short film Oru Kutty Chodyam , starring Aju Varghese]. “I happened to watch Take Me Home Tonight , a rom-com about how a couple falls in love overnight . That got me thinking of how a lot of things can happen within a short time frame. It took me back to to my engineering college days at FISAT - Federal Institute of Science and Technology, Angamaly, and all the fun we had. I thought the time was ripe for a story set in an engineering college, given that a majority of youngsters in Kerala nowadays study at one engineering college or the other,” says the well-spoken 27-year-old.
It was also high time for an ‘excursion’ film, once a popular genre in Malayalam cinema (recall films such as Picnic , Resthouse , Yatra ...with group excursions as the theme) but not seen on screen much these days. “Like Thattathin... re-introduced rom-coms to Malayalam cinema and Traffic , to thrillers, I hope Aanandam brings back the genre,” he says.
Aanandam travels with a bunch of engineering students as they go on an industrial visit (IV) to Mysore and Goa [and a couple of tourist hotspots enroute]; a journey which takes place over four eventful days. “IVs, as all engineering students know, are a pretext to travel. Usually, the IV is done and dusted in a couple of hours and college authorities turn a blind eye as the students take the long route back to college via stopovers at various tourist destinations. In Aanandam , we’ve tried to be true to life and the IV lasts all of 15 seconds as is shown in the song ‘Dooreyo!’” he says. “Travelling really opens up your mind; you get to be yourself, far away from prying eyes and it’s exactly like that for the kids in the film,” he adds.
That said, the film’s essentially the story of seven students -four boys and three girls and each of them gets equal prominence in the narrative. “Only towards the end of the film will the the actual lead pair come into focus,” says Ganesh, refusing to divulge who they are.
Vishak Nair, Anu Antony, Thomas Matthew, Arun Kurian, Siddhi Mahajankatti, Roshan Mathew and Anarkali Marikar are the newbie stars of the film. “The very premise of the film demanded young actors. I was a bit apprehensive and thought of casting established names, at first. But my producers were adamant that we stick to the original plan and I went to colleges in Kerala and Bangalore to conduct spot auditions. That’s one of the reasons why I said earlier that it was a dream debut; whatever I asked for, the producers handed it to me on a platter,” he says, adding that he’s also thoroughly impressed by the young actors in the film. “Three of them have acting experience. They are all Malayalis, except for Siddhi, who is one in spirit, nonetheless. She grew up in Kerala and speaks Malayalam better than most Malayalis. She’s also my junior in school (Vidyodaya in Kochi). They’ve each got a good head on their shoulders and have a much broader world view than those in my generation. These kids already know exactly what they want out of life. In comparison, I was an idiot at 18!” he adds, with a laugh.
Anend C. Chandran, who debuted with Premam , handles the camera , while music is by Ganesh’s FISAT college-mate, singer Sachin Warrier. The movie has been produced under Vineeth’s banner Habit Of Life and Vinod Shornur’s banner Cast N Crew.
